A little while ago I posted an item about book trailers. As I noted then, these can often be rather clunky affairs, due principally to the insurmountable chasm between the product (a novel) and the media being used to sell the product (2 minute You Tube video.) Gary Shteyngart’s answer was to say nothing at all about the book – …
Exciting New Book from, um, Alex George
You couldn’t make this stuff up. A little while ago I dabbled with the idea of a slight name change, reducing myself to a pair of gnomic initials in the manner of Chesterton, G.K., Rowling, J. K., Byatt A.S., and Hartley, J.R. (inside joke for my English readers with long memories.) Anyway, that didn’t last too long, and here I …
Better Titles
Given my on-going struggle to find the right title for my book, I was excited when I read about this site. It’s done by comedian Dan Wilbur, who might just be on to something. The idea is that these new titles “cut through the cryptic crap”, as Wilbur puts it, and tell you what the book is really about. I …
Super Sad True Love Story
These days any self-respecting new novel comes with a You Tube-friendly video – presumably in the hope that it will “go viral” and become some sort of internet phenomenon. Well, that’s fair enough in theory – the problem is that usually these video trailers are awful. Usually they feature the author squirming in front of a camera talking awkwardly about …
New Reading: Emily St. John Mandel and Jennifer Egan
In Monday’s post I mentioned two exciting novelists whose work I had just discovered and was devouring in huge, quietly ecstatic chunks. Here’s more on them both. I’ll try and write more about the stuff I’m reading in future. Since, you know, this is a blog about books. Emily St. John Mandel is published by Unbridled Books, a small publisher …
Status Update
We’re back from a wonderful week away. Four days with friends in Boston, then four days in Maine. There we visited an old friend, Don, and his wife Samantha. Don and Samantha own Rabelais Books, a bookshop dedicated (and I do mean dedicated) to cookbooks. We loved our time with them. I will write more about it in another …
Listen Here: Inaugural Podcast
In this strange world we live in, it seems like a book just ain’t enough any more. Fellow Amy Einhorn author Eleanor Brown recently wrote a great post about all the extra-curricular activities that writers have to do these days, in addition to, you know, actually writing the book. One of the things I’m thinking about doing from time to time …
On the Move…
After my brief flirtation with possibly the least inspiring nom-de-plume in history, I have now triumphantly reclaimed my name as my own. So long, A.H. George, we hardly knew ya. One consequence of this exciting news is that I have changed (with help from webmeister Boomer, naturally) addresses for this blog. Its home, as you’ll see from the top of …
Oh, the Irony. Sorry, iRony.
Strange that with all the talk in the meedja about how the iPad is going to revolutionize publishing, most people missed possibly its most important contribution. Now I want one. Actually two. This is from the excellent and always illuminating website, Variations On Normal.
Full Steam Ahead
I’m back in the saddle again. Following delivery of Amy’s notes and edits on the manuscript last weekend, we then exchanged some long emails addressing various matters arising. That was followed by two long telephone conversations towards the end of last week. Result: we have agreed what needs to be changed in the book. Amy’s suggestions were inspired. Some of …