Anyone who’s seen me in the last week or so might have noticed that I appear to have a frog lodged permanently in my throat. I am rather croaky and prone to small coughing fits. Just for once it’s not allergies. I’ve been reading my book. Out loud. All of it. Daft as it sounds, I now do this with …
Wow.
This arrived via Fed Ex on Saturday morning: That, dear readers, is my manuscript, with Amy Einhorn’s editorial notes all over it. On the top is a nine page letter addressing both structural edits and line edits. I’m a very lucky boy. It probably goes without saying that Amy’s comments and suggestions are all extremely astute, and will (if I …
New Frontiers for Novelists?
Interesting story about iPhone apps for authors in the Guardian. Publishers are developing iPhone apps as companions for specific novels, using the technology as way to supplement the words on the page and generally providing an “enriching” experience for the reader by supplying additional material, background information, and the like. I wrote a while ago about my ultimately unsatisfying experience with …
One More Reason to Love/Visit Get Lost Bookshop…
First of all – full disclosure and all that – Amy Stephenson, the owner of Get Lost Bookshop on 9th Street in Columbia, is a friend of mine. She would have to be. Against my advice, she bought my second novel, Before Your Very Eyes, from the UK amazon site. Then, even more recklessly, she actually read it. Amy tells me …
Family Business
Obviously I’m still excited about my news, but I don’t want to steal anyone’s thunder here. Apparently I’m not the only person in my family doing the book thing. It seems that while we thought she was in her room playing with her dolls, Catherine was hard at work on something quite different. She may only be five, but her …
Thank You.
Well that was fun. I have been overwhelmed by the wonderful and generous response from so many people to my news. I’ve been inundated with emails, phone calls, Facebook comments, and singing telegrams (OK, not that last one), all wishing me the best. I am very touched by everyone’s good wishes. Thank you all so much. I hope you’ll continue …
Announcement.
This is the post I have dreamed about writing every day for the past five years. I am pleased and proud (and staggered) to report that I have sold the worldwide rights to THE SONGS OF OUR FATHERS to Amy Einhorn, publisher of Amy Einhorn Books, an imprint of Penguin/Putnam. Amy has always been our number one choice of publisher …
David Foster Wallace
I’ve just finished reading a book by David Lipsky called Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself. That is, David Lipsky is the guy with his name on the cover and his photo on the jacket, but in fact 80% of the words in between the covers belong to the late, lamented David Foster Wallace. I’m still in two …
Amateur! (And proud of it.)
Funny time, this. The revised book is out and about, with various editors at houses both in New York and London. I am discovering new reserves of patience. This, oddly, isn’t as difficult as I would have imagined. I wouldn’t say I’ve suddenly gone all Zen (stop laughing at the back), but after this many years of effort, a few …
Please Switch Off Your Book
I wrote in this post about my mixed feelings about the Barnes & Noble Nook – which I eventually returned. I know that the emergence of this new format is more or less inevitable over time, and while I was in New York I went into an Apple store and played with an iPad, which was irritatingly impressive – but …