Sticky Notes Blog

A blog of writing news, tips, and inspiration from Fat Plum

Category: Publishing

The End of Publishing as We Know It?

A great article in New York Magazine that every writer should read: Have We Reached the End of Book Publishing As We Know It?

Posted by Julie on September 17, 2008
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What a Vision of Publishing

Twelve publisher Jonathan Karp wrote a wonderful piece in the Washington Post on how publishers are failing authors by going for the quick score instead giving authors time to create books of enduring value. If his theory proves true, eventually they will be forced to invest in quality to maintain their niche of media. I hope I live that long. After you've read the article, do visit Twelve's website and read their unique mission statement and !2 Things. Very cool company.

Posted by Julie on June 30, 2008
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Insight into an Agent's Life

We tend to think that agents are like gods playing puppeteer with our futures. Our dreams hang in the balance -- why does it take them so long to get back to us? Read agent Janet Reid's blog post Well Laid Plans Laid Up and you'll understand. Wow, they really are just like us.

Continue reading "Insight into an Agent's Life"

Posted by Julie on May 19, 2008
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Beth is Breaking Through!

Fat Plum friend Beth Polen has made it to the semi-finals in the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award contest! Her young adult novel, Wish, is a terrific story of a boy uncovering his purpose in life. We at Fat Plum had the pleasure of reading much of Wish during our various Book Boot Camps where Beth workshopped the manuscript, so we are thrilled and excited at this news.

You can read an excerpt of Wish on the site and submit a review of it and any other excerpts you read. The reviews you write will contribute to the decision of which books reach the finals on March 3rd. The winning novelist will receive a publishing contract with Penguin.

Congrats to Beth on making the cut — we believe in Wish and think it will go far!

Posted by Julie on January 25, 2008
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The Mystery of Making a Best Seller

I just read a wonderful article in the New York Times online titled, The Greatest Mystery: Making a Best Seller. You can't view it directly through the site without paying, but I linked to it through the May 2007 Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop newsletter. Scroll down and you'll find the link. By the way, there are other great articles in the newsletter, too. If you don't receive it yet, get on the distribution list!

Posted by Julie on May 26, 2007
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Congratulations to Two Fat Plum Friends!

This past weekend at the Pennwriters conference, Jennifer Angelo and Madhu Wangu were both winners in the conference writing contest!

Madhu won Second Place in the Article category for her spiritual piece, "Awakening the Goddess Within." You can read more about her and her work on her website Spirituality-Sparks.com.

Jennifer won Second Place in the Short Story category for her story "Finding Our Way Back to Normal." You can read more about Jennifer and her humor writing at Jennifer Angelo: humor writer ... motherhood, mishaps, and mopping up.

Congratulations to these two wonderful writers!

Posted by Julie on May 23, 2007
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How to make a pretty book

I've been exploring Blurb, a self-publishing system that helps you create hardcover books.

To publish with Blurb, you compose your book in their custom software, BookSmart. BookSmart includes a number of design templates and starter text. The focus is on books neavy in pictures: coffee table books, travelogues, cookbooks, family albums, and the like. There's a pre-designed template for blog books, if you want to preserve your online musings on paper. Text-only templates aren't yet available but are coming soon.

The software is a little slow -- at least on my Mac Powerbook G4 -- but it's intuitive to use and flexible despite being template-based. At it encourages you to stick to a consistent design style, which helps the final product be polished and high-quality.

Once you've composed the book, you send it to Blurb and order however many copies you want. At $29.95 each for up to 40 pages, and more for longer books, they're not cheap. There are discounts for bulk orders, but even so this isn't the way to write yourself into a retirement nest egg.

This isn't the cheapest self-publishing option, but I'd recommend it for small batches of gift books -- a family album or cookbook, baby shower gift, anniversary gift. The convenience is striking.

I haven't seen a finished book, and of course that's the proof of the pudding. But if I create one soon -- maybe a holiday gift? -- I'll report back here on the results.

Have you had personal experience with Blurb or any other self-publisher? Share your story in the comments.

Posted by Cindy on October 09, 2006
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Feed Your Entrepreneurial Soul

Being a writer necessitates a certain amount of entrepreneurial spirit. So check out Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur's Soul (Sept 19). I'm happy to have been asked by co-author Dahlynn McKowen to contribute two as-told-to stories for the book, and I was thrilled to see that my two stories are highlighted in the book description on Amazon.com:

Continue reading "Feed Your Entrepreneurial Soul"

Posted by Julie on September 21, 2006
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Should you submit to multiple agents?

Q: "An agent who favorably reviewed my work at a writers conference has agreed to read my synopsis and first chapters. Can I still submit to other agents?"
A: While technically you can submit to multiple agents unless they specify no simultaneous submissions, you might want to hold off. Here's why...

Continue reading "Should you submit to multiple agents?"

Posted by Julie on September 11, 2006
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Books by Phillip Beard

Lost in the Garden (Viking Penguin) by Philip Beard is due out May 8th. Readers, especially those in Beard's hometown of PIttsburgh, will remember his first book Dear Zoe, which was named "One of the Ten Best First Novels of 2005" by the American Library Association and is now out in paperback. Lost in the Garden follows over privileged, under motivated golf-and-sex-obsessed Michael Benedict as he navigates a midlife crisis that is both comic and compelling. In the coming months, Viking Penguin will offer special opportunities for book clubs to visit with Beard in person, by phone or virtual appearances. For details click here.

Posted by Julie on May 02, 2006
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