Maybe publicity doesn’t lead to book sales. Maybe an author sitting on the couch for seven minutes with Gretchen Carlson on Fox News doesn’t sell 10,000 of his books. Are book sales the whole ballgame?
Elsewhere on the web, Lindsay Buroker asks what’s a good price for ebooks? Are new authors pricing their books at $0.99 hurting everyone?
An editor talks about how J.K. Rowling’s books opened up the world of children lit, and he strays into how nice he thinks it would be to have fewer books printed.
Roger Sutton says we’re pressed to believe children don’t want to read, but they are “reluctant to read what? If you put down that novel and look around, you will see that lots of so-called reluctant readers are reading plenty; they just aren’t reading fiction, which in this age constitutes ‘real reading’ as defined by ‘real readers’—mainly teachers and librarians.”
On the future of print publishing, he says, “Every author in this room is going to disagree with me on this, but there are too many copies of too many books being published. A little curation would be a good thing.” So if libraries were the place to go for holding a book in your hand, then we would have a sane publishing world. Is he ignoring home libraries, or does the future have room for that?
Yesterday was a big day for me, because I got my first royalty check from Amazon for the earnings on Troll Valley. Actually, it was the first time I’ve ever gotten a royalty check (I’ve had publisher advances, but no actual royalties). On careful consideration, I have decided that this is a good thing, and needs to be pushed along. So if you haven’t bought your copy yet, for Kindle or Nook, I can give you a tip that the crowds have thinned out and there’s no waiting.
As an added attraction, The American Spectator posted my cranky review of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest today.
Finally, an outstanding post from Andrew Klavan Himself, on Palm Sunday and the Trayvon Martin case.
Because he puts the Truth before God, his fellow man, justice and morality, Everett is the last man standing in defense of all of them. That’s because Truth is the cornerstone on which every good structure stands. Without a commitment to Truth, our religions, brotherly love, justice and morality topple into meaningless ruins. Even when it’s carried by an imperfect vessel, the Truth and only the Truth can set us free for every other good thing.
You see why I boost Klavan so much? He gets it. Even before he was a Christian, he got this central point, which a lot of people just can’t seem to understand in this crooked generation.
Al Mohler laments the passing of the printed Britannica. “My guess is that, all things being equal, a boy my age riding along in the family’s Prius this summer is more likely to be playing Angry Birds on his iPad. Left behind is the unexpected serendipity of reading about the mating habits of aardvarks. Is this progress?”
Heh, he has a point, though it would be better served by another example, don’t you think?
The Encyclopaedia Britannica distinguishes itself from the more Internet-popular Wikipedia by challenging the latter’s knowledge-base and open-editing format. The kerfuffle (which is such a fun, old Scottish word) Soledad O’Brien got into last week illustrates this point precisely. CNN’s O’Brien argued with Joel Pollak of Breitbart.com that Critical Race Theory has nothing to do with white supremacy, apparently getting her information from a line or two in a Wikipedia article. Now, due to a series of edits and reverts on that article attempting to validate O’Brien’s misread, top Wikipedia editors have frozen the article.
I would tell you what the Britannica says about it, but can only find that Derrick Bell, “American legal scholar and educator who strove uncompromisingly to reveal and confront the pernicious racism that he found ingrained in American legal and social structures,” is known for developing the theory.
What has been in print continuously since 1768, got started in Edinburgh, Scotland, and will now be available only online?
To the Best of Our Knowledge, a show from Wisconsin Public Radio, had a great program last Sunday on the influence reviewers from New York and Los Angeles have on national readers. They ask, “Do you ever get the feeling that everyone’s reading all the same books and listening to all the same music, and seeing all the same films?” They talk to a few good people who have opinions on that, mostly Wisconsin people oddly enough.
The Frankenfont Project, mixing up the letters of Mary Shelley’s text.
Our friend Dr. Gene Edward Veith has a new book out, Family Vocation: God’s Calling in Marriage, Parenting, and Childhood.
I probably won’t be reviewing it myself, this subject being outside my sphere of expertise, but if you’re a normal person, you’re likely to find the book useful. Dr. Veith is a wise and godly man.
If you’re a faithful Barnes & Noble customer, and have been waiting for Troll Valley to appear on their site, I have wonderful news for you. B&N is now carrying the e-book for the Nook.
Alas, we haven’t been able to include the cover art with this file. So here’s a nice big version, which you can save to your favorite device and have for your very own:
Tell your friends. Tell your acquaintances. Tell your co-workers and courteous, trained service providers.
I haven’t gotten a new review in a couple days. Feeling a little antsy.