Category Archives: Publishing

Fiction, Publishing

Not a review: The Love You Crave, by John Locke

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I’m not going to post the cover of John Locke’s The Love You Crave, because it’s kind of racy for our standards in these parts. And I’m not even going to link to the e-book, because you can find it if you want to. I do not in any way endorse Locke’s Donovan Creed novels, of which The Love You Crave is the first I’ve read (and, I’m relatively certain, the last). But there are things to be said about the series as a phenomenon, and not just “Tsk, tsk.”

The Donovan Creed novels are a series of “humorous” thrillers about a government agent and assassin. He’s a little like James Bond on cocaine. The books (judging from this one) are full of violence and sex, and attempts at humor which (according to reviews) work for some people, though I’m not one of them.

The book suffers from a severe lack of likeable characters. The hero (not himself very likeable) tries at one point to figure out one of his friends whom he can trust with his life. He realizes that most of his friends have tried to kill him at least once. Continue reading Not a review: The Love You Crave, by John Locke →

Fiction, Publishing

Jacob's Voice in Literature

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On D.G. Myers’ new blog, he talks about Jewish American Fiction.

As proud as I am to serve as an enforcer for the Jewish literary mafia, I think the real explanation for the sudden and prolonged prominence of American Jewish novelists is much simpler. They sound different from other American novelists. And the sounds they make, “the jumpy beat of American English​,” as Philip Roth​ once described it, are hard to resist. Other novelists sound laconic, if not sleepy, by comparison. American Jewish fiction is the fiction that is written in a distinctive voice — Jacob’s voice.

Bookselling, Publishing

NJ School Takes Book Off Reading List; Outcry Ensues

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Here’s the news straight from the publisher:

On August 24, 2011, a New Jersey school district announced that it was removing from it’s summer reading list the novel Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, published by Vintage Books in 2000. Citing objections from parents about inappropriate language and graphic sex, the school board withdrew its original approval of the novel, which had been placed on the list by its own committee of area teachers, librarians, and school administrators.

In response to this action, Knopf has issued the following statement: Continue reading NJ School Takes Book Off Reading List; Outcry Ensues →

Publishing

I feel less stupid now, if that's possible

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You may or may not recall (it’s seared, seared into my memory) my recent post in which I highly recommended the novel The Last of the Vikings, available on Kindle. I had to hurriedly post a correction once I had downloaded it myself and discovered that it was an entirely different (and to all appearances much inferior) English book.
I now think I see whence the problem arose. The first listing of the book I saw on Amazon was not the listing I linked, but this one, which very specifically identifies it as Johan Bojer’s book on fishing in the Lofoten Islands. I bought it today and checked it, just to make sure. Nope. Same old English novel. Now I have two copies on my Kindle.
I suppose there’s some mechanism for requesting a refund, but it’s a little late in the day to start standing up for myself now.
My publisher, Nordskog Publishing, has now posted my book trailer on their web site, here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. It’s also on their page for West Oversea if you want to bore in and see it there too, for some reason.

Bookselling, Publishing

Two-ton trailer

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At long last! Months in the making! Hundreds spent! A cast of a dozen or so! My book trailer for West Oversea.

Looking at it dispassionately now, I’m generally pleased. There are some rough joins that could be sanded down a little, and I might have synched the music to the action better, but my main frustrations still have to do with Windows Live Movie Maker’s inherent limitations, especially in terms of sound editing.

Still, I think I achieved something resembling what I intended.

Now it remains for you, my loyal posse, to spread it around. Make it viral.

Or at least mildly allergic.

Fiction, Publishing

Do They Have Crime in Ireland?

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John Connolly talks about Irish readers’ lack of interest in crime novels. He says the Irish naturally clash with systemic qualities of crime fiction, such as urban life and respect for police. An Irish inferiority complex may come into play too.

After all, crime fiction is less about the world as it is than the world as it should be. As William Gaddis wrote in his novel JR (1976): “Justice? – you get justice in the next world, in this world, you have the law.”

Crime fiction refuses to accept that this should be the case, and in doing so it reflects the desire of its readers for a more just society. Even at its darkest it is, essentially, hopeful by nature.

Perhaps, for the Irish, that hope is yet to come. (via Books, Inc.)

Authors, Publishing

Friedman: Is the Book Dead? Who Cares!

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Publishing is still innovating, says Jane Friedman, so even if one type of book becomes permanently out of print, other types will live on. Printed books won’t go out of print any time soon, but other types me dominate the future market. Remember the first cell phones? What if today’s Kindles and Nooks looked like that in 10-20 years compared to what they will become?

Authors, Bookselling, Publishing

Interview with a Superagent

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The man behind the Wylie Agency speaks to the Wall Street Journal Magazine about his aggressive deals and some of the needs in the publishing industry. “I think most of the best-sellers list is the literary equivalent of daytime television. This is a world in which Danielle Steel is mysteriously more valuable than Shakespeare,” Wylie states.

Publishing, Religion

Door 43

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Last night I attended a cookout for our seminarians and seminary staff, at the dean’s home. The food was very good, and of course I ran away as soon as the eating was over and the time for fellowship was to begin, because a) that’s the way I am, and b) it was getting chilly and I’d forgotten to bring a jacket (despite the fact that the invitation expressly said to bring one).

Anyway, before the food was served I got into a conversation with one of the students. I asked him what he was doing for the summer. He told me he was working at home, helping to administrate a web project called Door 43.

You can examine it yourself here, but as I understand it, the idea is to provide an open-source, creative commons deposit of ministry and discipleship literature for Christians in the Third World.

His brother, a missionary, got the idea, he said, because he’d noticed that people in the remotest parts of Africa (and other places in the world) may not have running water, or regular internet access, but they have cell phones. He dreamed of providing Christian literature in these people’s languages, which they can read on their phones.

He approached various Bible and Christian publishers and found himself stymied by copyright laws. Various individuals told him they hailed his effort, and wished him well, but they were obligated to protect the copyrights on the literary property in their care.

So they decided to create a wiki (in two stages, so that it can’t be casually altered like Wikipedia). People who join the process will be able to help build up a library of creative commons material which can be accessed at no cost. They’re even working on Bible translations.

I got the impression that if you’re interested in this project, and have needed skills (language skills especially), they’d be happy to hear from you. I don’t know how far afield from Lutheranism they mean to go. You’d have to inquire about that.