ThomasLitchford

Writing.Life

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Entries from June 2007

More Thoughts on the Internet and Self-Publication

June 23rd, 2007 · 1 Comment

Plenty of now famous writers have self-published in the past. But that was the past. The markets for both self-published and traditionally published books are now so glutted that some (good) books inevitably go unnoticed.
The same is not necessarily true for music and film and visual art. These art forms can be appreciated by large [...]

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Tags: Writing

The Cult of the Amateur, again

June 22nd, 2007 · No Comments

I’ve linked to Tony Long, The Luddite, before. And I’ve posted about The Cult of the Amateur, too. Here’s Mr. Long on The Cult of the Amateur. It’s a classic:
OK, so the internet opens up the avenue of mass communication to everyone. So you get the blogs, be they good, bad or indifferent. You also [...]

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Tags: Publishing · The Decline of Western Culture · Writing

Update

June 19th, 2007 · No Comments

Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises should get an award for efficiency in the generally inefficient field of literary submissions.
Many agencies use a form letter (stuffed in the self-addressed stamped envelope provided by the author).
Ms. Amster, or, more likely, her assistant, did one better: she wrote “Thanks, but not for us. Best of luck.” at the top [...]

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Tags: Agents

Internet…Culture?

June 8th, 2007 · No Comments

This guy apparently believes the internet is ruining out culture (via Wired.com). The site is for a new book, The Cult of the Amateur, by Andrew Keen.
That’s the big debate: is the Internet improving our cultural output, or is it ruining it? By cultural output, I mean journalism, films, books, politics, music, etc. The internet [...]

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Tags: Books · The Decline of Western Culture

The State of Bookselling

June 5th, 2007 · No Comments

Apparently, according to this New York Times article on the 2007 Book Expo America, all is not well in the world of bookselling. Authors are giving away their books online for free:
“Giving an author’s book away for nothing on the Web as a way to market books seems a mirage to me,” Ms. Brown wrote [...]

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Tags: Writing

Insufficient Postage

June 4th, 2007 · 1 Comment

Three days after I sent out my batch of ten queries, first-class postage went up two cents. So, all my SASEs (Self Addressed Stamped Envelopes) had $0.39 stamps on them. So far, I’ve received three replies, and the agencies have graciously added the $0.02 postage.
How is it possible that this rate change snuck up on [...]

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Tags: Agents · Other