Book news, sort of
Feb. 17th, 2008 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
msagaraThank you all for being so encouraging. <3.
But I'm still genuinely curious about whether or not things get easier or harder for people who write (or actually, create something that is offered for public inspection). Someone – I think![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kateelliott, suggested that it gets harder because we're all more aware, later in career, of all the ways things can go wrong, most of which we have no control over.
In other news: I received the mass market covers for Cast in Courtlight and Cast in Secret, andcszego saved me the August catalogue (they're both August titles now) in which they're offered. The covers are a matte finish, as opposed to the standard, glossier finish of the trades, and Courtlight is slightly different, in that the runic marks on the figure's arms are now also across the figure's exposed back. The text for Cast in Secret has Kaylin as a Private, and across the back cover of both books are "also in the series" banners that show the covers (in postage stamp size) of the other 3 books in the series.
I like them. I also like that the catalogue – as opposed to the cover proofs – lists the price of the book as 6.99 U.S./Canadian, which means that when the books arrive, they'll be at par. The DAW March titles appear to be at par as well. I'm assuming that this means that the March Roc/Ace titles will come in at par.
We get a lot of people who complain – frequently – about the discrepancy in the Canadian/US prices on those books, and I've explained how the distribution system works here, and how much money we personally would be losing if we charged the US cover price while we were paying based on the Canadian cover price more times than any of you would want to endure. A lot of people have simply been ordering from Amazon, and booksellers here have been ordering from Ingram; it is a huge relief to see the cover prices in Canadian dollars come down. Because the fun of lecturing people? It pales quickly. Yes, I know it's me, so it probably pales less quickly, but even so.
I understand that people are short on cash everywhere, and I understand that it makes sense to economize by ordering on-line from places like Amazon.com; I'm not bitter about it, although we have noticed a slow-down, and some of the people who come into the store for specific things have said they pretty much do all their purchasing, with a few exceptions (things that they don't want to wait for) from amazon.com. So there's no criticism of bookbuyers here (well, not the ones who don't accuse us of horrible price gouging), but I'm happier as a bookseller to see the prices come down.
But I'm still genuinely curious about whether or not things get easier or harder for people who write (or actually, create something that is offered for public inspection). Someone – I think
kateelliott, suggested that it gets harder because we're all more aware, later in career, of all the ways things can go wrong, most of which we have no control over.In other news: I received the mass market covers for Cast in Courtlight and Cast in Secret, and
cszego saved me the August catalogue (they're both August titles now) in which they're offered. The covers are a matte finish, as opposed to the standard, glossier finish of the trades, and Courtlight is slightly different, in that the runic marks on the figure's arms are now also across the figure's exposed back. The text for Cast in Secret has Kaylin as a Private, and across the back cover of both books are "also in the series" banners that show the covers (in postage stamp size) of the other 3 books in the series.I like them. I also like that the catalogue – as opposed to the cover proofs – lists the price of the book as 6.99 U.S./Canadian, which means that when the books arrive, they'll be at par. The DAW March titles appear to be at par as well. I'm assuming that this means that the March Roc/Ace titles will come in at par.
We get a lot of people who complain – frequently – about the discrepancy in the Canadian/US prices on those books, and I've explained how the distribution system works here, and how much money we personally would be losing if we charged the US cover price while we were paying based on the Canadian cover price more times than any of you would want to endure. A lot of people have simply been ordering from Amazon, and booksellers here have been ordering from Ingram; it is a huge relief to see the cover prices in Canadian dollars come down. Because the fun of lecturing people? It pales quickly. Yes, I know it's me, so it probably pales less quickly, but even so.
I understand that people are short on cash everywhere, and I understand that it makes sense to economize by ordering on-line from places like Amazon.com; I'm not bitter about it, although we have noticed a slow-down, and some of the people who come into the store for specific things have said they pretty much do all their purchasing, with a few exceptions (things that they don't want to wait for) from amazon.com. So there's no criticism of bookbuyers here (well, not the ones who don't accuse us of horrible price gouging), but I'm happier as a bookseller to see the prices come down.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-02-18 06:56 am (UTC)Research usually helps me out, inspires cool new ideas, but usually on thigns I don't already know a great deal about.
I recall somebody else came up in an early short story group I was in had come up with a great plant-based horror story that I would never in a million years have thought up because I am, actually, a plant geek. I know too much about it. I might speculate in my head wonderfully about the peculiarities of cycads (which are very strange indeed) but I'd have to *explain* why they're so weird for a long time before I could get to the horror bit, if I was even trying to take it in that direction. (They do kind of lend themselves to that.) Plus, not actually a horror person really, so I don't automatically go for the spurting gore bit. (So unsubtle.)
Whereas somebody who just has the simple version just goes out and *does* it and doesn't worry about all the broken bits of Real World Information scattered willynilly in their wake. As with movie plots, it often works just fine for readers, in spite of the conversations in a hundred convention rooms across the land.
For example:
"But it's not *right*, you know. That's not how it really works. Now, if you *really* had the fern spores spreading in air that dry--"
Sigh.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-18 06:57 am (UTC)Too many repeated hads, my bad.
This should be:
"..somebody else in an early short story group I was in came up with a great plant-based..."
no subject
Date: 2008-02-19 04:07 am (UTC)Especially since the Internal Editor is so much smarter now than it was when we first started?
no subject
Date: 2008-02-19 03:03 pm (UTC)Yes, that certainly happens.
But there's the weird blind spots where, when you know a topic, your brain just never goes there in the first place.
"Birds would never do that!" is where Hitchcock got the shock value.
"Cars don't do that!" is another.
So I'm thinking that some types of writers go hunting for those spots in the minds of ordinary readers, and exploit them. (Horror not being the only example, but an obvious one.)
What about the writer's own peculiar ones?
So I'm wondering how you get to noticing those.
Writing workshops are no guarantee, but that's how I noticed that one.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-19 03:03 pm (UTC)Yes, that certainly happens.
But there's the weird blind spots where, when you know a topic, your brain just never goes there in the first place.
"Birds would never do that!" is where Hitchcock got the shock value.
"Cars don't do that!" is another.
So I'm thinking that some types of writers go hunting for those spots in the minds of ordinary readers, and exploit them. (Horror not being the only example, but an obvious one.)
What about the writer's own peculiar ones?
So I'm wondering how you get to noticing those.
Writing workshops are no guarantee, but that's how I noticed that one.