Repulsive
“We have the chance to fight this battle at the ballot box before we have to resort to the bullet box.”
At what point do these “stop the liberals or I’ll get my gun” type of comments actually become sedition?
At what point will we finally begin to link those types of violent comments to the actions of people like Scott Roeder, or James Wenneker von Brunn?
Friday, July 17
Thursday, July 16
Monday, July 13
From the Shameless Self-Promotion Files
The sales reps are out there now, trying to take orders from Unbridled Books fall list.
Yes, that would be the list with my book “The Evolution of Shadows” on it. Since I’m an unknown, the sales reps only have the catalog info and galleys to push my book to booksellers. That tactic will get a few copies of my books out there.
But, here’s a thing I noticed during my time as a bookseller - If I had already received special orders for a book before seeing a rep, the bookstore was more likely to order in some extra copies. Also, if, the store started receiving special orders after the rep had come and gone, we’d increase our original order.
So, you see, PRE-publicity can be very important.
It can be extremely important for someone like me (and my fellow Unbridled Books Fall listers) because that hack-meister Dan Brown has a new book coming out in September. Random House, the evil Empire, is printing some 5 million copies -- and even the snootiest of independent bookstores is going to be ordering large chunks of that book because millions of people will buy it.
There’s no way I can compete - - unless, of course, a reader is looking for something that’s actually well written, then I’ll win -- but there’s even less chance of me being discovered by an unsuspecting bookstore browser if I’m not even in the store with Dan Brown.
That’s where you, my friends, come in. The whole book universe right now is taking pre-orders for Dan Brown’s book. There’s no reason a few small planets in that universe can’t take pre-orders for my book too. So, friends and family, my two readers, call or email for favorite local bookstore and pre-order my book.
Here’s the info:
The Evolution of Shadows
by Jason Quinn Malott
ISBN 9781932961843
$14.95, paperback
Unbridled Books
If you like the book, tell your friends.
And, as my friends at TOC always say at the end of the curtain announcements before their shows - “If you don’t like it, keep that shit to yourself.”
Yes, that would be the list with my book “The Evolution of Shadows” on it. Since I’m an unknown, the sales reps only have the catalog info and galleys to push my book to booksellers. That tactic will get a few copies of my books out there.
But, here’s a thing I noticed during my time as a bookseller - If I had already received special orders for a book before seeing a rep, the bookstore was more likely to order in some extra copies. Also, if, the store started receiving special orders after the rep had come and gone, we’d increase our original order.
So, you see, PRE-publicity can be very important.
It can be extremely important for someone like me (and my fellow Unbridled Books Fall listers) because that hack-meister Dan Brown has a new book coming out in September. Random House, the evil Empire, is printing some 5 million copies -- and even the snootiest of independent bookstores is going to be ordering large chunks of that book because millions of people will buy it.
There’s no way I can compete - - unless, of course, a reader is looking for something that’s actually well written, then I’ll win -- but there’s even less chance of me being discovered by an unsuspecting bookstore browser if I’m not even in the store with Dan Brown.
That’s where you, my friends, come in. The whole book universe right now is taking pre-orders for Dan Brown’s book. There’s no reason a few small planets in that universe can’t take pre-orders for my book too. So, friends and family, my two readers, call or email for favorite local bookstore and pre-order my book.
Here’s the info:
The Evolution of Shadows
by Jason Quinn Malott
ISBN 9781932961843
$14.95, paperback
Unbridled Books
If you like the book, tell your friends.
And, as my friends at TOC always say at the end of the curtain announcements before their shows - “If you don’t like it, keep that shit to yourself.”
Sunday, July 12
How To Get Published
It wasn’t a very common event, but when I was a bookseller, it wasn’t unusual for someone to wander into our store and start bugging the booksellers on the ins & outs of getting published. As the resident writer, and later inventory manager, I was often called upon to field those questions. I was always surprised at the customer’s general assumption that the path to getting published is some kind of arcane secret, and that since it is a secret, there is also a shortcut. A number of them were generally surprised that there were so many books and magazines dedicated to the endeavor. They also seemed saddened that the process of getting published wasn’t as romantic as the idea of writing a book.
Such encounters were interesting at times, and similar to experiences I had in school with my writing classmates. The business of getting the things we write published is, often, a mystery to even very talented, unpublished writers. Consequently, that is often the majority of questions that published writers and their editors and agents receive when they talk to groups of unpublished writers.
When I was in grad school, the question of how to get published was asked so often that the department invited an agent to come visit and talk to the graduate program about how to get published. What was strange was that a few of our writing instructors, published authors themselves, had as many questions as the students (a result of publishing nepotism, they had always had their work solicited).
The business of getting published is unpleasant to the temperament of most writers. It’s too business like, and formal, and a bit like being a hooker. Editors don’t like to talk about it because, I think, they know it means their already heavy workload will get even heavier - and, besides, their submission guidelines are readily available on their websites, or if they’re of the old-school variety, available to anyone with a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. If the writing is any good, and a writer follows the submission guidelines, they have just as much of a chance of anyone else. There’s no secret to it.
And that is what a lot of young, unpublished writers are really asking when they meet an editor or agent.
For reference, the best book I ever read on the subject of getting published was “The Forest for The Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers” by Betsy Lerner. When you’re done reading my blog, go get that book and read it.
As a young writer, I was lucky enough to have, for a brief time, a very supportive girlfriend named Beverly. For a birthday present, she gave me a copy of Writer’s Digest. I read that magazine loyally through high school and most of college. The fiction writing advice in it was geared towards the popular genre types, but the magazine also featured articles on the very topic I’m writing about now: how to get published. A lot of that advice too was geared to popular genre types (make sure your query letter has a good ‘hook’) and none of it was very useful for the type of writer I became. But what it did do was make me very familiar with how the business works.
It taught me that reading the submission guidelines was necessary, it taught me how to format my manuscript for submission, and it taught me that I should always include an SASE. As a 20 year-old undergrad, I knew more about submitting a manuscript than I did about writing a good story. It would be another ten years before I really learned how to write a good story.
Once I had a story that was good enough, it still took me another seven years to get it published.
The point is this, the only secret to getting published is persistence. After that, the advice from most books can be summed up pretty quickly:
1) Gimmicks don’t work.
2) Be professional.
3) Do your homework:
a) Research the agent/editor/publisher to make sure they published the kind of thing you write.
b) Follow the submission guidelines.
Such encounters were interesting at times, and similar to experiences I had in school with my writing classmates. The business of getting the things we write published is, often, a mystery to even very talented, unpublished writers. Consequently, that is often the majority of questions that published writers and their editors and agents receive when they talk to groups of unpublished writers.
When I was in grad school, the question of how to get published was asked so often that the department invited an agent to come visit and talk to the graduate program about how to get published. What was strange was that a few of our writing instructors, published authors themselves, had as many questions as the students (a result of publishing nepotism, they had always had their work solicited).
The business of getting published is unpleasant to the temperament of most writers. It’s too business like, and formal, and a bit like being a hooker. Editors don’t like to talk about it because, I think, they know it means their already heavy workload will get even heavier - and, besides, their submission guidelines are readily available on their websites, or if they’re of the old-school variety, available to anyone with a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. If the writing is any good, and a writer follows the submission guidelines, they have just as much of a chance of anyone else. There’s no secret to it.
And that is what a lot of young, unpublished writers are really asking when they meet an editor or agent.
For reference, the best book I ever read on the subject of getting published was “The Forest for The Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers” by Betsy Lerner. When you’re done reading my blog, go get that book and read it.
As a young writer, I was lucky enough to have, for a brief time, a very supportive girlfriend named Beverly. For a birthday present, she gave me a copy of Writer’s Digest. I read that magazine loyally through high school and most of college. The fiction writing advice in it was geared towards the popular genre types, but the magazine also featured articles on the very topic I’m writing about now: how to get published. A lot of that advice too was geared to popular genre types (make sure your query letter has a good ‘hook’) and none of it was very useful for the type of writer I became. But what it did do was make me very familiar with how the business works.
It taught me that reading the submission guidelines was necessary, it taught me how to format my manuscript for submission, and it taught me that I should always include an SASE. As a 20 year-old undergrad, I knew more about submitting a manuscript than I did about writing a good story. It would be another ten years before I really learned how to write a good story.
Once I had a story that was good enough, it still took me another seven years to get it published.
The point is this, the only secret to getting published is persistence. After that, the advice from most books can be summed up pretty quickly:
1) Gimmicks don’t work.
2) Be professional.
3) Do your homework:
a) Research the agent/editor/publisher to make sure they published the kind of thing you write.
b) Follow the submission guidelines.
Thursday, July 9
Thursday, July 2
Friday, June 26
Go See This Movie
Heard about this from a podcast I was listening to at work. The interview with Leymah Gbowee and producer Abigail Disney had me nearly in tears right there in my cube.
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