Midge Raymond's Blog, page 61

The Joy of Writing

This article in today's NYT is all about art, but it made me think all about writing. It's about, essentially, the way we tend to collect digital photos as evidence of places we've seen, without really absorbing the experience of being there. Whereas in the eighteenth century, "Travelers who took the Grand Tour across Europe … spent months and years learning languages, meeting politicians, philosophers and artists and bore sketchbooks in which to draw and paint" — by now, "Cameras replaced sketc

More on book v. Kindle

Check out this recent post on Booksquare about quality control in electronic publishing — an interesting piece that raises concerns for readers and should raise concerns for publishers. I have to admit that of the few Kindle items I've read, I've had no complaints about quality — and as far as Forgetting English is concerned, we actually fixed a couple of typos, so in that sense we've improved the quality. (However, many of the Tongan words are not properly spelled because the Kindle doesn't sup

Stuff for Writers

While I've got summer writing productivity on the brain, I just wanted to share a couple things I've come across lately — some of which you may find useful, others of which will provide hours of procrastination.

This blog post is all about WriteRoom software, which promises "distraction free writing." (Where do we sign up?) It aims to eliminate all the extras that come along with Word (such as margins) and provide a space for nothing but letters on a page. (The one distraction, though, is that it

DOs and DON'Ts for Writing this Summer

I always find it hard to focus on writing when the weather is (finally) gorgeous. Of course, this week in Seattle, it's a little toasty (okay, it's freaking HOT: 94 currently — forecast of 97 tomorrow). But whether you're enjoying the weather or trying to escape it, summer can generally be tough for focusing on writing. Hence I offer the following list.

- DO say no to the Internet. (I've been working on my laptop, wireless off. It's the only way.)

- DO say yes to air-conditioning. (Go out and find

All the news that's fit to blog

This is going to be one of those random posts about stuff I think is cool.

First, there's today's LA Times blog about a unique call for submissions: editors are seeking photos of literary tattoos. By this they mean sentences or drawings that have so moved readers that they've permanently affixed them to their bodies: in other words, Tattoo Lit.

Also, there's a lot going on in the world of publishing — in particular, news and talk about all things "e" in publishing, but I've just noticed that Natha

Drafts

I was just chatting by email with my incredibly hilarious and talented friend Sean, who isn't a huge fan of his first drafts. I totally get that. I, too, hate at least the first five drafts of anything I write. (However, I have to say that Sean's first drafts are always a lot better than mine, so he really shouldn't be complaining.)

Revision is a necessary evil in the writing process. In fact, for me it's not evil at all but the very best part. I know some writers like to get it right the first t

Creative Destruction in Book Publishing

This is a fascinating article on book publishing in the era of digitization — it deconstructs the industry, showing how the pie is divided (as writers know, it's not so great for writers), and how this will likely change with increasing digitization; the three big waves currently hitting the industry; and what a future of e-products might look like for authors, agents, publishers, and bookstores.

In this forecast I see some good news and some bad news.

- Good news for most/bad news for Stephen Kin

Write (beyond) what you know

In class the other night we talked about Melanie Rae Thon's brilliant story "Little White Sister," which not only an amazing read but an important lesson to writers: Write beyond what you know.

In this interview with BOMB Magazine, Thon talks about her decision to write from the perspective of a black male in first person:

"Those voices of censorship become ridiculous. The extrapolation of that kind of thinking is that you can't write as a child, you can't write as an old person, you can't write a

e-Reading

So, I normally think of myself as pretty (okay, very) old-fashioned. I was the last person on earth, I'm convinced, to have gotten an answering machine, and about the last to get a cell phone. (Or maybe I'm just more antisocial than old-fashioned). Nine times out of ten I'll chose a book with pages and a cover over an e-book; an independent bookstore with a coffee shop and resident cat over Amazon; and editing with hard copy and red pencil over electronic editing.

But times are changing. And one

The e-book debate continues…

The Wall St. Journal reports today that the independent publisher Sourcebooks is delaying an e-book version of one of its popular new releases due to pricing: "'It doesn't make sense for a new book to be valued at $9.99,' said Dominique Raccah, CEO," who worries that e-book sales will undercut lucrative hardcover sales.

This, of course makes sense for a book that has an initial 75,000-copy print run in hardcover, as this one does. For paperback originals, though, or books with smaller print runs,