Ryan Field's Blog, page 416

E-Book BEA Debate; Michael Douglas on Oral Sex; New Fight Against AIDS

E-Book BEA Debate

When I post about this topic now, I start to feel as if I'm living in an altered universe sometimes. And yet this article from PW talks about e-books as if they were just invented.

In a question from the audience, Ed Conklin, buyer at Chaucer's Books in Santa Barbara, Calif., said, "I'm not real interested in e-books." That's because there's no way for a customer to buy an e-book in his store. In a follow-up question, Emily Pullen, manager of Word Books in Brooklyn, N.Y....

One Reason Gay Marriage Lost In Illinois

I post a lot about how the Catholic Church and the Mormons are against gay marriage, but I rarely post about other highly influential religious groups that are very anti-gay marriage, and this is one big reason why gay marriage lost in Illinois recently. The article I'm linking to below is from Huff Po and it's one of the few I've seen go into detail about this topic.

The ministers of many of the African-American churches in Illinois turned this issue into a...

Newest Release: The Actor Learning to Love; FRee Excerpt

Tomorrow I have a new release coming out in the Bad Boy Billionaire series called The Actor Learning to Love.

The actor is the bad boy billionaire who hires someone to stay in his NY penthouse and care for his exotic parrot...a talking parrot he inherited from an ex-boyfriend who couldn't put up with the bad boy actor.

The guy the actor hires to live in the penthouse for one year is Rory, and Rory has a young son and they recently moved out of their Brooklyn apartment...

BEA: Randi Zuckerberg's Book Deal; Big Books of the Show

One of the topics of discussion at BEA this year was Randi Zuckerberg's book deal with HarperCollins. She's the sister of facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

When Randi Zuckerberg decided to become a writer, she didn’t shy away from the challenge. She signed to do not one but two books with HarperCollins—Dot, a picture book for children with illustrations by Joe Berger, and Dot Complicated, a nonfiction book for adults. Both are set for a November 5 release.

“It’s like I decided to run a marathon...

Good Writing Vs. Bad Writing; Vetting Reviews

I hope the title, Good Writing Vs. Bad Writing; Vetting Reviews, isn't deceiving to anyone, because I'm not going to even attempt to define what is good or bad. I'm not that grand. And the reason for that is I've never found anyone who can give a clear cut definition of what good writing is. And while there are certain examples I could give for bad writing...said bookisms, too many adverbs in dialogue tags, etc...that still would be just the opinion of a segment of the writing community, and...

BEA 2013: Macmillan CEO Says Eric Holder is Incompetent

In a provocative session at BEA 2013, Macmillan CEO John Sargent thinks Eric Holder and the DOJ are incompetent. Here's the reason why. I'm not going into that now, but I did post about it previously. He also made a few comments about Amazon.

What Sargent did say about the pending DoJ suit is that Justice is "extraordinarily myopic. They carried the water for Amazon, when it had 92% of the market." And, he said, they prevented others from coming into the market. "The senior guy...

Literary Agent Evan Gregory; Free Excerpt: Daddy Knows Best; New Release

The reason I'm posting about a new literary agent, Even Gregory, is because he wrote a post in March that actually talks about e-publishing, e-publishers, and royalties. To say I'm stunned is an understatement. Most literary agent blogs never even acknowledge the fact that e-publishers exist. Not all. Lori Perkins has been talking about e-publishing for years now, and so have a few others. But I rarely see e-publishers mentioned anywhere else in spite of the fact that e-publishers pionee...

BEA 2013; Ethics for Reviewers; Digital Resale; Social Media and Booksellers

Each year people gather in NYC for BEA (Book Expo America) to check out all things related to book publishing. Here's a condensed version of some of the things happening this year. I went once a long time ago, and found it interesting...in a good way. In this post I'm linking to articles about ethics for book reviewers, digital resale, and how publishers and booksellers should start hitting the social media trail like all their authors have been doing...especially small start up e-presses.

Th...

Jesse Eisenberg in Fifty Shades; Writer's Prefer Self-Publishing?

Jesse Eisenberg in Fifty Shades?

In one of the douchiest interviews I have ever seen, Jesse Eisenberg goes after a young journalist with such a snarky superior attitude he comes close to bringing her to tears. After I saw the video, I couldn't help thinking Jesse Eisenberg might be the best choice to play Christian in Fifty Shades of Grey. He certainly does know how to be abusive for sport.

Here's what the interviewer, Romina Puga, had to say about it on the ABC News web site, after the fact....

Author Alleges B&N Plays with Bestseller Lists; Facebook and Sexism; Van Gogh's Ear

An author I don't know recently posted something on Goodreads about how she thinks B&N might be playing around with books on bestseller lists.

Barnes and Noble appear to be manipulating their Nook bestseller list. They seem to have issue with either self published books or books containing erotic content, or both, and they don't want them being too visible on their site. From what we can gather, there seems to be an artificial wall in their rankings, somewhere around #125, and any boo...