Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 200

So, You Say It’s Fiction; But, Are All The Facts Straight?

Sure, the word “fiction” comes from roots that mean “to knead, form out of clay” or “invent” but, unless you’re writing fantastic-fiction that happens in an alternate universe, you need to invent based on certain given qualities; and, the clay of truth must be kneaded carefully… The novel I published last year (free in the [...]

Public & Publishers Speak Out To U. S. D. O. J. on Pricing Collusion

E-book prices have been a high profile topic on the blogs for awhile now and so has the lawsuit against 5 of the Big Six U. S. Publishers plus Apple. Back in March I posted Authors/Readers vs Publishers vs the U.S. Dept. ofJustice and since then 3 of the Publishers, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and [...]

How To Write A Story?

There are probably as many opinions about how to write a story as there are writers. It seems any kind of writing advice, even grammatical, has shades of truth and falsity… Being a writing-maverick, I have fairly well developed advice-radar—I can seemingly spot self-serving drivel from miles away. There have been posts here where I [...]

Self-Published Books & Bookstores

Traditional publishers have established methods of dealing with bookstores. Of course, many authors have issues with the whole procedure but are still locked into the legacy model of publishing. First, traditional publishers offer the bookstores (the few they deal with) steep discounts then permit them to return unsold books. Next comes the way books are [...]

Protection from Publishers ~ Critical Info…

In the on-going media war between the traditional and indie camps of publishing, much is made of the author maintaining control and many claim the Indies are slipshod due to lack of traditional publisher oversight. Then there are articles like the two we’ll look at today. Letting a publisher handle your editing can become a [...]

Words Are Slippery Critters . . .

We use them all day long. Some of us are paid to write them. Some hope they’ll be paid… In a previous post, Where Do The Words Come From . . .? (part of the Series, What Are Words?), I wrote (using words…): “Words are metaphysical entities, even if they point to non-metaphysical things. “Words [...]

Virtual Live TV & A Place Called Book Island

I work about 30 hours a week on Book Island as their Events Manager. We have public readings by authors, friendly chats for readers and writers, and some awesome poetry sessions. There are 60 shops on the Island, too—authors, editors, publishers, book designers, and artists. Sure it’s in the virtual world Second Life but that [...]

Readability ~ Can Your Readers Understand You?

Whether you write novels, scientific articles, literary essays, or blogs (and, perhaps it’s not too optimistic to include legal explanations…) your reader needs to understand the writing; otherwise, there’s poor commune-ication. Yeah, I sort of misspelled the last word in that sentence but the roots of communication tell the story: “to make common”. You may [...]

Let’s Go To The Library

I’m not sure at what age folks start to forget that libraries can still be cool places. Some young people may never have known what a library can do. Some older folk may bemoan the way certain libraries are struggling. No doubt we’re going through a major transformation of the Book World and no doubt [...]

Global Cities of Literature Network

Many people think the United Nations does nothing for World Peace. Still, the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization—UNESCO—instituted the Creative Cities Network with awards in the categories of Literature, Film, Music, Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Media Arts, and Gastronomy. From their site: “A network of creative cities, working together towards a common [...]