An experienced American agent gives a personal view of the way she operates and works with authors.
Links of the week May 21 2012 (21)
Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world:
28 May 2012
'I still look for those properties that speak to me personally, and I still look to my network of editor relations to find the right place for them. And after that, everything else just follows.' Rosemary Stimola is founder and president of Stimola Literary Studio, a full service literary agency established in 1997, with the aim of representing authors and author/illustrators of fiction and nonfiction for preschool-aged children through young adults. Her clients include such award-winning and best-selling authors as Suzanne Collins, Matthew Cordell, Thanhha Lai and Tanya Lee Stone.
Reuters article which reports that Apple Inc is rejecting charges that it conspired to fix prices of electronic books, calling the U S government's antitrust lawsuit a "fundamentally flawed" endeavor that could discourage competition and harm consumers.
* Apple says strategy aids competition, helps consumers * US alleges collusion cost consumers millions of dollars * Apple says Steve Jobs comment on pricing mischaracterized * Three of five publishers have settled antitrust case By Jonathan Stempel May 23 (Reuters) - Apple Inc is rejecting charges that it conspired to fix prices of electronic books, calling the U.S. government's antitrust lawsuit a "fundamentally flawed" endeavor that could discourage competition and harm consumers.
21 May 2012
Have you ever wondered how a book gets through a publishing house from conception to reader? This wonderfully cynical infographic shows you, imparting some useful information amidst the jokes.
Publishing house Weldon Owen created an infographic called “How a Book is Born,” tracing the path of a book from idea to final product.
Book publishers are trying hard to argue that e-books cost almost as much to produce as printed ones, and therefore prices for e-books should be higher — but the bottom line is that consumers don’t care what a publisher’s costs are, nor should they.
Book publishers are trying hard to defend the pricing of e-books — perhaps in part because they’ve been accused by the Justice Department of rigging prices to keep them artificially high — by arguing that it costs a lot more than most people think to produce the electronic version of a book. But as author Chuck Wendig notes, what e-books cost to manufacture or distribute is irrelevant to everyone but the publishers themselves. All that matters is what book consumers are willing to pay for an e-book — and the same principle applies for any form of digital content.
Serious Nonfiction in the Digital Age
This is a subject that’s been on my mind a lot these past few weeks, driven largely by the absolutely deserved attention cycle given to Robert Caro’s LBJ biography and volume 4, THE PASSAGE OF POWER. It’s not just that Caro is a throwback, someone whose career was the product of a time when publishing took risks, didn’t really care about P&L statements, and were only starting to be chained to the yoke of multi-conglomerate expectations, but that it’s impossible to imagine a next-generation version of him carrying on with multi-volume biography.