Thursday, July 21, 2011

AAP Monthly Sales Report: Digital Climbs 147%

All major adult print segments—hardcover, paperback and mass market—showed a decline in sales in May, according to the AAP’s monthly sales report. While e-books showed a steep uptick of 146.9% for the month, bringing in $73.4 million in sales, adult hardcovers dropped 38.2%, adult paperbacks dropped 14.3%, and adult mass market fell 39.4%. For the calendar year, e-books brought in $389.7 million in sales, a 160.1% climb over the same period 2010.
The few bright spots for the month, on the print side, came from YA paperbacks, which saw an uptick of 4.7% for the month; university press paperbacks, up 3.4%; and religion books, which were up 21.6%.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Who wouldn't love this?

I thought I'd take a break from the usual writing tips and publishing news to share this cool hideaway with you. How many ways can I say I love it? Well, maybe not the colors. Greys aren't really flattering to my complexion. I think some of the pillows should be bigger/thicker too.
So, here's my question for you: What would you change/not change about this reading hideout?
Share your thoughts!

Monday, July 18, 2011

10 things you might not know about punctuation

From an article by
12:22 p.m. CDT, July 18, 2011


There was big news on the punctuation front a few weeks ago: an unfounded rumor that the Oxford University Press was getting rid of the "serial comma." That's the final comma in a series, as used in most books but few newspapers. (The Tribune would write "blood, sweat and tears"; most books would write "blood, sweat, and tears.") If the uproar confounds you, read on: 

First of all, let's explain why the serial comma is important to some people. A blog on economist.com cites an apocryphal example: "I'd like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God." Without a comma after "Rand," the writer has a mighty unusual parentage.

Maybe it's not surprising that New York City, capital of the U.S. publishing industry, has plenty of lore about semicolons. When former Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was annoyed by an overeducated bureaucrat, he used the insult "semicolon boy." When the Son of Sam killer put a semicolon in a note, police speculated he might be a freelance journalist. (Killer David Berkowitz was a security guard and cabdriver.)

Union Gen. Joe Hooker got his nickname because a newspaper printer left out a dash. The label headline that was supposed to read "Fighting — Joe Hooker" became "Fighting Joe Hooker." He hated it, but it stuck.

It could be said that the first blow that led to the Russian Revolution was over punctuation. Moscow printers went on strike in 1905, insisting they be paid for typing punctuation marks as well as letters. That led to a general strike across the country and to Czar Nicholas II granting Russia its first constitution.

Punctuation marks arranged to form smiley faces or sad faces may be common in today's digital communication, but emoticons predate texting and the Internet. Puck magazine published such typographical art in 1881.

The most rudimentary punctuation is the dot between words. Romans' ancient texts often ran together without spaces using all capital letters, which meant readers had to start decoding from the first line every time. The introduction of the dot suddenly rendered a block of text legible. The dot between words and numbers engraved on buildings is a legacy of this.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw hated apostrophes, writing: "There is not the faintest reason for persisting in the ugly and silly trick of peppering pages with these uncouth bacilli."

Unnecessary use of quotation marks drives some people so "batty" that they have "posted" more than 1,000 examples of "quotation mark abuse" on the photo sharing site Flickr. Our favorites are signs reading: "Cleaning lady 'available'" and "Best 'food' on 'Route 66.'"

People get awfully philosophical about punctuation. Said author Kurt Vonnegut: "When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life; old age is more like a semicolon." Comedian Gracie Allen is credited with the aphorism "Never place a period where God has placed a comma."

In 1899, French poet Alcanter de Brahm proposed an "irony mark" (point d'ironie) that would signal that a statement was ironic. The proposed punctuation looked like a question mark facing backward at the end of a sentence. But it didn't catch on. No one seemed to get the point of it, ironically.

Mark Jacob is a deputy metro editor at the Tribune; Stephan Benzkofer is the newspaper's weekend editor.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Mystery Times Ten 2011 Has Landed!


The UPS man just delivered the first print run of Mystery times Ten and here's the first box

 And here it is!

Author's copies will be shipping tomorrow, everyone else will have to wait a few more days.



Tuesday, July 12, 2011

From Publisher's Weekly Fall Book Announcement Issue

The Distant Shore
http://tinyurl.com/6aqp3q9
and
Mystery Times Ten
http://tinyurl.com/6ejg2xg
Our apologies to the authors of Mystery Times Ten, apparently they listed the Editor's name in place of the actual writers . . .the price listed is also incorrect, but information had to be submitted months ago.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Pre-order The Distant Shore or Mystery Times Ten Today!

Just click on the link for the book you want (on the right) and you'll be set to receive the book as soon as it's released!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Print Book Sales Fall 10% in Six Months, According to Nielsen BookScan

Total unit sales of print books sold through the outlets whose sales are captured by Nielsen BookScan (approximately 70% of the marketplace) dropped 10.2% in the six month period ended July 3, falling to 307.1 million. Among categories, the biggest decline came in adult fiction with units off 25.7%, while  mass market paperback had the steepest decline among formats with units down 26.6% in the period. BookScan totals cover about 75% of the outlets where print books are sold. For a more complete report, see Monday's issue of Publishers Weekly.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Mariam Kobras' Reading Tour Hits Vancouver!

Mariam had her first reading in Vancouver this past week!


Good books, good friends, good food. What more could anyone ask for?

Stayed tuned-Mariam will be heading toward Seattle WA next!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Proof of Mystery Times Ten is on it's way!

The printer's proof was shipped today and should be here Tues at the latest. (Darn Holiday!) If all is okay we will be on press next week with finished books in hand here following week! I want to thank all the authors for their submissions-and their patience!