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Speaking of New Year’s Eve and all, can anyone think of a good book that centers on New Year’s festivities? I’m sure there’s a major book out there and I’m just blanking on it, but off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything. Know of any books where New Year’s Eve features [...]

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So before you get too far gone with your partying tonight, take a moment to reflect on your writing in 2007. What did you accomplish? What needs to be improved? For me, 2007 was a pretty good year. I published a small piece in one of my favorite literary journals, Tin House. I also had [...]

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So I missed this article back before the holiday, but CNN provided sales figures for rock star books that ties nicely into our earlier discussion of how wide ranging book sales can be. As I’ve mentioned before, book lovers so rarely get any true sales figures (that aren’t Potter-related) that it’s difficult to know how [...]

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Last week, I posted a link to an AP article that provided some sales figures for recent books. My point in originally linking to that article was to shed some light on the otherwise mysterious question of book sales figures. A publishing insider posted a comment, kindly pointing out that the Associated Press figures were “WAY OFF.” [...]

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One of the things that troubles aspiring authors is understanding just what amount of books need to be sold to be considered a successful writer. Obviously, we understand that the publishers expectations and the amount of money spent come into play. But there are such massive disparities, even on the bestseller list that it can [...]

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As you know, Matthew Eck’s The Farther Shore is the Winter 2007 Read This! selection. Over at the Litblog Co-Op site there is a post that collects a number of reviews of the book from around the web.

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In The Telegraph, Sam Leith explains how to write a successful stocking-filler bookhow to write a successful stocking-filler book.

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I mentioned that many of my colleagues in the Litblog Co-Op were going to post features about Matthew Eck and The Farther Shore this week. Lit Kicks was one of the first to weigh in with a great interview with the author. In the interview, Eck tells Lit Kicks about working in a war zone, about [...]

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Sotheby’s is going to auction a hand-written, hand-illustrated book by J.K. Rowling for charity. The estimate? $102,000.

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A couple of articles recently have discussed the increasing “team” approach to writing a book. I suppose this has gone on for years (celebrity ghostwriters, Hollywood studios’ stable system of writers, a research intern here and there, James Patterson’s co-authors) but the more recent cases seem to be getting more and more ridiculous. In some [...]

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So A.J. Jacobs likes to do things. Strange, challenging things. And then he writes about them. Seems simple enough. But in this world of people slipping into easy gimmicks to masquerade as entertainment, the sincerity (and the extent) with which Jacobs immerses himself in the experience is refreshing. First, he read the encyclopedia from start to finish [...]

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  I mentioned the other day that the Litblog Co-Op selected Matthew Eck’s The Farther Shore as the Winter 2007 Read This! title. LBC member sites will discuss this really strong book throughout the week. To get us started this Monday morning, The Emerging Writers Network provides a book review. Check back throughout the week for more about [...]

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