The Big Bad Book Blog

You’ve spent hours beautifying your manuscript, preparing it for submission to your publisher or agent—or getting it ready to wow potential publishers and agents. Then you get a note from your editor that everything you’ve done to make it interesting and attractive is killing the editorial and production process. Oops. You cry yourself to sleep on your inspired manuscript pages.

Manuscript preparation is a strange little detail in the publishing world. It’s the bane of authors, editors, and production artists alike. Today the majority of writers are working on computers, not typewriters. They’re working in sophisticated word processing programs, not simple-format software with few options. And as wonderful as these advances are, they’ve caused a bit of confusion and consternation, particularly for the editors and production artists who work with the manuscript down the line. So if you want your manuscript to be publisher-friendly or if you want your submission to be taken seriously, here are a few tips. continue reading

Attention Potter fans: Harry DIES! Just kidding. We don’t know. We would if we’d pre-ordered from DeepDiscount.com, though. Scholastic Inc., Potter’s US publisher, announced “immediate legal action” against both aforementioned e-tailer and distributor Levy Home Entertainment for shipping books ahead of the 12:01 AM Saturday release. Wednesday’s statement from Scholastic alleges forbidden copies made it to customers as early as Tuesday the 17th.

Rowling herself pleaded with readers to keep plot developments hush-hush, and Scholastic asks that early recipients hide the illicit packages. Uh-huh. Reports indicate that most early copies are safely stowed in padlocked sock drawers across the nation, but at least one spoilsport uploaded photos of the whole thing to Gaia Online.

Diehard Pottermaniacs are advised to stay indoors, avoiding all forms of media, earplugs firmly in place, until tentatively heading to their local big-box bookstores for the magic moment tomorrow night.

The 2008 presidential election might seem far away, but cable news indicates otherwise. This is the first of an oh-so-relevant series about books by or about politicians, wannabe politicians, talking heads, and other myriad wonks. Some weeks there might be a column. Some weeks there might just be what we think are pithy headlines and commentary and a few links. Some weeks, if we’re feeling frisky, we might post a picture of a random object–say, a solar flare or a covered wagon–just to leave you wondering what possible relevance it has to the accompanying commentary.

In this first edition: The ‘Politics’ shelves of bookstores are swelling with books on presidential hopefuls. Last month was quite Hillary heavy. continue reading

Barnes & Noble made a business-savvy move when it began publishing those cheap, bland-looking editions of public domain classics and piling them high on prominent tables in 2003. No, no, they weren’t trying to steal sales from other publishers––rather, the line “celebrates the genius of the human heart.”

Borders announced its retaliation in this slo-mo battle of the titans this week: the publication of The Hammer, a collection of Sports Illustrated columns celebrating the life and times of Barry-Bonds-threatened grand slammer Hank Aaron. The Hammer is the second in the chain’s plan to publish exclusive, proprietary books. Last month, the program’s first book, screenwriter Nick Santora’s Slip and Fall, became a Wall Street Journal bestseller despite being sold exclusively through Borders-owned outlets. And neo-soul fans rejoice: among upcoming titles is a John Legend tour book.

All this is a bit of Starbucks-inspired genius, of course, exempting Borders from distribution complexities and co-op space gouging and giving them the Oprahesque ability to select titles that automatically get gargantuan marketing support. Somewhere, Barnes & Noble lies in wait, plotting its entrance into the corporate tastemaking arena, and the fate of readers across the nation hangs in the balance.

Italian author Robert Bernocco can text better than a caffeinated tween. Instead of texting friends to avoid having to talk to them like the rest of us do, Bernocco used the T9 function on his cell phone to write his 384-page science fiction novel, Compagni di Viaggo (Fellow Travelers), available on Lulu.com.

“Only a few years ago I would have struggled to find both the time and the publisher to enable me to create this book,” Bernocco said in a release. He wrote the book during his train commutes to and from work and later downloaded his paragraphs to his home computer for revision. “Thanks to my Nokia and Lulu, I am now proud to be a published author.”

Texting a novel is cute and all, but will it spark a new trend? Will text-happy teenagers feel inspired to write their own angst-ridden novellas? Sources say no.