Class of 2k9 Promoting Debut Novel by Albert Borris, Their Class Member Who Cannot...

I've been an infrequent blogger as of late (busy busy busy) but had to take the time to mention this story I spotted on GalleyCat. Debut novelist Albert Borris, a member of the Class of 2k9, had a stroke last December prior to the release of his book Crash Into Me. Now he's unable to promote the book on his own, so the Class is pulling together to get the word out about Crash Into Me.

I've always admired the Class collectives--it's a terrific idea that debut mid-grade and YA authors pool their resources and band together to promote their collective works. And how wonderful that they're there to help Borris, who is thus far unable to communicate correctly. (More proof that authors of books for young readers are awesome.)

Check out Crash Into Me.

Self-Published Books on the Rise...

It's another busy busy week so light on the blogging, but I wanted to get a link up to this GalleyCat post especially for the writers who came to see me speak on Saturday at the Carnegie Center in Lexington.

We talked a lot about self publishing (there were many questions about it), so here's an interesting stat from Bowker via GalleyCat:

According to the bibliographic company Bowker, 285,394 new books were published by print-on-demand companies last year--a 132 percent increase compared to 2007. In contrast, U.S. publishers put out 275,232 new books and editions in 2008--a 3.2 percent drop compared to the year before.

In case you don't have your calculator handy, that's a total of 560,626 books published in 2008.

This was also reported on in Publishers Lunch with the headline "On Demand Books Overtake Traditional Titles for the First Time."

• Click here to read about the Writer's Digest Self-Published Competition--extended deadline is May 20th.

GalleyCat's Publishing in 2008 Rundown...

Happy New Year everyone. I'm back at work and almost through my email. (I've read them all but haven't answered them all.)

Today, for my first post of 2009, I offer links to GalleyCat's year in publishing 2008 rundown, offered in month-by-month capsules featuring phony memoirs, fake controversy, Glenn Beck, publisher jumping by big names authors, editors hopping houses, layoffs, salary freezes, restructuring, signs of the publishing apocalypse, Sarah Palin, and Madonna's brother (not necessarily in that order). It's fun to read them chronologically from January to December, so here you go:

• January 2008
• February 2008
• March 2008
• April 2008
• May 2008
• June 2008
• July 2008
• August 2008
• September 2008
• October 2008
  
• November 2008
• December 2008

You also might find this interesting--here's a piece in the New York Times about the new austerity in the publishing world where "fancy lunches, sparkling parties, sophisticated banter" and sales meetings in the Caribbean are being replaced by pizza in the cafeteria and video conferencing. (Oh the horror.)

Read This GalleyCat Post...

The Jane Yolen quote is awesome.

Busy Day--Just Catching Up on My News...

I've spent the better part of my workweek--and pretty much my entire workday today--looking over a book that's about the go to the printer, so now, at 9 p.m., I'm just getting time to check on publishing news. Here are a few things that might interest you:

• The weekly PW Children's Bookshelf came out today. If you don't subscribe, sign up!

• The GalleyCat blog on MediaBistro has an interesting discussion of book reviews going on. (Did I mentioned that during the Portland Kidlitosphere conference, none other than Eric Kimmel declared to online children's book reviewers: You are so important--publishers need you. Not in those exact words, but that was the gist of it.)

• GalleyCat also has a post on press releases which I actually didn't find all the interesting (well, it's not that it's uninteresting, it's just that there's an awful lot of links and instructions), except that it features the cover of Martha Brockenbrough's Things that Make Us [Sic]. And since I saw on facebook there was a book release party for the book today, I feel I should show her cover on my blog, too. (Plus I just got my copy of [Sic] in the mail today. Yeah Martha!)

Come back tomorrow for my Blog of the Week.

Random House 'Morality Clause' Only in UK ...

I just found a post that sheds some light on the Random House morality clause issue which I mentioned recently. According to GalleyCat, the purported morality clause is present only in UK Random House contracts. According to an agent questioned about the issue,"there's a lot of strange language that goes into UK contracts that has little bearing on the American market."

So US Random House authors...have a good time.