Author: Scott McKenzie

BEA a Waste of Money for Aspiring Authors

Sometimes weird coincidences just happen. The annual Book Expo America (BEA) convention gets a fair amount of coverage in the mainstream press so many people learn about it for the first time. After the book world’s BEA frenzy recently, several aspiring authors emailed me to ask if they should attend next year. “With so many…

continue reading

Everything’s Bigger in Texas, Even the Archives

The New Yorker has a great article about the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, a literary archive that houses a number of priceless literary treasures.

continue reading

Interview: Mark McNay, Author

Mark McNay was raised in a mining village in central Scotland. After fifeen years doing odd jobs, McNay entered the University of East Anglia Creative Writing Course in Norwich, England. He graduated from that program with distinction and, in 2007, he received the Arts Foundation Fellowship for New Fiction. McNay’s debut novel Fresh was published by…

continue reading

The Mystery of Advances

Shira Boss writes a very informative essay about book advances at Powells. Aspiring authors always want to know how advances work and what is a realistic number. But Boss points out that it’s hard to ever know.

continue reading

BEA Reports

So I spent the weekend at home, catching up on some work, some writing, and even managed to grace the small screen on a local charity telethon. Meanwhile, the hoards of litbloggers who invaded New York City seem to have enjoyed BookExpo America. Ed reports on those who managed to escape his clutches and those who who were…

continue reading