Instead of Using Return Receipts…
Use a self-addressed, stamped-postcard. I know, I know. You’re thinking, “In addition to the freaking SASE, now I gotta fool around with a stinking postcard!” But it’s a good idea if you just can’t stand the possibility of the mailman stealing your manuscript for his bathroom reading. Here’s the deal… Some authors, leery of our postal service’s invulnerability…
continue readingA Helluva Late Fee
A man in Hancock, MI returns a book to his local library 47 years after the due date.
continue readingMore on Deadbeat Publications
Gawker continues to pound on non-paying magazines. Some mind-boggling stories here, although I’m not surprised. Unfortunately, anyone who does any freelance work for any length of time will rack up their own “where is my money?” stories. I don’t know what the answer is. I know a number of people who work at magazines and they…
continue readingNovelists and Hollywood
Randee Dawn provides an interesting report for Reuters on the relationship of novelists and movies. “So it was, and so it almost always is: Authors write books,” Dawn writes. “Screenwriters write screenplays. And while there are strong exceptions to every rule (Herman Wouk, Larry McMurtry), a savvy author tends to know when to step aside and…
continue readingGrab Bag ‘o Links
The Elegant Variation points out this Jonathan Yardley article that states the amazing thing about the The Great Gatsby is “not merely that it is Fitzgerald’s masterwork but that it is the American masterwork, the finest work of fiction by any of this country’s writers.” I can’t say I disagree. Although Faulkner’s work might feature more literary pyrotechnics,…
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