Spring Cleaning and Catching Up
It has been a hectic 2010 so far, coming off a very busy end of 2009. I feel like the last few months have been a blur of travel, interviews, concerts, galley reviews, edits, and more red pencils than I care to admit. But now it’s time to dust off things here at Slushpile.net. Keep…
continue readingTracking What Works and What Doesn’t
So much of publishing success remains a mystery. Huge marketing budgets don’t ensure success, as Charles Frazier found out with the infamous release of Thirteen Moons failed to capitalize on the success of his earlier work Cold Mountain. And while everyone may jump on book trailers or Twitter pages or whatever the latest thing is,…
continue readingTributes to Captain Maximus
As the week has progressed, there have been more and more tributes to Barry Hannah posted around the web. Meanwhile, I’m not sure I’m any closer to summing up my feelings on the late writer and mentor than I was when I first heard the news of his passing. I met Barry Hannah in the…
continue readingWSJ Discovers the Difficulties of Unrepresented Writers
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “The Death of the Slush Pile.” It’s a perfectly acceptable article but what interests me is how completely not-news this thing is. I realize that WSJ readers are not writers and are probably not familiar with publishing. But still, can anyone be surprised by the…
continue readingThe Simpsons 20th Anniversary Show and the Book They Didn’t Use
Last night on Fox, I caught Morgan Spurlock’s documentary about the 20 year history of The Simpsons. It was entertaining enough and I was particularly pleased to observe a situation where vocalist Sting references literary heavyweight Cormac McCarthy while discussing yellowish cartoon characters. But during the show, I kept thinking about how much of a…
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