End of year news & a debate.

Shimmer and EV both got stories into Rich Horton's 2010 Year's Best. Beth just alerted me. :D

William talks about Harlequin... and why the various writers associations are upset. This brings up the difference between publishing and pay-for-print companies.

Note that using POD does not make some company a vanity press, and that print-on-demand is a technology, not publishing. Lulu.com uses POD. More small presses are also using POD rather than filling their warehouses with books, aka the way the larger publishers can.

Very well done, and an explanation that I highly recommend to you. Especially since the hook -- how do you request a book of which you've never heard? -- is rather important! I wouldn't have thought to explain it that way; I'm so glad that William did.

Book: January 2010.

Wednesday evening I got yet another book job. :D

Just the thing for the holidays!

(May borrow the phrase 'YAVN' from Da Boss! but change the V to something else, hmmm... or perhaps just use YAN?)

This is all sorts of excellent. Also, I'm pondering a short visit back up to MI next month, probably around Stilyagi's Fusion, which is late January. Still planning that out. It'd be about a week, likely less.

What I did this past spring...

Earlier this year I was asked to write an essay about being bipolar.

I did, and it was published in LaChance Publishing's Voices of Bipolar Disorder.


The publisher sent out complimentary copies recently, and will send mine to my new address here in Ohio.

I became bipolar in 1991, was diagnosed in 1992, and kept taking my [sole] med with great success. There are horror stories about meds, and miracle stories. Mine is the latter [or, sometimes Milekey transitions DO happen in reality]. This is probably the only soapbox-cum-cause that I've wanted to talk about that's extremely personal.

It's still a little scary to get up in public, even about what you care about. Be warned that mine is not a pretty story.

Many thanks to the dear ones who held my hands, not only during the rough times when I became manic, but also those who told me I could write this essay -- who encouraged me, listened, prayed, and above all, critiqued!

"The book is scheduled for release on January 1, 2010 and will be available in all bookstores, at all online booksellers, in most libraries and at www.lachancepublishing.com."

(And yes, this means I'm a nonfiction writer, but I'm still an editor first and foremost.)

New book in...

Rush job. New publisher also. This will keep me busy once I deliver NYRSF tonight.

Santa must love me to send me so much pre-Christmas! ;>

Author, editor, agent.

Roundup through Moonie.

TPA: Dream author.
What to expect with your editor.
Expectations on agents. I'll have to check back later and see what the agents said in reply. :>


And today I discovered how exciting it can be to move around the keyboard that lacks a working letter-in-particular. Especially when it starts my login-ID!

Sure does make me think about alternate words right quick, though...

Wheatland Press in need!

Polyphony is an anthology done by a small press, which perhaps you've heard of. Perhaps not, also.

The Clock Ticks on Polyphony 7.

We lost several anthology series this year. :<

Such as The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror... although Horror was resurrected as the Best Horror of the Year by another publisher, Night Shade Books. Just when it looked like we readers were going to have so many lovely choices and always be happy... the crunch everywhere is, of course, affecting anthologies [and collections]. Remember, if you don't buy books, authors don't eat. It's that simple.

The same applies to editors, agents, and publishers, particularly small presses. Printing paper books is not cheap.

Please pass the word along. Thanks!

(Cross-posted, with some added bits.)

More writing goodies...

... by way of Moonrat, who adds an amendment to Tom's publishing glossary.

I love this one:
TRADE PAPERBACKS: What readers do instead of purchasing new books.

=hides Bookmooch and PaperbackBookSwap accounts furtively=

Aprilynne talks about firsts... from the desperation of being an aspiring author and the importance of goals.

And Moonrat herself discusses cutting text from writing.