Shortly I’m going to tell a true story about a man who is using a false premise to get publicity. This story is full of generalized and vague statements that will break most rules of telling a good story. When you get there, you’ll understand why. But before I even dive into the story I’m going to take a short tangent. (If I’m gonna break rules, I might as well go all out.) Even worse, that tangent is about politics.
Politics makes up a large share of the public discourse today. As some of my Facebook friends complain, I talk politics more than most. However, when it comes to my reviews, especially fiction, I try to put my personal opinions aside. If a work of fiction has a political ax to grind, it should be judged based on the story, not on whether I agree with its slant. In fact, the second worst backlash I’ve experienced from an author over one of my reviews was a situation where the author felt the real reason for the negative review was political. He was wrong. I agreed with his politics. His story just sucked. As a general rule, I don’t think my book-related sites are an appropriate place to stage or participate in political battles. However, if it is related to books or the business of publishing, I can imagine scenarios where I might make an exception. Which leads me to the story I promised. Continue reading “How Not to Get Publicity for a Book”
Back in February, the amazing Lynne Cantwell introduced us all to BookLikes. 
I’m guessing that most of us are always on the outlook for ways to increase our productivity, to open wider to inspiration, and get/keep the ideas flowing. But writing, like any art, is a process that defies capture, that eludes attempts to analyze, to reduce, to constrain. What works for one person won’t work for the next. All we can do is keep trying new things, or simply keep doing what has worked for us in the past. On a whim, I wrote my latest book in longhand.
I’m sorry to inform my dear friends and readers (more on that later), but after exhaustive research and continuous toil involving the consumption of 235 megs of information, 84 gigs of bandwidth and 753 bags of taco chips, I have come to the undeniable conclusion that the independent reader no longer exists. The reader, that is, who simply purchases a book and reads it, with no intention of reviewing, commenting or writing something similar.