The following links to online writers groups, critique groups, and communities appear on The Writing Life page of Writers and Editors. We may envy the days of literary salons, when writers hung out in cafes and bars and swapped drafts and lovers, but as C.J. West writes in A Writer in Paris (on the excellent Read More
Writers and Editors (RSS feed)
Contract complaints at James Frey's fiction factory
November 13, 2010
Under a deal some writers are unhappy with, James Frey, author of the controversial bestselling fictional memoir A Million Little Pieces, has launched a fiction book-packaging company through which young creative-writing M.F.A. students are hired to write young adult novels; they are paid a token sum on signing and completion of a young adult novel but share in profits. Read More
Publish or self-publish? ebook or print? Tim Ferriss's advice
October 26, 2010
Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, writes about the economics and practical realities of being published in print, in e-books, and through self-publishing (vs. traditional publishing) in How Authors Really Make Money: The Rebirth of Seth Godin and Death of Traditional Publishing. Read More
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Even Jane Austen needed an editor
October 25, 2010
"She is the great English novelist renowned for her polished prose, of whom it was once remarked: 'Everything came finished from her pen,' writes Anita Singh, arts correspondent for the Telegraph, in Jane Austen's famous prose may not be hers after all. Read More
Richard Morgan on the life of the freelance journalist
October 25, 2010
"Freelancing is basically just courtship, but the freelancer-editor relationship is nothing more than friends with benefits," writes Richard Morgan in Seven Years as a Freelance Writer, or, How To Make Vitamin Soup (The Awl, 8-2-10). "The editor likes you because you remind the Read More
Scanning photos: what resolution is best?
October 20, 2010
Updated 6-30-19. Helping people with their memoirs or personal histories and organizations with their histories, I am often asked at what resolution to scan photographs to get digital files good enough to print in a book. The photos on Facebook are not high enough in resolution for a quality print or for a book. Photo archivist Brina Bolanz (Restored Stories) ("Preserving family photos one memory at a time") offered a concise answer and gave me permission to share it, below. Read More
Debating the ethics of medical ghostwriting
October 19, 2010
Medical writers who collaborate with scientists are often called ghostwriters. Questioning the ethics of some medical ghostwriting, Adriane J. Fugh-Berman in a recent issue of PLoS, published The Haunting of Medical Journals: How Ghostwriting Sold “HRT” (PLoS Med 7(9): e1000335, 9-7-10). Fugh-Berman examined documents unsealed in recent litigation to see how pharmaceutical companies promoted hormone therapy drugs. Read More
A Historian's Code by Richard W. Stewart
October 13, 2010
I reprint here with Richard Stewart's permission his delightful and helpful "Historian's Code."
1. I will footnote (or endnote) all my sources (none of this MLA or social science parenthetical business).
2. If I do not reference my sources accurately, I will surely perish in the fires of various real or metaphorical infernal regions and I Read More
1. I will footnote (or endnote) all my sources (none of this MLA or social science parenthetical business).
2. If I do not reference my sources accurately, I will surely perish in the fires of various real or metaphorical infernal regions and I Read More
Open Sky turns bloggers into a sales force
October 1, 2010
Erick Schonfeld wrote about Open Sky for TechCrunch in April in Launch: OpenSky Wants To Turn Bloggers Into Sellers Without Sacrificing Their Souls. "While OpenSky sounds at first like an affiliate network, it isn’ Read More
Naughty Librarian's rescued-book art at Crafty Bastards art fair
September 30, 2010
Check out Bookstruction, by the Naughty Librarian, delightful book art made from least-used books in libraries. "Good libraries periodically go through their collections and take out the least used books to make room for new, more useful books," says the artist. "Most would love to donate the old books, but either no one wants them Read More