offonatangent:

On Twitter yesterday I went on about how New Adult is a bona fide category now — so much so that there’s a way to report them specifically at Publishers Marketplace — but that it won’t be “real” to me unless literary novels by men that qualify actually get classified that way. And since everyone…

I’m so excited that New Adult is actually a genre now; I’ve had it in my mind that it was New Adult more than YA, but I didn’t want to wreck my chances with a literary agent who might have liked it but scoffed at my categorization in New Adult. 

This post, short and sweet, does bring up a lot of questions about gender bias in the literary community. While Chick Lit is, I would contend, a category for rompy feminine-focused fun books, the male equivalent has always fallen under the umbrella of fiction or literary fiction. It will be interesting to see if this prediction of the same Chick Lit-esque gender binary will come to true. Infuriating if it does, of course, but interesting from a social and publishing industry/marketing standpoint as well.

editorialhell:

I enjoy meeting editors from various houses — both in the U.S. and elsewhere — and I have easily met over a few hundred from companies of all sizes across various genres. I firmly believe that the only way to learn to be a better editor is by meeting better editors. I have had the luck to meet many editors and I find it surprising how they answer the one question I ask of all of them

“Do you consider yourself a writer?”

The best editors I’ve met have never answered that question in the affirmative. They all say that they have “decent,” “okay,” or “solid” writing skills. Or they say that they are confident of their grasp of “the mechanics” of writing. None of these editors come out and say “Yes, I am a writer.”

I’m not sure whether this hesitation stems from honest self-evaluation, humility, failed writer syndrome, or respect for the art of writing. And I am not suggesting that this question would be the litmus test that determines editorial capabilities. I’m just stating that this has been my experience enough times that it begs at least a rudimentary theory.

editorialhell:

I always wonder about the media notice we put on our e-books (similar to what you see with DVDs) stipulating how any act of duplication and distribution or copyright infringement is punishable by a fine and even time in prison. Has anyone actually gone to prison for such a crime? I mean, that would be a really harsh sentence, no?

I can just imagine the prison warden’s announcement over the tinny loudspeaker in Attica:

“Cell block 28 roll call — Ramirez, murder in the first; Adams, extortion and racketeering; Lee, armed robbery and first degree manslaughter; and Steinberg…um…unauthorized duplication of Harry Potter e-books.”

Steinberg is pretty much screwed, I think. His only hope is to team up with the guy in block 42 doing time for tearing that warning label off a mattress.