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the x in xlibris
First, yesterday: 1,250 words. Normally I round off to the nearest hundred, but this time every word cost me dearly.
On another front: the Smart Bitches, dog bless them one and all, have really dug in on shutting down the ebook thievery at Bookaza. Follow the comments to get the whole hair-raising story.
Today I've been busy laying out the June issue of The Magazine at Gardensense Online, but never fear. Those words will get written anyway, if I have to stay up til midnight to do it.
And here's something odd. Maybe something that should irritate me, but I don't have the energy. I got an email this morning with the subject line: Make your dreams come true!!! Publish your own book!!!
(Do note: SIX exclamation points. Six.)
Dear Ms. Sara Donati, Hi, my name is Jackie Flores and I am from Xlibris Corporation, a publishing company affiliated with Random House, LLC. Here is some information about our company and the services we are currently offering. Xlibris is a print-on-demand publishing service provider. It means that we can publish a book in as little as one (copy) to as many as a thousand, depending on you -the author. We offer two basic publishing services: the Trade Paperback Service - for manuscripts of text, and the Picture Book Service.
First, you should notice that this particular vanity publishing outfit takes pains to point out its relationship to Random House.
Second, in case you didn't realize: I have four novels in print with Bantam Books, which is in fact a part of the Random House group. So now I'm wondering if other Random House authors also got this great offer. Maybe Janet Evanovich, Lee Child, Dean Koontz, Ha Jin, Kazuo Ishiguro and Charlie Baxter got their own personalized notes from Jackie Flores.
I can't decide whether I should forward this to my editor at Bantam, or not.June 2, 2005 04:29 PM
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Comments
It's possible you also got it via your email address being on certain sites, or found near words like 'writing' and 'novel' and 'publishing' or some such...because I've gotten that letter, as well. And I'm certainly not (yet) published with Bantam, Random House, or anyone! ;D
Posted by: sGreer at June 2, 2005 05:40 PM
With respect to getting published, etc. an article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal today (06/03/05) goes into much detail about booksellers' problems with having a small window to sell best sellers, ordering too many to get into that window, and then how everyone suffers when those books must be returned. (Note, nothing about the woes of the authors who get over-published, then don't get more contracts. ((It's all the author's fault, don't you know!!!) Authors seem to be on the tail of the furious dragon.)
Posted by: asdfg at June 3, 2005 09:45 AM