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Whatever happened to how-to-books?  Pretty much decimated by the internet, says Peter, but strong brands in this area still survive, and there are good reasons for not burying this once-great publishing sector quite yet.  In today’s Write Report, Donna reports on a campaign that’s started in Japan to allow real-life people to marry comic book characters.  That’s unreal, fictional, two–dimensional comic book characters.  Get a grip, people, and step away from the comic book right now.  And our obligatory Halloween story: an author/fireman is thrown out of his church after writing a book disproving the existence of Satan.  Do they still burn heretics?   In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, she examines a website that covers the, er, covers of young adult and children’s books - there’s a clear suspicion that publishers in this category are trying to make their books look and feel more grown-up than previously, in the hope of catching the crossover market.

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Links:The Write Report, Jacket Whys

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How can writers survive in the looming recession?  Peter offers some do’s and don’ts.   In today’s Write Report, Donna reports that the Author’s Guild and Google reach a settlement in their book scanning lawsuit – there’s a settlement of $45m coming to authors – but who’s really won?  It’s Halloween time of year and our thoughts turn to… vampires!  But why do we love them so much – especially in harder economic times?   In Eve’s Salmagundi Club she asks, how do cockroaches work?  And can you recall the names of the five heaviest building ever moved?  Eve shares a site resplendent with outré trivia such as this, and draws inspiration from the Fourteen Most Rejected Bestsellers of All Time.  We can all dream, huh?

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Links:The Write Report, How Stuff Works

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Does your agent return your calls?  And just how quickly?  What can or should you interpret into the speed, or otherwise, at which your agent responds to you?  Agents are infamous for being incommunicado.  One agency is informally known to its clients – part in jest and part serious – as “I’ll Call Myself”.  Peter sheds some light into this delicate area.

In today’s Write Report, Donna tells us that the issue of age-banding continues to grind inexorably on its as British librarians unite to disparage it.  Here’s an idea, guys – put the age band on a removable sticker! All the convenience of having it displayed in-store as a buyers’ guide… none of the social stigma for the kid being seen to read a “young” book.  Hey, publishing industry - you heard it here first!  We’ll take our royalty on that idea, please.  Or maybe, Donna will…

In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, she asks - what is your place as a writer in the universe?  The camera manufacturer Nikon can tell you!

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Links:The Write Report, Nikon Universcale Ask Oxford

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Books and lists seem to go naturally together, don’t they?  Today, Peter hesitantly probes  the MindF*** list (yes, we’re going explicit – you’ve been warned).  Then, of course, there are the bestseller lists… which in the UK at least, appear to be a state secret – in heaven’s name – why? In The Write Report, Donna asks why writers don’t get more respect – probably because everyone thinks they and their manicurist can write a book.  And a chilling, ghostly court case (Halloween is just round the corner!).  In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, she continues our increasingly gruesome theme with an interactive autopsy – a great website for writers seeking accuracy in authentic sights and smells… smells? You’ve been warned!

Got news for us - or a comment? Then drop it into our Open Inbox: http://drop.io/litopia.

Links:The Write Report, Books that will induce a mindf*** Death Online The Routine Autopsy for writers

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As we discussed on LITOPIA AFTER DARK last Friday, the future of the newspaper is anything but rosy.  In today’s LITOPIA DAILY, Peter considers what future trade journals have within the publishing business.   In today’s Write Report, Donna reports that “White Tiger” author and Man Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga has just sacked his literary agency William Morris for reasons that aren’t clear.  And Oprah endorses the Kindle - her “favorite thing in all the world!”  But what impact will this really have?  In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, she considers the impact of the rhythm of narrative: how can you get a feel for this subtle but essential skill?

Got news for us - or a comment? Then drop it into our Open Inbox: http://drop.io/litopia.

Links:The Write Report, good copy bad copy

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Thanks to vibeke.fn on Flickr for the cat photo

Sentimentality is in the air on Litopia After Dark this week as we try to create a tear-jerking, heart-wrenching, sickly sweet best-seller (pass the sick bucket!).  However, it all gets a bit over-emotional and we move on to more serious topics…

Last week we took a look at the sex-and-blackmail scandal that propelled etiquette doyenne Emily Post to start peddling good manners as a commodity, nearly 100 years ago. This week, Emily Yoffe writes in SLATE about the lack of manners (as if we really expected them) in the US election campaign.   Could it be an element of the social malaise exemplified by an alarming new trend in violent crime: “low flash-point killings”.  We ask - are we giving (and taking) more offense as a society?

Also, the American Journalism Review carries a think piece by Philip Meyer, professor emeritus in Journalism at the University of North Carolina, in which he tries to predict where that industry is headed.  Meyer offers a future vision of the newspaper in which those that manage to survive will do so with some kind of hybrid content: analysis, interpretation and investigative reporting in a print product that appears less than daily, combined with constant updating and reader interaction on the Web.  The panel discuss whether we’re optimistic or pessimistic about the future of the newspaper - and what message does it send to the book publishing business?

In an article in this month’s Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan, the former editor of The New Republic, explains why he still blogs.  He believe that despite all the intense gloom surrounding the newspaper and magazine business, this is actually a golden era for journalism. The bloggosphere, he says, has added a whole new idiom to the act of writing and has introduced an entirely new generation to nonfiction. It has enabled writers to write out loud in ways never seen or understood before. And yet it has exposed a hunger and need for traditional writing that, in the age of television’s dominance, had seemed on the wane. So why do we blog, should author’s blog and how do we see the future for the bloggosphere?

Of course, all this would be nothing without the mayhem of Pitch the Nasty Agent, the frustration of Toad Suck, Arkansas, Reverse Shuffle Six Card Strip Pokerette and this week’s particularly heart-rendering Cry for Help.  To chew over the hot topics and provide witty banter for your listening pleasure this week are the usual suspects of Dave Bartram, Donna Ballman, Richard Howse and Eve Harvey.  The Ustream Chatroom (8pm GMT) was an emotional roller-coaster, join us next week and bring a box of tissues!

Links mentioned in the show…

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It’s never been a better time for first-time writers to get published, says Peter - but there’s also a rather big downside to publishers’ constant quest for the Next Big Author.  In today’s Write Report, Donna reports that the Kindle is good for “proper” books, says Amazon – that somehow, owning a Kindle makes you buy more paper books.   Well, if the e-book reader really does increase overall book sales – then hurray for them!   And who’s buying all those teen-lit books – according to publishers, grown-up women account for a fair number of readers.   In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, she takes a linguistic tour for people who love having fun with words and languages.  Don’t tread on the baby gerunds!

Got news for us - or a comment? Then drop it into our Open Inbox: http://drop.io/litopia.

Links:The Write Report,

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Is the writer’s task one of expression or communication - and what’s the difference, Peter asks.  Only in France! In today’s Write Report, Donna French president Nicolas Sarkozy is needled with a publishing company for selling a voodoo doll bearing his likeness – and has threatened to take legal action against them.  Only in Hackney!  British author Ian Sinclair dares to criticize the 2012 Olympic games due to be held in London –and promptly has his book launch canceled by his local council, the people’s republic of Hackney.  Nice work, comrades.  In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, she discovers a neato website that claims to dispense advice about “how to live with a writer” - send the link to your spouse pronto!

Got news for us - or a comment? Then drop it into our Open Inbox: http://drop.io/litopia.

Links:The Write Report, eHow - How to live with a writer

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Do you understand how to use a beat in your writing?  Peter attempts to explain.  In today’s Write Report, Donna relates how there’s more serious grief coming for The Book of Bunny Suicides – lighten up, folks!  And an Italian writer upsets The Mob, and is under death sentence – can the world’s writing community manage to protect him?  In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, she discovers a website that claims to “unleash your creativity” - brilliant writers’ resource or procrastinator’s paradise?

Got news for us - or a comment? Then drop it into our Open Inbox: http://drop.io/litopia.

Links:The Write Report,

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Has the world gone stark raving mad?  Quite possibly.  First example: Peter discusses how Northern Illinois University Press launches a new imprint, Switchgrass Books, that refuses to consider submissions from agents.  Second example: in today’s Write Report, Donna reports on the 600 page t-shirt book (really).  And publishers from Australia, Canada and New Zealand band together to challenge the US/UK as the dominant English language market (not going to happen, guys). In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, we’re finally restored to sanity - Eve’s discovered a rather splendid website dedicated to professional law enforcement - great for authentic, gritty detail.

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Links:The Write Report, Northern Illinois University Press Switchgrass Books, Police One

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Jonathan Douglas, the director of the National Literacy Trust, hit the headlines recently when he was reported saying that the days of children reading books are numbered.  “Publishers must adapt to the demands of modern young readers who spend more time on the internet if they are to succeed in persuading the next generation to read” he was quoted as saying in The Independent.  What - is this the end of reading, then?  On today’s show, we speak directly to Jonathan and find out what’s what.

In today’s Write Report, Donna reveals how sci-fi writers have always been suspected of treasonable activities by governments - their prescience is their downfall, apparently.   And no sooner are the new TV schedules are announced, but a whole raft of shows (and their writers)  hit the “endangered” list.  In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, she discovers an excellent website to assist authors in that tricky enterprise, the naming of characters.

Got news for us - or a comment? Then drop it into our Open Inbox: http://drop.io/litopia.

Links:The Write Report, The Independent, National Literacy Trust, Baby Name Genie

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Thanks to Dawn Endico on Flickr for the photo.

This week Litopia After Dark is delighted to welcome back Martyn Daniels, fresh from the Frankfurt Book Fair.  We take full advantage of his ringside view and ask the question everyone is asking… how were the parties?

A new book by Roy Blount Jr has just been published – Alphabet Juice (with nearly the longest subtitle in publishing history).  Blount contends that “through centuries of intimate contact with the human body, some words have absorbed the uncanny power to carry the ring of truth.”  We try to put our finger on the hidden language of words, particularly as it applies to peoples’ names - both your own, and those of your characters.

A fascinating article in this week’s New Yorker by Elizabeth Kolbert recounts the life of etiquette-guru Emily Post: it all began with a major scandal.  We ask how important etiquette is in today’s brash new world.

The looming US presidential election has spawned a rash of picture books for children – too young to vote, of course, but obviously their parents want them politicized at an early age.  Propaganda or political awareness-building?

All this, and the regular madness of Pitch the Nasty Agent (this week’s titles are all taken from “Books with odd or misleading titles” - a Listmania! list by E. A. Lovitt (”starmoth”) from Gladwin, MI USA on Amazon.com), the nail biting frustration of Toad Suck, Arkansas, Reverse Shuffle Six Card Strip Pokerette and the sob story of Cry for Help.

Our special guests are Martyn Daniels, publishing expert and author of the seminal report for the Booksellers Association of Great Britain about their digital future.  You can find Martyn on his blog Brave New World.  And we’re delighted to welcome back Dr Susan O’Doherty, writer, clinical psychologist and the author of Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman’s Guide to Unblocking Creativity.  Her popular advice column for writers, “The Doctor Is In”, appears every Friday on MJ Rose’s publishing blog, Buzz, Balls, & Hype.  Joining them are our regular stalwarts, Dave Bartram and Donna Ballman.

Links mentioned in the show…

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Peter continues his discussion about publicity for writers, today considering whether you should use the services of an external publicity agency.  In today’s Write Report, Donna reveals how age guidance for children is rearing its head again – some authors hate it, the general public doesn’t seem to know it’s there.  And celebrity books - did you know that most of them lose money?   In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, she covers Teen Read Week - but aren’t teens a closed book - at least as far as parents are concerned?

Got news for us - or a comment?  Then drop it into our Open Inbox: http://drop.io/litopia.

Links:The Write Report, I love Libraries

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Peter continues his discussion about publicity for writers, and how to get to your book’s publicity tipping point.  In today’s Write Report, Donna reveals how the internet may be destroying children’s brains – but is improving the grey matter of oldies.  Plus the latest news from the Frankfurt Book Fair.   In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, she gets into time management for creative people - oxymoron or path to success?

Got news for us - or a comment?  Then drop it into our Open Inbox: http://drop.io/litopia.

Links:The Write Report ,   Time Management for Creative People

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Peter starts a discussion today about the importance of publicity for writers.  In today’s Write Report, Donna tells us about a judge on the Man Booker Prize committee who has proposed that men should be banned from judging literary prizes, because they only choose titles that designed to enhance their own reputation for literary taste.  Sexist claptrap – or right on the money?  In Eve’s Salmagundi Club, she finds a novel use for a new program designed to stop you from e-mailing in haste - as long as you can add up!

Got news for us - or a comment?  Then drop it into our Open Inbox: http://drop.io/litopia.

Links:The Write Report Dr Sue on Buzz, Balls and Hype, GMail Goggles

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