These Past Few Weeks in Books 7/2/12

Where does the time go??

Well, strike that, in the past few days I know exactly where it’s gone, to moments like this out hiking in Point Reyes with Tahereh Mafi, Tana Gandhi and Randa Gill:

I’ve been enjoying being done-done with Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp, so I may not have had my eye on the Internet quite as closely the last two weeks. Besides, as you can tell from the chilly fog in the above photo, it’s summer!!

But here are some books and publishing links for your linky enjoyment.

First, thanks so much to everyone for all the great responses to the recent post on Jonathan Franzen, which dealt in part with our culture of distraction. As it happens, after I wrote that post but before I published it, I came across an awesome post by Mathew Ingram on the Internet and distraction, which has an optimistic take that I enjoyed.

Also, I was interviewed recently on author Matt Myklusch’s podcast, in which we talk about my somewhat unique path to publication (which actually ended up being somewhat conventional), and social media for authors.

The exponential growth of e-books may have slowed in the past year, but another milestone was nevertheless reached recently. E-book revenue topped hardcover in the first quarter of 2012. Pretty amazing.

Goodreads put together a pretty cool blog post on the anatomy of book discovery, which looks at such things as the impact of giveaways on ratings and how much timing matters when doing said giveaways. Science!!

Want to know how the professionals tell stories? io9 recently featured the 22 rules of storytelling according to Pixar. Really good stuff.

Ever wonder how authors and agents choose publishers when they have multiple offers on the table? Agent Rachelle Gardner peels back the curtain.

My former client and soon-to-be-published author Natalie Whipple has some extremely good advice about not being too attached to your first idea for a story. Too often authors think their first idea is how the story is supposed to go, but in reality you should allow yourself to think of alternatives and be flexible.

Speaking of writing advice, you hear so much about how you have to grab an agent’s attention, and it’s true, but as agent Kristin Nelson points out, that doesn’t mean you have to have an action-packed opening.

Two long-time friends of the blog, Anne R. Allen and Pay It Forward author Catherine Ryan Hyde just released an e-book called How to Be a Writer in the E-Age… And Keep Your E-Sanity!, and it’s priced at $2.99 for a limited time. Check it out!

And agent Jenny Bent dispels a perennial myth that can’t be dispelled enough: Publishing really is not about who you know.

This week in the forums, please don’t forget about the forums! We have places where you can share your synopsis, your query, excerpts, you can ask me questions, and much more. It’s easy to join and we’d love to have you!

And finally, long-time friend of the blog Brian Wood, author of Dreamworld, recently released an extremely cool book trailer that shows how his cover artist created the cover for his second novel, Reality. Pretty awesome:

Have a great week!