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It is a strange thing, publishing. On one hand, you have to make money. On the other, you have to satisfy a fickle group known as “readers”. Not surprisingly, these two goals are not always harmonious. Then there are the authors, caught in the middle. That’s got to be a rough position.

There is a trend, in genre fiction, toward series, connected novels, and trilogies that stretch into four, five, or more books. Readers love the familiarity of continuing characters, watching them evolve and develop throughout the course of multiple books. Of course, there are series that go on far too long (Stephanie Plum, anyone?) or books that don’t satisfy, either due to the need to hit a slot on the publishing schedule or lack of oomph on the part of the story (see: Stephenie Meyer, Breaking Dawn).
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Today’s links of interest:

• Reading A Novel Can Help Obese Children To Lose Weight
  If only it worked for grown-ups, too.
• Top novelist feels pressure to ‘dumb down’
  If this is true, it’s disturbing. Why do smart women writers have to be pigeon-holed? Can’t the readers decide for themselves?
• Google’s Schmidt Says Internet ‘Cesspool’ Needs Brands
  Agreed.

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We bring you this lovely quote from Richard Nash of Soft Skull Press. He addresses a topic near and dear to our hearts:

I was relieved to learn I wasn’t crazy, that the unorthodox cover worked, but once that relief wore off, I started to realize that far more reader interactions like that are necessary, that the conversation about books that goes on in our culture now, gorgeously exemplified by Jeff’s house here, needs also to be going on much, much more in the whole apparatus that surrounds the words, houses the words, frames the words, makes it more or less likely you’ll read the words. I’m sure most folks don’t want to see inside the sausage factory, but I’m betting there are far far more than we’re currently admitting to the sausage factory, and if we expect y’all to eat our damn sausages, we’re going to have to spend more time with you guys figuring out how best to make them.

• “The Customer Is Always Wrong” - Richard Nash (blogging at Jeff VanderMeer’s place)

• From Print to E, Some Items To Consider
  September 29th, 2008 · 10 Comments

  Except for the annoying crashes that require hard restarts (which require the acquisition of a paper clip), I’m pretty happy with the Kindle reading experience. It’s not a device that will light the world on fire, nor is it the “iPod of ereaders” (stop with the dumbness, people). It’s a good gateway device, however.
  The next [...]

• Reading Pynchon on a Kindle
  September 24th, 2008 · 14 Comments

  Not long ago I was lamenting the fact that it was literally impossible to read Thomas Pynchon on a Kindle. It’s not because the Kindle isn’t suited to reading long and complex novels, but rather the fact that there are no Pynchon novels to be found in the Kindle store.
  In fact, there are no [...]

• It’s Only The End of Rose-Colored Glasses
  September 17th, 2008 · 41 Comments

  If you examine it on the whole, the publishing industry is an unsustainable mess. Think about it: bad economic theory, out-of-touch decision making, Peter paying Paul or the piper or someone, deregulated approach to the market. Hmm, sounds like another entity we know, doesn’t it?

  The future of publishing is not about technology or widgets [...]

• Globe Pequot and Amazon: Exclusive Is Another Word For Alienating Readers
  September 10th, 2008 · 8 Comments

  So I’d like to talk about disenfranchisement of readers. It’s happened twice in this political season, and I think we need to talk openly about it before it becomes a serious trend. You all remember that little issue with Chelsea Green and the decision to bypass traditional bookstores in order to make a POD splash [...]

• Memo from the Booksquare Mail Room
  September 5th, 2008 · 6 Comments

  [BS: For those who don't know, we have an intern at BS. She nearly quit (due to the situation noted in paragraph two below), so we had a "negotiation". She will be allowed, under limited circumstances, to write for this site. She will also take over daily BS cat maintenance responsibilities. You know what that [...]

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