My colleague Amy Schell recently shared Seth Godin's interview with the people over at Harper Studio. A couple wonderful snippets:

If everything is free, how is anyone going to make any money?
First, the market and the internet don't care if you make money. That's important to say. You have no right to make money from every development in media, and the humility that comes from approaching the market that way matters. It's not "how can the market make me money" it's "how can I do things for this market." Because generally, when you do something for an audience, they repay you.

What's the most important lesson the book publishing industry can learn from the music industry?
The market doesn't care a whit about maintaining your industry. … you can decide to hassle your readers (oh, I mean your customers) and you can decide that a book on a Kindle SHOULD cost $15 because it replaces a $15 book, and if you do, we (the readers) will just walk away. Or, you could say, "if books on the Kindle were $1, perhaps we could create a vast audience of people who buy books like candy, all the time, and read more and don't pirate stuff cause it's convenient and cheap..."

When I first joined the Writer's Digest community in 2001, I had the great pleasure of having Jessica Strawser as a colleague on Writer's Digest magazine. Our paths diverged after a couple years, but now we're working together once again on this publication that brings out our most heartfelt enthusiasm and creativity.

During her first turn at Writer's Digest, Jessica contributed and edited monthly magazine columns about writing successes, critiques, and careers, and also served as executive editor of multiple special issues (such as the ever-popular Writer's Yearbook). Since her leave from the magazine, she's had experience in marketing and public relations, online writing and editing, and book publishing, most recently as managing editor for North Light Books.

Fans of Writer's Digest magazine, as well as future fans, have much to look forward to. Jessica has a passion and expertise for the writing community that's accompanied by a fresh perspective and a curiosity essential for our continuing mission to be the most informative and trusted source for writers.

Please join me in welcoming Jessica: a fellow writer and a fellow editor (and, it must be said, fellow book lover).

I recently stumbled upon 101 Reasons to Stop Writing while surfing the writing blogosphere. I love it.

This past weekend, I spoke about the art of query letters at the Northwest Ohio Writers Conference. Download my query letter handout as a PDF: NovelQuery.pdf (80.05 KB)

At Writer’s Digest Books, we’re in the process of updating our popular title Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript and are looking for insight from agents/editors on how the industry is changing. Here are a few things we’re interested in knowing.

1. How have queries and submissions changed for you in recent years? Do you request different information? Do you accept email queries? If so, do you prefer electronic or paper queries? How important is format and formality in electronic communication?
2. What are your pet peeves and turnoffs?
3. What are your do's and don'ts for writers?
4. Have you changed how you select authors? How many of your authors are found through queries, and how many through other means? Do you want to hear about an author's platform?
5. What recent changes in your market do you want writers to know about?

Writers are also welcome to comment and offer tips.

Click here to e-mail me directly!

There's a blog offering the best explanation ever of how your book gets sold into bookstore chains, by the marketing manager at John Wiley & Sons. Here's a brief snippet:

But bookstores are businesses, not public conveniences. No store has the responsibility to carry every book published -- although, to be honest, that's a straw-man argument, since no one is asking for that. (They're just wishing that their books, the books they like, and the books by their friends be spared the chopping block.) I market books for a living, so I can tell you an unpleasant truth: the order for any book, from any account, starts at zero. The publisher's sales rep walks in the door with tipsheets and covers, past sales figures and promotional plans, to convince that bookseller's buyer to buy that book. In many categories -- SFF is still one of them -- the chain buyers say "yes" the overwhelming majority of the time. But not all the time. Sometimes, that buyer is not convinced, and the order stays at zero.