Trends How to Keep a Manuscript Under Wraps? By Neal on Jan. 30, 2008 - 1:54 PM Here’s an interesting story that was told me last night: Apparently, two A-list literary agents, who happen to share the same initials, both hit upon the same strategy to make sure the book they were pitching didn’t sl ...
Publishing “Is This Dylan Or Is This Donovan?” By Neal on Jan. 30, 2008 - 11:01 AM At one point during my conversation with Mark Stevens, he mentioned one of his favorite scenes from Don’t Look Back, the D.A. Pennebaker documentary about Bob Dylan. It’s a moment when Donovan comes into the room, pick ...
Authors “Ask for Faith, Then Live Up to It” By Neal on Jan. 30, 2008 - 11:00 AM “Great salespeople, whatever their actual careers, have to position themselves as an expert and a friend,” Mark Stevens explained as we sat in the lobby of a hotel off Times Square last week, chatting about his latest ...
Events Scene @ Girls in Trucks Pre-Pub Party By Neal on Jan. 30, 2008 - 10:00 AM Heather Fain, director of publicity at Little, Brown, introduces Katie Crouch to the crowd assembled for the prepublication party thrown for Crouch’s debut novel, Girls in Trucks, which comes out in April. The back room at S ...
Digital Coming Soon: Dan Menaker’s Webisodic Literary Discourse By Neal on Jan. 30, 2008 - 9:02 AM I’m all for “passionate conversations about books,” which is what the home page for Daniel Menaker‘s online chat show promises, so I’ll definitely be curious to see whether what Motoko Rich describes ...
Reviews Resolving That Women Authors in the Times Magazine Question By Neal on Jan. 30, 2008 - 9:00 AM On the question of when the last time the New York Times Magazine deigned to publish a feature-length article about a woman novelist, a GalleyCat reader with a long memory cites Alex Witchel‘s profile of Gigi Levangie Grazer ...
Reviews One Last Point About Charles Bock By Neal on Jan. 30, 2008 - 9:00 AM As I mentioned yesterday, from the moment that profile of Charles Bock appeared in Sunday’ New York Times Magazine, some of you were asking me how Bock managed to get so much attention—but some of you were particularly ...
Authors Sheila McClear Tells Some About Her Memoir By Neal on Jan. 30, 2008 - 8:04 AM So yesterday afternoon I posted a blind item about a Gawker editor’s book proposal, figuring that I’d have time after keeping my various appointments to call her up, get an actual confirmation, and write something more ...
Authors Coming Soon: An Interview With Mark Stevens By Neal on Jan. 29, 2008 - 1:12 PM I’m still sifting through all my notes, but in the meantime, here’s a ninety-second clip from my conversation with Mark Stevens, where he explains how he came to write his latest book, God Is A Salesman.
Authors I’m Pretty Sure It’s Not a Blog-to-Book Deal By Neal on Jan. 29, 2008 - 1:11 PM I’m told that a Gawker editor is currently shopping a memoir about life before blogging—the details are sketchy at this time, but what little I’ve heard about the query making the rounds is that the career discus ...