A Shoutout for the Authors Guild

I'm always encouraging fellow writers to join the Authors Guild for the legal services and the invaluable Model Trade Book Contract and Commentary (we're talking super crunchy boilerplate, much more than is available on the webpage, and whether you work with an agent or not, yes, you can keep your wits about you when they start talking about subrights clauses that sound like Masonic incantation). But it does cost more than the price of a hamburger dinner for seven to join, and I was just thinking, gosh, they really should offer a member directory with a little more oomph, when lo, that very invitation to fill out my new page arrived in the inbox! 

It was easy to do and it is elegantly designed. If you join, your page would look this this:

Author's Guild Member Page for Yours Truly

My one criticism of the Author's Guild is that it's oriented toward those with traditional publishers, yet these days, increasing numbers of even the most impressively published writers are becoming "hybrid," that is, going to ye olde publishers for some works, and self-publishing others as Kindles, PODs, and more. No doubt, I am one of many authors, whether current or prospective members of the Authors Guild, who would warmly welcome more information and support for the latter.

That said-- so I hear from other members-- the Authors Guild author webpage services (check out Neal Gillen's and Sara Mansfield Taber's) and Backinprint.com program (see Sophy Burnham's The Art Crowd, for example) are very good.

> Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

It's Not Like Making a Peanut Butter-and-Jelly Sandwich 

But It's Not Rocket Science, Either or, 

How I Made My PODs (And You Can, Too)

Austin, Ho! Publishing University

Self-Publishing for All the Right Reasons

Traditional + Indie = Hybrid Publishing:

Three Authors Dish at Jane Friedman's Blog

A Conversation with Sara Mansfield Taber,

Author of Born Under an Assumed Name

Buy Books Locally

An open letter from Roy Blount, Jr., the President of the Author's Guild:

I've been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are hard. And local booksellers aren't known for vast reserves of capital, so a serious dip in sales can be devastating. Booksellers don't lose enough money, however, to receive congressional attention. A government bailout isn't in the cards.

We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas presents, but that's just for starters. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children's books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they'll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books. Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: "Got to move on, folks. Got some books to write now. You see...we're the Authors Guild."

Enjoy the holidays.

Roy Blount Jr.
President
The Authors Guild | 31 E 32nd St | Fl 7 | New York, NY 10016 | US

P.S. Want some suggestions? Madam Mayo's Top 10 Books Read in 2008 will be out this Monday. Meanwhile:
--> Madam Mayo's Top 10 Books Read in 2007
--> Madam Mayo's Top 10 Books Read in 2006

Yes, Virginia, The Black Square is Actually Insured for a Wheelbarrow o' Bucks

Finally had the chance to read Sophy Burnham's audacious and deliciously literary work of art world sociology, The Art Crowd. Interestingly, this was published over 30 years ago and, though a New York Times best-seller, did not come out in paperback until recently, via the Authors Guild's back-in-print program. (Well, if the publishing "business" is crazy, moreso the art business.) Click here to read my post about Burnham's other back-in-print book, The Landed Gentry.

P.S. Watch her YouTube video: Advice to Writers.

P.S.S. And about that black square? I have in mind the one by Kazimir Malevich. That was back when. Now it's Jeff Koons & co. Evil ha ha.