Notes from underfoot

Blogger continues to add goodies as it competes with WordPress, with the addition of new "share icons" that appear at the end of each post. You can now easily email, Twitter or Facebook a blog post if it strikes your fancy. And I hope it does.

While I was in Europa, there was a big kerfuffle at The Paris Review (which has never accepted or denied any of my work and never will) with the incoming editors deciding not to publish any of the work previously accepted by the outgoing editors. While I understand the need for a fresh start, this is just more tacky, po'biz shit. With literary magazines struggling to survive, this move is sure to send subscriptions plummeting. Daniel Nester has done a seven part series on the mess, and if you want read all about it start with his first post at this link.

eBooks are suddenly getting more ink, especially after The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo topped 1 million eBook sales for the Kindle. Read the story at this link. There's also a raging debate (still) on how much an eBook should cost. Some believe books by new authors should be as low as $1.99 or $2.99 (hell to the no!), while publishers think $12.99 is a happy medium. The eBook version of Conquering Venus sells for $5.99 on Amazon, which means I'm seeing pennies in royalties.

I'm a big proponent of Kindle, Nook, iPad or whatever type of eReader you might have. Some publishers want to charge full price for the eBook, which is just stupid, but I do hope some price is decided upon by all the stakeholders so that the writers and publishers both win.

One last Conquering Venus note: I just updated the Venus blog with a post about my visit to Rue Rampon in Paris and posted some more pictures. Check it out here. I can't believe the novel has been out for a year!