Notable:

Big Thank You to Ryan Young at Red Moon Photography for my cover photo. The common wisdom from magazines is "if you want attention, you need a dog, a baby, or a pretty girl on the front." I went with pretty girl. If you need a dog or baby, or you have another concept, Ryan does custom work.

This site is worth a visit for the animal photos alone, but scroll a little deeper and you'll find elegant solutions for complex work. Textbook publishers, take note: Mark Ryan.

From the TED video: “Much is to be gained by eBooks: ease, convenience, portability. But something is definitely lost: tradition, a sensual experience, the comfort of thingy-ness — a little bit of humanity.” Chip Kidd: Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is.

She couldn't get a publisher interested, so she did it herself. 1.5 million copies later, she gets a contract with St. Martin's Press for $2 Million. Jeff Rivera interviews Amanda Hocking.

The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle (E.T.: The Extraterrestrial). It's the story of a bear named Hal Jam who finds a manuscript and pretends to be the author. Yes, a bear. He moves to New York, and becomes a celebrity. Required reading for anyone in publishing. See also Ron Hogan's interview with William Kotzwinkle.

Venture Press will help you write and publish a book. For $100,000.

Don't Write What You Know: Harvard instructor Bret Johnston emphasizes emotion over facts in fiction.

Lloyd Shepherd vs the Pirates: An author confronts the people stealing his work.

Interesting TED Talk by Andrew Stanton (Toy Story, Wall-e):
The Clues to a Great Story.

Standing Links: