ANDY ROSS's Blog
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Jan.14.2011
When I became a literary agent three years ago, I simply wasn't ready for the flood of publisher rejection letters flowing into my office in response to my submissions. It felt a little like my social life in high school. I can only imagine the shame and humiliation that my clients must experience...
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Jun.14.2010
An interesting dispute has broken out between The Authors Guild and John Wiley over what is the best way to calculate royalties. The dispute may seem a little arcane but it is interesting in that the issues bring to light fundamental questions of how best to structure royalty rates that are in the...
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May.12.2010
Linda Watanabe McFerrin is an author and teacher of creative writing. Her new novel, Dead Love , is being published this Fall by Stone Bridge Press . Dead Love is an incredible Zombie story that takes place in Tokyo, Haiti, Malaysia, and Netherlands. For those of you who have, how shall we say...
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Apr.25.2010
I've been thinking a lot about beginnings, first lines in literature. Which ones are satisfying and what makes them so? And others, admired by all, that still just leave me cold. My friend Susan and I walk around Lake Merritt every day and talk about this. Susan is writing a novel, and we are...
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Apr.07.2010
I've been getting lots of interest about this witty film clip. Hitler weighs in on the great ebook debate. Here is the link
http://andyrossagency.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/hitler-rants-on-book-publishing/
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Apr.01.2010
Just in. News from Publishers Weekly. Amazon.com, the Earth's largest bookstore, has just gotten a little smaller. Starting today all new titles from Penguin Books will not be available on Kindle editons from Amazon. They will be available from other e-book distributors. Since Amazon currently...
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Mar.23.2010
Publishers Weekly just came out with its list of the 2009 best-sellers.
For all of you readers out there who thought that Going Rogue by Sarah Palin was a joke, the joke is on you. Sarah's publisher, HarperCollins is laughing all the way to the bank. And so is Sarah. Yes. Going Rogue was the #1...
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Mar.21.2010
Ask the Agent has been covering the developing story of the changing models for selling e-books and the struggle for market share between Amazon and Apple.
An article appeared in the New York Times on March 17 that adds a new and troubling wrinkle to the story.
90% of the retail sale of e-books...
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Mar.09.2010
This has been getting my goat for 10 years.
According to Publisher's Weekly today, Amazon. com dropped all their Colorado "Associates" because the state passed legislation requiring internet retailers to collect local sales tax.
The Amazon "Associates" program is the very...
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Feb.25.2010
Laurie McLean is a literary agent specializing in genre fiction. That is a term of art for such categories as: romance, thrillers, mysteries, fantasy, horror, westerns, science fiction, etc.. Laurie has been a literary agent for 5 years and works at the Larsen Pomada Agency in San Francisco. The...
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Feb.13.2010
In a previous blog entry, I took on the challenge of deconstructing publisher rejection letters. I received a considerable number of positive comments from readers. Most of them were French intellectuals writing post-modern literary theory. One expressed his admiration by sending me a carton of...
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Feb.06.2010
Well, it looks like as of yesterday, Amazon has restored the "buy" buttons for books published by Macmillan. During the past week, Macmillan has been negotiating terms with Amazon. Apparently they have reached an agreement. We don't know the details. Two days ago, Macmillan CEO John...
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Feb.04.2010
The "buy" buttons on Amazon.com for Macmillan authors have still not been restored. It has been 7 days.
In 1989, Barnes and Noble pulled all the books by Salman Rushdie from their shelves nationwide. People were not happy. Authors set up picket lines at BN stores. At least then Barnes...
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Feb.02.2010
The Authors Guild, the largest advocacy organization for authors in America, weighed in on the Amazon-MacMillan affair yesterday. Their position is, I believe, a fair and balanced position on the interests of authors as it relates to the controversy. In a rare show of solidarity, Author's Guild has...
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Feb.01.2010
Yesterday we posted a blog on the week-end brouhaha of Amazon pulling the "buy button" plug on all titles from Macmillan Publishing.
Things are beginning to sort themselves out. Amazon pretty much admitted that they were capitulating because Macmillan had a "monopoly" on their...
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About ANDY
I am a literary agent working out of Oakland, California. Prior to becoming an agent, I was the owner of Cody's Books for 30 years. My agency web site is: www.andyrossagency.com.
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