Dana King's Blog – November 2009 Archive (5)

Good News in Publishing

The voices of doom make it too easy to overlook the positive things that are happening in writing and publishing today that can help all authors, as this article shows.

Added by Dana King on November 24, 2009 at 4:28am — 4 Comments

And They Don't Even Offer a Reach-Around

(Also posted at One Bite at a Time.)

There’s been a lot of outrage over Harlequin’s recent announcement to launch their own self-publishing branch, Harlequin Horizons. (Here, here, and… Continue

Added by Dana King on November 21, 2009 at 6:25am — 3 Comments

(Also posted at One Bite at a Time.)

This may be a sore subject, as I know a lot of folks who have produced trailers for their books, but this article in Slate got me to wondering about the key question regarding trailers:

Does anyone know if they work?

For me, personally, no. I can't imagine buying a book based on a video trailer. Part of… Continue

Added by Dana King on November 20, 2009 at 7:08am — 8 Comments

Why I Don't Watch TV Cop Shows

(Also posted at One Bite at a Time.)

I haven’t watched a TV cop show since The Wire went off the air, except for a random viewing of Numb3rs when The Sole Heir is visiting. This excerpt from James Lee Burke’s In the Moon of Red Ponies explains why better than I could.

Most television cop shows make use of the following story line: A likeable individual is raped or assaulted, or a hardworking… Continue

Added by Dana King on November 12, 2009 at 2:44am — 3 Comments

October Reads

(Also posted on One Bite at a Time.)

Recommended Reads from October, in the order I read them:

The Friends of Eddie Coyle, George V. Higgins – A seminal book. Few crime fiction writers since have been unaffected by Higgins’s work, and this is the book that got him noticed. Should be on a shelf with Chandler, Hammett, et al for crime fiction writers, and anyone else interested in how the gerne has… Continue

Added by Dana King on November 3, 2009 at 6:43am — 3 Comments