John Sargent, Macmillan CEO, Kicks A$$!

You can’t play the game scared – Al Kaline

I now have a new hero.  That’s right!

John Sargent, Macmillan CEO, and now, world renowned Amazon agitator.

There have been a lot of op-ed articles and posts written about the battle between Macmillan and Amazon concerning e-books, pricing, and what not.  Macmillan saying that they wanted a new revenue structure when it came to selling ebooks on kindle…Amazon pulling the buy button on all Macmillan products like the kid who gets mad and takes his ball home from the kickball game.

I don’t want to talk about that.  Everyone has their views on how Amazon is greedy, how publishers are greedy, how customers are greedy for wanting everything for free, hells…the whole world is greedy.

Let’s face it, everyone wants to get everyone else’s money.  There are no altruistic companies.  As soon as we all realize this the better.

No, what I want to talk about is the cajones that John Sargent must have had walking into Amazon and dictating new terms. On a business level, to go to arguably your biggest account in a down economy and say that the gameboard is changing takes guts.  To watch as your biggest account pulls your product line from sale takes nerves of steel.  To hold fast believing that you are doing right for your organization is on another level altogether.

Sticking to your guns can either be seen as stubborn and arrogant or smart and courageous. It depends on what side of the aisle you are on.  Perhaps in this case there was a potpourri of all four.

Amazon finally capitulated, and Macmillan product is back on sale (or are they?  hmmm…some are, some aren’t…hells, I don’t know).  Hachette has reported that they are moving to the same terms as Macmillan.  More will pile on I am sure.  It appears that publishers still have some leverage…for the longest time it seemed that they had none.

Right now I can imagine two scenarios:

1.) John Sargent is sitting at his desk in a plush high rise sighing a big sigh of relief.  “Phew…I can’t believe I did that.”

Or

2.) John Sargent is sitting at this desk in what appears to be the bat cave repeating to himself “I am the ultimate bad ass…I am the ultimate bad ass…”

In either situation, somewhere in the remote regions of Seattle right now, Jeff Bezos has a Sargent voodoo doll with a billion pins in it.

"hahaha....wait...What did you just say?"

2010
02/05
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
3 comments

Thoughts on Criticism Part 1

a blabbering of some sort…reserving the right to do it again

We live in a critiquing culture, and in the words of St. Paul, I am the chief of sinners in regards to this. I am one of those “yes, but” people. Do you like this? “Yes, but…” always seems to slip out of my mouth. It seems almost genetic. Hardwired. Its annoying as hell, just ask my wife.

I look at book reviews on Amazon and it seems like a lot of people use the critique as a method for venting some latent childhood issues. Some of them are down right mean. “This book violated all the things I hold decent in the world…the author should be castrated and beaten to death with his own private parts.” And that was on a children’s book no less.

Criticism is our God-given right to lash out. It elevates people above another, makes them feel in control, powerful. It makes us feel better when we can bash something/somebody else.

In Poets as true Genius is but rare,
True Taste as seldom is the Critick’s Share
-Alexander Pope

I’ve often thought that the ranting and raving souls on all these websites should be required to show something of their own creation in return, you know, to allow the person they are bashing the opportunity to bash back. How much of us would survive such public criticism of our daily lives and work? What if we had to leave a video of OUR kids on youtube when we write a comment like “That kid is ugly!” underneath the vid of some baby puking baby food all over themselves.

I think criticism often shows more of the speakers faults than the object of their scorn. Their shortcomings, their lack of confidence. I love book reviews that are misspelled throughout, in which the person is castigating the author for poor use of grammar.

Criticism is the chief virtue of a cynic’s heart.

I for one am going to try and change my behavior. I want to be one of those people who are optimistic and see the glass as half full, who can appreciate things for what they are, not for what they lack. (My wife is laughing her arse off right now if she is reading this).

Yes, but seriously…that is my goal.

2010
02/04
CATEGORY
books
writing
7 comments

Changing It Up

We all have our favorite writers, and we usually like them because we rely on them to be consistent. Suspense writers deliver suspense, horror writers give us the creeps, etc. But occasionally those writers throw out an unexpected curveball and show off a bit of their different personalities.

I just finished two books that did just that.

As stated before many times on this blog, I am a Cormac McCarthy fan. I just got done with Cities of the Plain. I jumped to the third book in the Border Trilogy after reading the first chapter in the bookstore. I was laughing my guts out. McCarthy, known for his violent and sparse writing, created a scene that is down right hilarious. Its vulgar and totally not p.c….I highly recommend picking it up at the store and reading the first chapter. There is also a story in there about driving through the desert at night running over rabbits. I almost peed my pants.

Richard Matheson’s Earthbound was the second one. Matheson is good for the quick, tv style thriller. My wife picked this one out because she knows I am a fan, and she thought it would be fun to read together. The subtitle is “An Erotic Ghost Story”, and ohhh man…I was not expecting this from Matheson. Uhhh, I’ll just leave it at that.

So have you ever been surprised at an author “Changing It Up”?

2010
01/29
CATEGORY
books
Write comment

Death of a Writer

Robert B. Parker died this week from an apparent heart attack:

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2010/01/20/robert-b-parker-spenser-novel/

What is doubly heart-breaking (triply, quad…you get the idea) is that all the characters that he developed, in a sense, pass away with him.

I was a new fan of Parker’s, and came about his work through his westerns. Virgil Cole and Everitt Hitch are some of my favorite characters of the past year. I have been looking forward to the next installment in the series due out this spring. These two characters are in a morbid sense, dead too.

As readers we really don’t get a sense of who an author is. But the characters they create become an intimate part of our lives.

So Godspeed to you Mr. Parker. But also, Godspeed to you Virgil and Everitt. I will miss you.

2010
01/21
CATEGORY
books
writing
2 comments

Help! The Pain of Revising…Methods

I am struggling with the process of revising my manuscript with the suggestions from my agent in regards to character development. I think the reason is is that I have read this story so many times it feels that I can’t think of it in any other way than what I have down on paper already.

In this rewrite, I can see some weak metaphors and phrasing that can be strengthened, but what about character development? Oy vey this is hard. Hmmm. I have already tried a couple methods and none of them seem to be clicking.

The critique was that some characters seem to be just filler. That they are not developed enough even though they are in the storyline…they are written as if to give the other characters dialogue points or action.

Anybody have any methods they care to share here?

HELP!

2010
01/20
CATEGORY
writing
7 comments

NYC Literati

I’m in NYC today and am going to have dinner with “my agent”. This is what its all about right? haha….fun fun fun

2010
01/18
CATEGORY
writing
1 comment

Times Sure Have Changed

I was cruising on I-40 yesterday to the great city of Amarillo and I had my iPod set on shuffle.  The song “More Than A Feeling” came on by Boston which I even forgot was on there.

I first heard this song when I was around 9 years old.  It came on the radio that I had set up in my room and I dug the guitar riff in it.  I didn’t catch the name of the song then, but I grabbed a blank Memorex (remember those?), popped it into the cassette deck, and waited fervently for it to come back on and record it.  This was 1985.

I had no idea at that time that the song was already old.  It came out in 1976.  I thought it was new, but hey, I was 9 years old.  And little did I know that radio stations don’t put 10 year old songs on heavy rotation.  It came on by a fluke.

So I sat in my room from the time I got home from school to the time I went to bed for a week, waiting for that d__n song to come back on the radio.  And I waited.  And waited.

A whole week.  Who would do that now?

Eventually I gave up.  Later on, I heard that song again and said to my brother “I love that song!”  He then informed me he had the tape in his room.  Naturally, he wouldn’t let me listen to it.

Thinking back on this memory, it is amazing how things have changed.  We now have instant access to almost everything.  30 seconds and 99 cents will get you any song you want. No more persevering to get those things we really must have.

Now, would any of us sit vigilantly for a week or more waiting for anything?

2010
01/13
CATEGORY
Growing Up
7 comments

Legos Are Awesome

Me and the family are spending a month in Florida right now (I’m working on remote) and so we decided to take the boys to downtown Disney tonight. We took them into the Lego store that they had there and they picked out their first small bucket of Legos.

I forgot how awesome Legos are!

I could not wait to get back to the house and bust those things open. So we have been sitting here for awhile while we build this-and-that.

IF you need any reason to have kids, use it as a legitimate excuse to play with toys again. A thirty something year old man playing with blocks by himself is usually not accepted in our current, jaded culture.

2010
01/04
CATEGORY
Growing Up
5 comments

New Year’s Resolution 2010

Like everyone else, I have been trying to think of different New Year’s resolutions that I can fail at by mid-February. 2009 was actually pretty good, so hopefully I can get a little more out of ‘10.

1. Drink more water: I switched to diet pop last March, and since then, all other variables remaining constant, I have lost 17 pounds. I dropped from 187 to 170. That means I was drinking a WHOLE LOT of Mt. Dew. I think adding a few more ounces of water to the diet will only help me out.

2. Exercise: I don’t have any plan for this. I just need to do something. Anything. Any type of movement will be an improvement.

3. Write another novel: I accomplished the first novel in ‘09, now have an agent, and am hoping that it will get sold this year. Now I need to follow that up with a second tale that hopefully meets with the same excitement.

4. Be a better husband: I’ve been slacking in this department a bit. We are closing in on the decade mark, and I think I have forgotten that my wife still likes to get flowers and compliments.

5. Read: I want to read 50 books this year. A low number by some people’s reading pace, but a goal which is about 1 a week.

What are some of your resolutions?

2010
01/01
CATEGORY
Random
3 comments

Ever Want To Do This To Your Manuscript?

2009
12/21
CATEGORY
writing
3 comments

Literary Agent
Adrienne Ingrum
212.283.6466
300 West 145th Street, 6W
NY, NY 10039