Paperback Writer is a blog by multi-pseudonymous writer S.L. Viehl that I’ve missed until now which suddenly (for obvious reasons, now that I have one book in paperback and another at the publisher’s) has great resonance with me.
Particularly these two posts, the Devil’s Publishing Dictionary parts one and two.
Many funny entries. Among my favorites:
Advance – a sum paid to the author’s agent after contract signing, as soon as the editor puts in a payment request to accounting, which is misplaced for three weeks to three months, re-requested, routed to senior editor for approval, misplaced again or completely forgotten until agent’s fourth inquiry. The author may or may not see 30% of the agreed-upon advance, less that 15% owed to the agent, within a year of signing, upon publication of the contracted work, or when the author starves to death while living under a bridge, whichever comes first.
and
Genre – engaging fiction that sells well; anything a literary author spits on or an academic author calls vulgar.
(Via Science Fiction Book Club.)
