Smart Things

J Cheney, saying smart things about some of the downsides of the writing life, including, not successful enough guilt and the lack of coworkers to complain to. (snerched from Michael Damian Thomas)

Laura Anne Gilman talking about ways to trash your career. or, tell your editor if there's a problem. Really. Now, before it's too late.

Jim Hines' survey on first professional book sales led Meagan Crewe to post about her earlier survey on the myth of publishing connections. Very interesting data.

On Justine Larbalestier's blog a guest post by Varian Johnson on Battling Time Suck.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden has a great post up at Making Light about the latest frivolous lawsuit aimed at prying money out of Rowling. There's a lot of smart things in the post and thread about copyright and the difference between idea and execution. Ideas are cheap and plentiful.

Agent Kristin Nelson on the sheer ridiculousness of publishers holding a reserve against returns on ebooks.

Damian Kulash op-ed at the NYT discussing the need for music companies despite the fact that they do really boneheaded things from time to time, with an example of that very boneheadedness in relation to you-tube, videos, and embedding. Interesting lessons for publishing here.