Yellow Bike Press

10/07/2023

Dan Wood, of Draft2Digital, discussing audiobooks on a recent episode of the Self Publishing Show podcast:

“It’s interesting to me how many authors, once they got into audio, change the way they write, because they suddenly realize we just say things differently. Dialogue happens differently. Once you hear it out loud, you’re like, oh, I should really change that, that’s like a weird sentence structure. I think it makes the writing better in most cases. We are wired for hundreds of thousands of years for oral storytelling. I love that audio is becoming as widespread as it is.”

I love it, too. These days, although my reading list is spread across all formats, for accessibility reasons, audiobooks dominate. And a significant portion of my own writing process now involves listening to my laptop (c/o “Tessa,” the South African voice) read back what I wrote the day before and running over to the standing desk to revise it.

Even with that clunky technology, the results can be revealing. As a lifelong musician, I’ve got a good inner ear—but you never really know how a sentence sounds until you hear it in the air.

09/13/2023

Huge, heartfelt, and only slightly late congratulations to my friend Patty Lin for the publication of her fantastic and engaging debut, End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood. It’s the story of her successful television writing career—you’ve probably seen something she’s created—which she eventually ended on her own terms. (I don’t think I’m giving away any spoilers when I say that television production can be toxic.)

Indeed, television production sounds not entirely different from writing genre fiction for a traditional publisher, at least in terms of the commercial pressures and the tendency toward “writing by committee.” So, this will be an instructive read for anyone with a manuscript on submission. But it’s much more than a behind-the-scenes memoir for those interested in a professional life in the arts. The compelling drama could make for its own TV series! I hope a reformed industry can coax Patty out of retirement if that ever happens.

Anyway, bravo!

A candid and revealing look at life in television, Hollywood, and work in the writer's room, from an insider who wrote for some of the most popular television shows in history: Friends, Desperate Housewives, and Breaking Bad.

04/03/2022

Interesting. (And frustrating.)

A petition launched on change.org has been made to tackle Amazon's policy of allowing users to return books no matter how much they've read.

03/22/2022

I recently discovered a new-to-me podcast:  Print Run , hosted by Minnesota-based literary agents Laura Zats and Erik Hane, founders of Headwater Literary Management . While the focus is mostly on trade publishing, the conversations are relevant to anyone interested in making good books

08/10/2021

I’m a slow reader. Grad school felt like drowning, much of the time. In fact, grad school helped me develop an eye for “sizing up” a text without processing its every word. I only knew I could do that because somehow, despite not getting through all of the assigned books, I held my own in classroom conversations, and eventually earned a PhD.

Grad school also taught me that I’m a private reader. Friends invited me to coffeeshops to read together. I tried, but always got distracted by my cappucino, by the music, by the people passing on the street. I’ve had an easier time reading among strangers—I’ve read some great books on cross-country plane rides—but ultimately I read best when I’m alone. When it’s quiet. Late at night or early in the morning.

I have other literary idiosyncrasies. I pace when I read, just as I pace when I write. (I’m pacing right now. It helps me think.) When I can’t pace, I fidget. I rub my head a lot. When I was a kid, I used to read lying on the back floor of the car—feeling the road vibrating through the chassis. That brought the words to life somehow.

Maybe these words are coming to life for you. Maybe they aren’t. Talking about reading is like talking about consciousness—we can follow someone’s testimony about it, and track whatever external markers are there for the tracking. But our experiences are ultimately unknowable to one another. Sure, neuroscientists can watch which areas of the brain light up when people open a book. And sure, when I edit, and when I write, I can (and I do) make an educated guess about an “ideal reader.” Talk about a term of art! That one drives trade publishing—which, like most commercial enterprises, sometimes requires that mysteries be rationalized.

The truth is that I don’t know any ideal readers. And if they exist, I wouldn’t know how to describe what reading is for them. If you’re a writer, editor, or publisher, that might seem terrifying at first. But I promise you that it is actually empowering.

07/14/2021

We’re watching the Delta variant situation, of course, but we’re very much looking forward to this event. Street fair season was always a highlight of my time at Inkwater. It’s nice to see Multnomah Days return this year, even in an altered format. (No parade, alas.) If you’re in the SW PDX neighborhood on August 21, be sure to visit our booth and say “hello”!

06/29/2021

I’ve never been a HUGE Tolkein fan, but it was fun today to meet with an author who lives near a street called Rivendell.

06/21/2021

Worth your time, and your dime. Bookshop.org is the anti-Amazon, in a way.

06/18/2021

I loved reading Suzy Vitello's Faultland this week, in a headlong rush befitting its future-disaster setting. The best kind of PDX novel—quirky, complex, full of character—but also a fascinating study of how pain and healing can reverberate organically in people and places. Recommended!

06/13/2021

Woah, cool! A Lego typewriter. For the budding novelist? (Ink not included.)

06/01/2021

Brand-new from Polity Press, this looks amazing. I just hope the digital revolution in publishing isn’t as violent as the title and cover imply!

05/26/2021

So honored to be working on another book of anecdotes, observations, wisdom snippets, and (of course) drawings and paintings by local artist Ted Katz. He's the real deal, a former East Coaster like me, and further proof that Portland is well-stocked with shy geniuses. Coming soon!

05/25/2021

An oldie-but-goodie! Came up in FB memories today. Happy rainy Tuesday!

05/23/2021

05/23/2021

05/22/2021

Thank you, Joanna Penn, for sharing this incisive, cogent post from literary agent Kristin Nelson, on dramatic recent developments within the world of big publishing (what Microcosm’s Joe Biel wryly calls the “literary industrial complex”).

Specifically: Newscorp’s planned purchase of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, adding the textbook giant to a portfolio that already includes HarperCollins/Harlequin, and coming on the heels of last fall’s announcement that Penguin Random House intends to purchase Simon & Schuster.

For those of us on the fringes of the publishing ecosystem, it’s overwhelming, alarming, and hard to follow. But I think it’s also important not to be intimidated or driven to despair for the future of books.

Yes, merger mania (“Big 5”? “Big 4”? I’m not sure why they don’t just get it over with and collapse all of trade publishing into a “Big 1” at this point) is awful, for all the reasons Nelson points out.

Especially, I think, for amping up the pursuit of blockbusters and bestsellers—a huge driver of formulaic, non-diverse, and (sorry) often-uninteresting books.

But just like a factory farm can’t prevent you from tending your own garden, what’s happening in big publishing can’t stop local communities from growing their own literary scenes.

Farms need soil, seeds, sunlight, air, water. Literary scenes need writers and readers. Both need work, love, and persistence.

There’s another way through this mess—we just have to keep taking it.

As a demographic, veteran literary agents are partial to opening sentences that begin with “back in the day.” Nothing signals…

05/07/2021