Publishing: the brutal reality

This morning I woke to find that the following conversation had taken place while I slept.  I'm passing this on (with permission) to show you the tense dynamics of the publishing world.  What you're about to read is a for real, blow-by-blow dialogue between one of the greatest and most successful editors in publishing, and one the most renowned literary agents.  I have not changed a word.  


Keith the Editor:

Hi Gary:

     So production has released the original copy-edited ms. of The Pericles Commission back to us.  Traditionally, original manuscripts were returned to the author – for reasons both long and no longer nearly as germane in this digital world – but nowadays most authors prefer that we simply recycle them at our end.  However, if you want this back for posterity – or some authors include the ms. in the papers that they donate to an archive somewhere – just let Hannah know and she’ll send it on to you via slow boat to Australia winged steed.  Or something like it.

Best,
Keith

Janet the Shark:

Or you could send it by smelly donkey over to FPLM.  I have several you can borrow if you don't keep a stable anymore.

Keith the Editor:

Okey dokey.  Over to you.  As soon as we can find a spare llama to port it over to you on.  Or the postal service, for as long as it lasts.

Hannah the Editorial Assistant:

I've located a menagerie of animals to escort the MS back to you-- it will be on its way soon! 

So that's how publishing works!  Seriously, these guys are the ones who should be writing the funny books.

The Ionia Sanction gets a starred review from Publishers Weekly

You can tell release day is fast approaching, because the reviews are coming in. This is a period in an author's life pretty much guaranteed to reduce even the most stable human beings to nervous wrecks, but so far I've lucked out. The shiny red star next to the review is the publishing world's equivalent of a cherry on top.

 The Ionia Sanction

In Corby’s excellent second mystery set in fifth-century B.C.E. Greece (after 2010’s The Pericles Commission), professional investigator Nicolaos, a protégé of Athens’ leading citizen, Pericles, looks into the death of Thorion, the “proxenos” or consular representative for the city of Ephesus in Athens. Thorion was found hanging in his private office after Pericles received a note in which the dead man confessed to betraying his position and his city.

 Nicolaos soon finds sufficient evidence of homicide to persuade his boss that further inquiry is warranted. Pericles’ certainty that a scroll stolen from Thorion is crucial to the safety of Athens sets in motion a complex series of events that sends Nicolaos to Ephesus.

  Despite the high stakes involved, Corby is able to integrate humor appropriately into the action. His lead, like Steven Saylor’s Roman sleuth, Gordianus, manages to retain his integrity, despite being buffeted by powerful forces and morally challenging situations.

The Ionia Sanction: the Oz cover

Hot off the virtual presses, thanks to Belinda the Publisher.  You'll notice a similarity to the Oz cover of Pericles Commission.  Consistent look and feel helps people recognize books in a series.  I don't know where the coin comes from on this one, and I wasn't brave enough to ask after the trouble I caused over the coin on the Pericles Commission cover.  This cover will be appearing, complete with printed pages behind it, on Australian bookstore shelves in January 2012.

The US cover is the orange one to the right.  The US edition's out in November 2011; just 2 months to go.

It feels weird having multiple books with my name on them!

In charge of a restive horse

Since time immemorial, the internet has been a source of urban legend.  A certain proportion of these myths refer to ancient road rules involving horses, laws that are still in force a century after their use-by date.  They almost inevitably prove to have been repealed decades ago, much to everyone's disappointment.

It is with great pleasure therefore that I give you section 303A of the current road use regulations of the state of Queensland, of the nation known as Australia:

TRANSPORT OPERATIONS (ROAD USE MANAGEMENT--ROAD RULES) REGULATION 1999 - SECT 303A

303A Giving way to restive horses(1) This section applies if a person in charge of a restive horse gives a signal, by raising a hand and pointing to the horse, to the driver of a motor vehicle on a road.
(2) The driver must--

(a) drive the vehicle as near as practicable to the far left side of the road; and

(b) stop the vehicle's engine; and

(c) not move the vehicle until there is no reasonable likelihood that the noise of the motor, or the movement of the vehicle, will aggravate the restiveness of the horse.

Maximum penalty--20 penalty units.
(3) In this section--
in charge of includes leading, driving or riding.

This is exactly my 400th post, by the way.  How the time flies.

You too can be a porn site!

The people who control the internet have decided, in their near-infinite wisdom, to create a new domain type.  This one is .XXX, and there's no prize for guessing what that refers to.

As we all know, porn sites like to hijack well known names.  I'll never forget the day that I decided, while doing a technology demonstration in front of hundreds of people, to use the Office of the US President for my example.  I typed whitehouse.com by reflex, instead of the somewhat more correct whitehouse.gov.  It turned out that whitehouse.com was a porn site, as I and the hundreds of men and women watching soon discovered.  I apologize (again) to everyone who was there.

So, name hijacking on the new .XXX domains is an obvious problem.  To counter this, the Gnomes of the Net have declared a sunrise period of 52 days, which began yesterday, September 7, during which people can block use of their brand names.

And there's the rub.  They're only allowing you to block use of your name if it's a registered trademark.  If you're Microsoft, you can prevent a porn site using microsoft.xxx.  Although that would be ironic since micro and soft probably aren't at the forefront of desirable concepts when you're looking for porn.  But if, however, you want to block GaryCorby.xxx, just to pick a random example, then you can't do it.

I'm fairly sure the Gnomes haven't thought this through.  Maybe Hollywood celebrities trademark their names, but the vast majority of people who might get googled from time to time don't.    A porn site could register hundreds of mid-grade names and point them to the same salacious location.

So I'm stuck.  And so are you, if you want to block your name.