Your chair is your energy. According to this NY Times article by Olivia Judson, sitting in a desk is bad for your health, your weight, and your focus. Here’s another article by Lloyd Alter showing examples of stand-up desks.

Michael Hyatt made very interesting predictions in his post on Six e-Book Trends to Watch in 2011.

“Bundled Books. Some publishers have experimented with this, including my company. However, I believe it will happen in earnest this year. The major e-tailers will make it possible for you to buy different kinds of e-bundles at a discount—a bundle of the same book in both print and e-formats; a bundle of of one author’s complete library or most popular titles; or a bundle of several titles on a particular topic.”

From Jane Friedman on Twitter: “Nice summary of trends – 10 predictions about future of book publishing.”

From sassymonkey: Reasons why we buy books online (and why we don’t) .

Sourcebooks editor Deb Werksman talks about the book acquisition process. This is the first of Romance University’s year long “Behind the Book Scenes” series.

Kristine Rusch wrote another post on midlist writers in these changing times. If you’re a midlist writer, it’s good news. Even if you’re not, it’s an interesting post about the industry.

Mary Kole at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency talks about the agent’s role in today’s digital book world. She compares it the digital book world to the wild west.

“I’ll argue that, as publishers embrace different content delivery systems and processes, agents will take on more packaging responsibilities: editorial work, marketing consultation, design, etc. Whether we’re presenting a book to editors or an app proposal to a digital publisher, we will have had a more active hand in its reaching “market ready” status.”

Here’s a MUST-READ response to Mary Kole’s post from Dean Wesley Smith.

“There was absolutely nothing at all wrong with what this agent said. All logical. All fine from an agent’s point of view.

But from a professional writer’s point of view, I wanted to run screaming into the night when I read that.”

Tying into this, if you’re a writer who wants to do it yourself–without an agent or a publisher, you might be interested in this post at the How to Write Shop by Lori Devoti on How to Format an Ebook starting with Microsoft Word.

I’m ending with comic relief from Debbie Ohi at Writer Unboxed on The Four Stages of Writing.

Jessica Faust talks about labels, chick lit and women’s fiction on Gabriela Lessa’s blog.

If you ever read (or start to read) a book filled with clichés and bad writing, and you can’t understand why it’s on the bestseller lists, then this article titled “Why we love bad writing” is for you.

A new Canadian agent, Carly Watters, at P.S. Literary Agency, is currently acquiring International Literary and Commercial fiction, Women’s fiction, Chick lit, Sagas, Literary Thrillers, crossover YA novels, Memoir and up-market nonfiction.

Amazon announced that the third-generation Kindle is now the bestselling product of all time on Amazon Worldwide, “surpassing Harry Potter 7.” As a result of the popularity of e-readers, classics novels are enjoying a renaissance “because they can be downloaded for free onto electronic readers.”

Perhaps another result is that book publishers see their role as gatekeeper shrink, with writers such as Joe Konrath leading the wave of authors who are selling their own books through online retailers.

“In addition to Konrath, bestselling author Seth Godin, science fiction writer Greg Bear and action novelist David Morrell recently have used Internet tools to put their works online themselves. Earlier this year, suspense master Stephen King, Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho and Stephen Covey, the author of bestselling self-help books, self-published some of their works exclusively on Amazon’s Kindle bookstore.”

And this brings us to a Writer Unboxed post by Jane Friedman on the how bad it really is in the publishing industry. After you read it, be sure to scroll down and read Bob Mayer’s comment.

Russ Grandinetti, the head of content for Amazon.com’s Kindle business, talks about Amazon’s plans for its rapidly growing Kindle business.

Smashwords founder Mark Stoker has some interesting predictions for publishing in 2011. Dean Wesley Smith gives his opinion on Stoker’s predictions.

Mike Shatzkin, Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company, talks about selling the backlist and finding the next battleground.

“Remember those ebook catalogs I suggested might be a good idea? Why not start by putting one with an entry for every title by an author into every ebook by that author? That’s a pretty obvious opportunity. I’ll make my last publishing prediction of 2010: anybody not doing this by the end of 2011 will be seen as “behind.” (It might be that any agent not already suggesting this, if not insisting on it, is behind now.)”

Here’s advice on getting Google eBooks to notice your book, though if you’re technically challenged like me it might be confusing.

If you’re interested in the results of a survey of U.S. literary agents on the subject of e-book royalties, you’ll want to read this.

Happy New Year!

Enjoy a wise and fun marketing lesson from dear ole Santa, by way of author Laura Pauling’s blog.

If you have a pile of To Be Read books that you never get around to reading, you aren’t alone. According to this New Yorker article by Meredith Blake, there’s a reason for your reluctance.

Global e-book sales at Random House jumped 250% in 2009. 5% of Hatchette’s total sales in the last quarter were e-books.

Need advice on pitching? Check out Pitch University.

Piracy and giving away books could boost your sales, according to this Teleread article.

John B. Thompson, author of THE MERCHANTS OF CULTURE, doesn’t believe e-books will be the doom of publishing. He believes the problems began long before digital books were available.

“The real trouble for the publishing industry, in my view, has more to do with the gradual unfolding of this economic transformation that led to this structure of publishing, where we now have five large corporate groups and a small number of retail chains dominating the industry. These corporations have to achieve growth year on year, and when that top line revenue begins to fall, as it did when the 2008 economic recession suddenly tipped the narrow profit margins into the red, it has devastating impact throughout and the only way that they can preserve the profit at the bottom line is to push people out, and to reduce their overheads and costs dramatically.”

This CBS Sunday Morning segment on book covers, with Grand Central and Knopf, is nearly 8 minutes long, but it’s fascinating and worth watching.

Suzanne Johnson analyzes the Publisher’s Marketplace numbers for the past year and breaks down some sub-genres to see what’s trending and what’s not.

Jane Friedman shares advice on using social media, including why and when it fails to sell books.

In that vein, Robert Brewer (whose Name Is Not Bob), has great Facebook Tips for Writers.

From Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents are two interviews with agents who represent a range of women’s fiction authors: Stephany Evans of Fine Print Management and Laura Blake Peterson of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Romance University explores the subject of women’s fiction with literary agent Kevan Lyon and author Anjali Banerjee in a discussion that continues into the comments.

Independent booksellers talk about how they’re promoting their participation in Google eBooks. At Magical Musings, an independent bookshop owner talks about her bookshop’s participation and how it works. She also answers questions in the comments.

If you have any short stories tucked away, read this post by Dead Wesley Smith to find out how you can make money from them.

Curtis Brown Group Limited, one of UK’s leading literary and talent agencies, has added a new name, Curtis Brown Creative, “the first and only creative writing school to be run by a leading literary agency.”

“We launch in 2011 with a 3-month novel-writing course, drawing on our expertise to help 15 new writers shape vibrant debut novels for today’s competitive marketplace.”

Here’s more information on the endeavor and it might be a case of Writer Beware.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I have lots of links today, partly thanks to Jane Friedman (who shares links from Twitter) and Kristen Lamb’s blog on Social Media, which she publishes every Wednesday.

Brenda Hiatt has updated her Show Me the Money! page.

Mark Shatzkin posted a chart on royalties. As a bonus, there’s a debate about royalties in the Comments.

Harlequin is absorbing Silhouette romances.

Finally, a simple explanation of branding by Karen Witemeyer.

Would you like to know how to use Twitter effectively? Check out The Writer’s Guide to Twitter by Debbie Ridpath Ohi, aka Inky Girl.

Agent Kristin Nelson talked to editors about commercial/literary books.

“I really really really want a another commercial/literary author for my list.”

New agent Kate Folkers of Martin Literary Management is interested in women’s fiction and chick lit, among other genres.

Jeannie Ruesch of Will Design for Chocolate is sharing tips on creating book videos at Romance University.

Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches is “the new romance columnist for the newly-reborn Kirkus reviews.”

“Kirkus is going to focus more on genre fiction and wants to include reader voices and opinions in their online publication, and my column is part of that. The first one went up today.”

The Nook will be available at WalMart as of Oct. 24th.

Interesting Sisters in Crime blog on the results of a survey on what kind of promotion works. In the comments, Sandra Parshall lists the percentage ratings for the different influences.

Do you write stories 10,000 to 50,000 words? You might have a marketplace at Kindle singles.

A great blog by Hanna Moskowitz on professionalism.

Writers sometimes are speakers, and Jane Friedman shares 7 lessons for delivering a powerful message.

Jane Friedman on how agents are adapting to survive in these changing times.

“I think it will be tougher for agents to sustain themselves on the 15% they earn selling a book to a publishing house—and I’m thinking especially of those agents who don’t yet have a strong client roster and profitable backlist sales.”

E-book sales jumped 172% in August.

Dean Wesley Smith talks about the new world of publishing.

“8% of all books sold are electronic and that number is growing, headed for that nasty tipping point of 25%. Hundreds of different reading devices were announced or coming out, and the iPad smashed into even more places. And no one should forget that the kids, the next generation of readers, love to read on their smart phones.”

J.A. Konrath shares the marketing tips he and his co-writers used to get Draculas to the bestseller Kindle list on its release day.

Eighteen authors have banded together to form a collective at www.AWritersWork.com where they are selling e-book formats of previously released titles as well as new work. The list of authors includes Barbara Freethy, Holly Jacobs, Lori Handeland, Ken Casper, Patricia Rice, and more. How smart to keep the royalties for themselves, minus the costs of operation.

Should you use Twitter, Facebook, blog tours and contests as marketing tools? Shrinking Violet Promotions says no. (On her blog, but I like irony.) The comments are informative, too.

In a recent study, kids say they would read more if they would read more if they had e-readers.

“The study also found indications that technology could be a positive motivator to get kids reading — 57 percent of kids (age 9-17) say they are interested in reading an eBook, and a third of children age 9-17 say they would read more books for fun if they had access to eBooks on an electronic device. This includes kids who read 5-7 days per week (34%), 1 to 4 days per week (36%) and even those who read less than one day per week (27%).”

Speaking of e-books, if you aren’t following J.A. Konrath’s blogs, you should at least skim them to keep abreast of the news in this fast-changing industry. Konrath is the guru of e-books, and he often talks mumbers and dollars, as he does in this enlightening post.

Barnes & Noble announced their platform for self-published e-books, with is Amazon’s Kindle. The royalties are 65% instead of Amazon’s 70%, but that’s better than they were. The only bad part is the name they chose for this platform: Pubit!

Dean Wesley Smith has written a must-read blog about agents and money.

“The myth (the deeply held belief until smashed out of a fiction writer by hard knocks) is that once you will get an agent they will take care of you, and all your money, and make sure that you get all the money you are owed. Well, in theory, that’s the way it should work. Sadly, it doesn’t anymore, if it ever did.”

Publishers Weekly is going to review a small number of POD (print on demand) books and will put out a quarterly supplement for the POD/self-published writers. But first the author has to pay $149 to entitle him/her to register.

Amazon’s 70% royalty option for Kindle platform writers is now in effect in the UK.

In Cindi Myers’ summary of the spotlight on Pocket Books at the 2010 RWA National convention, she quotes Executive Editor Lauren McKenna and Senior Editor Abby Zidell:

“We only see women’s fiction growing.” These books do well in trade paperback. The contemporary romance that does well for them straddles the line between romance and women’s fiction – still a strong romance, but dealing with the kinds of life issues found in women’s fiction.

Is your agent entitled to a commission on your option book — even if you’ve fired the agent? Find the answer here.

Nathan Bransford talks about dialogue tags.

Best-selling writer David Morrell explains why he decided to go digital with out-of-print books and one new one.

Morrell goes into deeper detail on J.A. Konrath’s blog.

“These days, print publishers don’t seem as interested in backlist titles as they used to be. When they do commit to a backlist, it’s often so that they can have the e-book rights, which means that the way contracts are now written, the publishers have the e-book rights forever. The Amazon proposal allowed me to keep the e-rights while at the same time receiving the full might of Amazon to promote the titles on a global scale.”

Sourcebooks is finding new sources of growth as the industry changes.

Dean Wesley Smith discusses the options in publishing right now, saying “the world is not ending.”

Agent Danielle Chiotti of Upstart Crow Literary talks about what she’s looking for in women’s fiction:

“For women’s fiction, I’m really looking for high concept, voice-driven projects with a commercial concept, but a slight literary edge to the writing. Feeling confused? Yeah, me too! But that’s what I’m looking for. I love Michael Chabon, and I’d love to find a woman who can give me some Michael Chabon-esque fiction, only with more obviously feminine themes.”

Marketing tips for Facebook could work for writers: 100 Tools and Tips to Tap the Facebook Customer Base.

A recent appeal’s court decision might have an effect on the publishing industry.

“In a decision with implications for the publishing industry the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that rapper Eminem’s production company was entitled to 50% of his record label’s revenue from digital sales.”

J.A. Konrath’s ebook sales have topped 100K. He talks about why he’s losing money on print books and what print publishers are doing wrong.

“This ride has only just begun. I’ll end 2010 having earned over $100k on my self-pubbed ebooks, and that’s nothing compared to what I expect to make in 2011. And I’m doing it without touring, without promoting non-stop, without spending a lot of money, and without relying on anyone.

I don’t expect the publishing industry to acknowledge this post. You won’t read about my ebook sales in Publisher’s Weekly. Agents won’t mention it on their blogs. If you go to conferences and ask the editors you meet about J.A. Konrath and ebooks, you’ll get blank stares, dismissals, or outright hostility.”

Most of you have heard this by now, but Dorchester is switching from mass market to e-book and print on demand. Dorchester President John Prebich said: “These are like pioneer times in publishing. We felt like we needed to take some chances and make a bold move.”

Since the initial announcement, there’s been some confusion and backtracking.

New D4EO agent Weronika Janczuk is interested in women’s fiction but not chick lit.

Normally Penguin Books only looks at agented submissions, but for a limited three-month period, from the beginning of August until the end of October 2010, they’ll accept submissions sent electronically to the following address: submissions. You can find out more here.

Angela James from Carina Press gives stats of their submissions and says one of the genres they’re looking for is contemporary romance. In the comments, editor Deborah Nemeth says she’s also open to women’s fiction.

Need help showing emotion? Scroll down the right sidebar of The Bookshelf Muse and you’ll see an Emotion Thesaurus. Click on the emotion beneath it that you want to show. Here are just a few from the site for Enthusiasm:

· Rushed words, bubbly or loud tone
· Eyes that sparkle, glow, are wide, have a happy intensity
· Rapt attention
· Talking over people, monopolizing conversation, using lots of excitable language
· Grabbing onto people (arm, hand, etc) and squeezing to transfer/display hyper feelings
· Repeating self
· Nervous pacing, fidgeting, impatient if forced to wait
· Extrovert behavior: shouting, jumping up and down, waving, calling out to others
· Bouncing on toes

Here’s another cool site, The Grimace Project. Move your mouse around and see the emotional changes on the cartoon face and the list of emotions on the right. I can spend too much time on this page.

Dean Wesley Smith talks about the changes in publishing and the benefits for writers.

“For decades I have been telling new writers to just write what they want to write, what makes them passionate, what makes them angry, what makes them happy. But often, in the real world of traditional publishing, those passionate books would not sell or be labeled “hard sells” and end up in drawers and the writer discouraged.

No more. Writers now have a lot of different ways for readers to find and discover their work beyond traditional publishing routes. And more opening up by the day.”

Another thought-provoking blog by Smith in which he says Books Are No Longer Produce.

“In the last twenty years, publishers with computer tracking and stores with computer tracking took the importance of book as event a little too far. Books that were what are called “Word of Mouth” books, or slow builds, never really stood a chance in this thinking. If you didn’t find a book in the first week or the first month, look in a used bookstore or lately in a used store online to find it. Because no regular store would still have it.

And author backlists were a thing of the past unless you were a brand name bestseller.”

But with electronic publishing, that’s changing:

“Readers who never ever thought of books as produce are now being allowed to find authors and books easier with this new world of electronic communication and reading. And that’s what has changed.”

I learned a few things reading the fifth post from Carrie Spencer at Romance University on WordPress for Non-Techies. Great posts for anyone who has a WordPress blog or website, or is thinking of putting one up.

The recently launched online Wylie Library sounds impressive.

“Wiley Online Library offers integrated access to more than 4 million articles from 1,500 journals, 9,000 books, and hundreds of reference works and databases. Built on the latest technology,Wiley Online Library is an entirely new service that enhances discoverability and fosters collaboration…”

POD books while you wait will soon be here.

“By the time 2011 rolls around, Nolita’s McNally Jackson Books will have an Espresso Book Machine, the Xerox-like on-demand device that prints a fully bound book in mere minutes.”

I’ll leave you with a great Novelists Inc. blog by a best-selling Kindle writer.

Digital publishing is dominating the news this summer, and I’m starting with a long but brilliant post by Randy Ingermanson on The Future of Publishing. Well worth your time reading.

According to Reuters, “The slow rise of electronic books is paving the way for more safe-bet fiction blockbusters and serial-type books, at least in the short term.”

The digital age has come to libraries but there might be copyright problems.

“Libraries are expanding e-book offerings with out-of-print editions, part of a broader effort to expand borrowing privileges in the Internet Age that could challenge traditional ideas about copyright.”

Agent Andrew Wylie fighting for e-rights for his authors.

“We will take our 700 clients, see what rights are not allocated to publishers, and establish a company on their behalf to license those e-book rights directly to someone like Google, Amazon.com or Apple. It would be another business, set up on parallel tracks to the frontlist book business,” Wylie said.

Borders has jumped into the digital pool. Its e-bookstore went live on July 7th. They want to be a significant player in the e-book sector.

If you don’t have an e-reader and would like to read an e-book, writer Susannah Fraser gives advice on ways to do it.

Thinking of putting one of your old books for sale as an e-book? Or a new one? Zoe Winters talks about why you need to be on Smashwords. Julie Ortolon talks about How to Publish on Smashwords. Natasha Fondren has a series of guides on formatting for Smashwords. Smashwords also has its own guide.

James Patterson is the first fiction writer to sell more than 1 million ebooks. J.A. Konrath has sold more than 100,000, and feels good about it.

Small Stores see Google as an Alley in E-Book Market

“As a wholesaler, Google will play a role similar to that of offline distributors like Ingram Book and Baker & Taylor, which buy books from publishers and resell them to bookstores. Those companies generally keep a single-digit percentage of each sale, and Mr. Turvey said Google would operate along similar lines.

Independent bookstores seem to believe that Google is more interested in working through them than being a direct retailer. In fact, they are banking on it.”

For the non-digital industry news, Jeannie Ruesch of Will Design for Chocolate blogged on Romance University about what a published author needs on her website. These tips are great for the non-published writer too.

Dean Wesley Smith has a fascinating Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing post, titled Writers Need to be Taken Care Of.

Publishers are turning to book bloggers to reach readers.

“Women’s fiction that maybe wouldn’t be covered by traditional book sections is being blogged about, talked about,” says Jennifer Hart, vice president and associate publisher at HarperCollins for its paperback imprints. “There are books blogs for every niche of publishing — from literary and commercial fiction to young adult, to sci-fi, to cookbooks. This offers publishers an incredible opportunity — we can reach the audience for all of our books, no matter the genre.”

Literary Agent Isabel Atherton is looking for commercial women’s fiction.

“Original, unusual and commercial: those are my top three words.”

If you write witty women’s fiction, you might try kt literary.

Agent Taylor Martindale is actively looking for women’s fiction.

A few agents, such as Holly Root and Jessica Faust, are closed to queries until fall. If you’re sending queries, check out their websites/blogs, etc. to see if they’re accepting or not.

I found out about two fun sites for writers. The Guide to Grammar and Writing and the WordCounter. For the latter, I loaded in a first chapter and it told me which words were used most and how many times.

In an interview at Novelists Inc., Random House Senior Editor Shauna Summers says she works on primarily romance and women’s fiction.

FinePrint agent Colleen Lindsay lists general word counts for genres.

mainstream/commercial fiction/thrillers = Depending upon the kind of fiction, this can vary: chick lit runs anywhere from 80k word to 100k words; literary fiction can run as high as 120k but lately there’s been a trend toward more spare and elegant literary novels as short as 65k; thrillers also run in somewhere around the 100k to 120k mark; historical fiction can run as high as 160k words or more (and again, these are just rough guides – there are always exceptions). Anything under 50k is usually considered a novella, which isn’t something agents or editors ever want to see unless the editor has commissioned a short story collection. (Agent Kristin Nelson has a good post about writers querying about manuscripts that are too short.)

Dean Wesley Smith gives basic business rules for hiring and working with an agent.

“I am not against the standard writer/agent business model in publishing. I feel writers need good agents to help them through much of the early years. But for heaven’s sake, think like a business person when hiring an agent.”

J.A. Konrath says self-publishing ebooks on Kindle isn’t for everyone.

“If you have an out of print backlist. If you have an agent with books she hasn’t been able to sell. If you’re a published author with some shelf novels. Then yes, you should get on Kindle and iPad and Nook and Sony and everyplace else that comes up.

But if you’re a newbie author who hasn’t even finished your first novel yet and is already designing the cover art, perhaps you need to slow down a bit.”

Another interesting blog by JA Konrath on The Value of eBooks — but I have to add that it’s just his opinion. Some of the comments are as interesting as the blog. That goes for Dean Wesley Smith’s post, too.