Penguin Group (USA), via its Book Country subsidiary, now offers a menu of services for writers planning to self-publish. For fees ranging from about $99 to about $549, plus a share of sales revenue, Book Country will convert files, create covers, and handle other tasks. Read more at  http://goo.gl/jWVun and at http://on.wsj.com/sKqzGn Danielle Poiesz, Book [...]

The publishing industry is supposed to be on summer lull right now, but the blogs have been active as late summer conferences wind down, and Apple and Amazon launch salvos in the ebook access and pricing wars. On Barbara Vey’s Beyond Her Book blog, guest blogger Maggie Mae Gallagher gives a rundown of reader-author event [...]

In the bad news/good news department, Writer’s Digest contributing editor Jane Friedman won’t add new content to There Are No Rules, the writing blog she launched in 2008 on WD’s website. (The blog’s contents will be archived at WD and at JaneFriedman.com.) Happily, Friedman has unveiled Being Human at Electric Speed, her new writer-centric blog.  There, she [...]

Jane Friedman, editor at Writers Digest and blogger at “There Are No Rules” delivered the keynote at the Writers League of Texas’ Agents’ Conference earlier this month and said writers “have more power and control than ever before.” Find excerpts from Friedman’s speech at “TechChi.” At The Shatzin Files, Mike Shatzin discusses the connection between the prices [...]

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 [...]

We’re having our first agent guest blogger this Monday, the fabulous Jennifer Schober from Spencerhill Associates. She’s written a great blog and she’s taking questions. Be sure to stop off and comment. Agent Jessica Faust from Bookends posted her New and Updated Publishing Dictionary. She says it’s an “ever-popular post.” Agent Donald Maass wrote a [...]

E-pubs are in the news again. Agent Nat Sobel challenges publishers to hold back e-reprints for six months. He compares e-books to DVDs and hardcover books to newly released movies. He feels that “the future of hardcover publishing is at stake.” Random House is claiming e-rights on backlist books. I hope no one reading this [...]

In an interview at 1st Turning Point, Dorchester Editor Leah Hultenschmidt says, “Authors who have a strong network of contacts in the romance and bookselling community definitely have a leg up when submitting. The more friends you have to help spread the word, the wider your potential audience.” This is one reason our WF chapter [...]

More links this week. A few from agents should interest all writers.  First up, Jessica Faust at the Bookends blog talks about Fixing a Stalled Career. Kristin Nelson at Pub Rants has many great blogs on the writing business, but I restrained myself and linked to only two. One on e-book percentages. Another is An [...]

Women’s Fiction is in the news — and the blogs. First up,