bookpublishing

In case you’re interested, I’ve changed up my “About” page a bit (there’s a link on the upper right hand corner of my blog page, and can also be found at http://bookpublishing.today.com/about). It will feature books I’ve edited. It won’t feature all the books I’ve worked on, but the ones that I think would be most interesting to my readers and ones that I did a significant amount of work with. Right now it features mostly sports books, but those will be less and less common as I move more into local interest books. But local interest is still a lot of fun–definitely the case with Massachusetts Troublemakers by Paul Della Valle, which I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

This is a short piece I wrote for to be distributed in my department–it was the featured book at my company for the week of Monday, December 29.

Paul Della Valle, the author of Massachusetts Troublemakers, and I got along right off the bat. My family is from just outside of Boston so I was familiar with many of the sites mentioned in his book. I could tell I was on his good side when I told him I had spent my weekend watching the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots win their respective games. He replied that he was a Sox fan too and had named his dog Yaz after the famous Carl Yastrzemski (I even spelled the name right on the first try this time).

The book process, too, went very smoothly. The only major issue was that some of the photos we thought were okay actually weren’t okay. The replacements would show up fine on my computer, but would not appear the same way on Ann’s [Sr. Pre-Press Associate] machine. How that was resolved, I’m not totally sure, but I think Lori [Prep-Press Team Leader] stepped in and waved a magic wand. Thanks to Ann and Lori for their help on that! Josh [Copyeditor] did some excellent copyediting as well, finding many errors that the author and I had both missed.

There’s a lot to enjoy about this book. I learned that the picture that appears on the bottle of my favorite beer is not actually Samuel Adams—it’s a likeness of Paul Revere (because, apparently, he was more attractive… in a manly, colonial way, I suppose). The author was even nice enough to send me copies of CDs featuring music from the bluegrass band he started. If only every book went this way, with the author acknowledging that I’m a “wicked smaht editah.”

Massachusetts Troublemakers is available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, independent bookstores, and wherever books are sold.

First, let me apologize for not blogging in so long. I’ve taken some much-needed time off and am back on track. I’m also curious about what else you’d like to see on this blog. I’m hoping to start some book reviews, but I have to find time to read some books first!

Some recent updates: A book I worked really hard to edit, Massachusetts Troublemakers by Paul Della Valle, is pubbing 1/13 and is available for preorder everywhere. It was such a fun book and a fantastic author with a lot of heart and humor. It was one of the first ones that acknowledged my work and made a great gift to my family, who were very enthusiastic about it, especially because they’re all Massachusetts natives. If you check it out, let me know how you like it!

I was also really pleased to receive some editing work from the company I interned with when I graduated college. They need some freelance editing done on one of the books in their For Beginners series–a series I’m already familiar with from my work with them–and I’m hopeful that if I do well on this first project, I’ll continue to get work from them. Here’s hoping!

Now on to the subject of this blog post. I know a lot of people got books for Christmas, which is great news! What books did you get and which ones are you most excited to read? I only received one, if you can believe it, J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and it’s one I already had–so I gave it to my mother. I did get a gift card to Barnes and Noble, so I’m thinking about starting the Sookie Stackhouse novels, picking up The Anglo Files, or picking up one of the new Gordon Dahlquist novels and canceling my Amazon order. I really need to get back to reading (and writing!)… soon I’ll have finished watching West Wing and I can get back to it!

Plain White Press is publishing a book called Lite’n up: Laugh Yourself Skinny, a dieting coach in a book that allows you to read a silly reminder every morning and record your dieting hits and bombs along the way… and LAUGH of course!

To get a free copy, you’ll need to be following a popular diet (such as The Atkins, South Beach, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Acai Berry, The Zone) and you must use Laugh Yourself Skinny as a supplement to these diets and record your daily progress.

To get your copy, search for the Plain White Press page on Facebook and send them a message, or respond to the “Laugh Yourself Skinny” note.

Thanks @julietrelstad on Twitter for the heads up. Speaking of Twitter, if you aren’t already following me, you can find me at twitter.com/jesshaberman.

Now, don’t go buying these books for me or anything… I actually own a couple and have others on order. But they’re books I want to buy, start reading after Christmas, or put on my “to read” stack next year.

On a related note, I have never been the type of person to read several books at a time. I pick up one, force my way through it if I have to, and then pick up a new one. Now I have quite a few going.

Currently reading:
Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs
…so far I’m enjoying it. The descriptive language is much better than I had anticipated and it’s interesting, but I put it aside because it wasn’t hooking me right away. But I’ll get back to it.
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
… Ugh. I’m actually really disappointed by this. The dialogue could have been written by a fourth grader. I find myself rolling my eyes a lot and I’m really forcing my way through it now. I doubt I’ll continue reading the series. How did it ever get so popular??
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
…I picked this up from my shelf last night to read while on the treadmill and so far it’s fabulous. Draws you right in and the language is lovely. I love that she’s not afraid to use smart language regardless of the character; that’s what literature is for!

To re-read:
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist
…because it was so damn trippy and awesome. And he’s got a sequel (or 2) coming up.
Going Home by Harriet Evans
…just a great unassuming romantic comedy. I love rereading those.

To read:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
…which I hear is amazing and I already received as a Christmas present.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
… because I feel like I have to.
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
… I have a feeling this is going to blow Thursday Next out of the water. Though I love that series. Except the last one.
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, Vol. 2 by Gordon Dahlquist
… The sequel to a really fabulous, kind of insane but beautiful book.
The Dark Volume by Gordon Dahlquist
… possibly another sequel? It releases soon after the one above… so we’ll see. I feel like he just writes a hell of a lot. And it would be great if there was a love interest in there for somebody during one of the three books.

What’s on your wishlist?

Luckily I’m almost done with my Christmas shopping, but for those who are looking for deals on books (for others and for yourself), check out these deals:

Borders is having a “5 Days of 50% Savings” event that will run December 9-13. Under the promotion, Borders is offering a 50% discount on its entire stock of movies, CDs, cookbooks, games, toys and children’s holiday books to any member who buys two items. Customers who buy one item for full price receive the discount for a second item in the category. The only condition is that customers must make their purchases at a Borders store, not online. If you don’t already have a Borders Rewards card, you’ll probably need one (they’re free).

(Speaking of Borders, it sounds like they’re not closing after all. Phew!)

Amazon is giving away 10 free Kindle books (not public domain either). Who knows if they’re any good, but they’re free! They’re available until February 28, 2009.
The books are:
Prague by Arthur Phillips
Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston
Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston
Murder List by Julie Garwood
The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst
The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death by Laurie Notaro
Free-Range Chickens by Simon Rich
The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss
A Dangerous Man by Charlie Huston

That Charlie Huston is waiving some royalties (if he even gets royalties on ebooks… I have a feeling most authors don’t negotiate for that in their contracts).