As someone who reads a lot, I have a certain amount of interest in the way publishing works. It’s sort of fascinating to get to hear about the day to day operations, and how a manuscript becomes a book.
In that vein, alg on LiveJournal (I’m hazy about whose names are public and whose aren’t, so I’ll stick with the username) has a discussion of book finances, complete with made-up numbers, part of her ongoing series of posts about the publishing business. It’s an interesting look at what goes into a failed mass-market book.
In a vaguely similar vein, there’s some interesting stuff about the author side of the process over at Tobias Buckell’s blogs, dealing with both general freelancing (as he tries to work up to Scalzi’s high-roller status), and also his fiction. I find this sort of stuff fascinating, too.
Of course, between editors and authors, the book business has lost whatever romantic gloss it might’ve appeared to have when I was younger and more impressionable. In a weird way, though, this just makes me appreciate the good books that do get published more…
alg is Anna Louise Genoese, an editor at Tor Books and in charge of their paranormal romance program (though that’s not all she does); it’s public as she talks about being at Tor, working on that program, asking for submissions specifically directed to her by name, etc.
(I think I read her LJ more than you, so it was more appareant to me.)
I figure that if it wasn’t open, it was the worst-kept secret ever, but as I only read it when somebody else draws it to my attention, I wasn’t sure. Better safe than sorry.
Don’t miss Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s explanation of the history of the mass-market distribution system, which includes phrases like [Exeunt omnes, pursued by World War II.].
I too am strangely fascinated by the publishing industry. For a great look at the agent side of things, check out Miss Snark’s blog if you haven’t seen it already.
-c