Blurb Your Book

If you have a book in mind which you know has little in the way of commercial appeal but you want to put it together anyway, than you should check out Blurb. This is a low cost alternative to the likes of iUniverse, lulu and BookSurge. Got a cookbook of your favorite recipes you’d like to share with the family? Blurb it. Photos of that month in Greece you want to bore your friends with? Blurb it. The technology of publish-on-demand is coming down in price and moving into the mainstream opening the doors for low-cost, limited run books.

Young Vampire

First there was Young Frankenstein. Now it seems, at least in the Young Adult genre, there are Young Vampires. Makes sense, I suppose, there are certainly enough Old Adult vampires about. I guess I’m not that much a fan of Vampire stories. I liked Buffy well enough and the first Anne Rice novel, though I couldn’t really get into all the ones that followed. And, being the blow-em-to-hell kind of guy I am, I certainly enjoyed Blade. But the Undead do seem to be popular and becoming more so in the Young Adult genre.

I don’t read Young Adult literature, having left behind the ‘Young’ part long ago. But I envy anyone who writes it well. I wish I could write YA. Could there possibly be a better audience to touch with ones words than a young audience? I don’t think so.

I read a review of a YA vampire book posted on Paperback Reader this morning: Braced2Bite by Serena Robar. The review was lukewarm at best and likely wouldn’t have made me dash out of the house to go buy the book if I were a Young Adult. But it did bring to mind that there will be another YA vampire book arriving on the shelves sometime next year.

This one I’ve read parts of and let me tell you, when it hits the shelves, I’m plunking down my Old Adult bucks and buying a copy. I’ll mumble something about it being for the grandkids as I slink out of the store. Then I’ll hurry home and read it cover to cover. The book? Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer. And check out her blog Bleeding Ink while you’re at it.

Updated 20 Worst Agencies List

A. C. Crispin and Victoria Strauss, the saints over at Writer Beware, have updated their 20 Worst Agencies List. Check it out on their blog. The update is primarily name changes several sharks have made. Briefly, American Literary Agents is now ripping off writers as Capital Literary Agency; Finesse Literary Agency is scamming writers in the guise of Elite Finesse Literary Agency (how’s that for an imaginative name change?); and Sherwood Broome, Inc. is fleecing writers as Stillwater Literary Agency.

And, since it can never be said too many times: If you’re thinking of looking for an agent, check out Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors before you do anything else.