Interview Archives — Page 2 of 18

“Weird and Wonderful”? Me, on the Future of Publishing

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:August 3, 2010
Post category:Media Personal
Post comments:1 Comment

The above tweet led to a fun interview over the at the Book View Cafe blog, “Weird and Wonderful: Digital Book World and Guy LeCharles Gonzalez,” with author Sue Lange asking me some interesting questions that really made me think hard to solidify some of my ideas about the “Future of Publishing” and what it means for authors and publishers.

There’s a lot of fluff and blather right now that makes it sound like eBooks are a magic bullet and simply uploading your book to Amazon makes you an independent author.

Most of that fluff and blather is coming from new intermediaries who take a smaller cut than traditional publishers, while putting your eBook on a virtual shelf where no one who doesn’t already know it exists will ever find it. And, of course, some of them will also upsell you on services to help you market your eBook and increase sales, for which they’ll get their cut.

In a lot of ways, it’s basically Vanity Publishing, in a shiny 2.0 coat.

I also explain a few things about Digital Book World, make the argument “that marketing is, first and foremost, a publisher’s responsibility,” and talk a bit about my own writing and how it has evolved over the years.

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6Qs: Richard Eoin Nash, Social Publisher

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:September 29, 2009
Post category:Media
Post comments:24 Comments

“Basically, the best-selling five hundred books each year will likely be published much like Little Brown publishes James Patterson, on a TV production model, or like Scholastic did Harry Potter and Doubleday Dan Brown, on a big Hollywood blockbuster model. The rest will be published by niche social publishing communities.”

—About Richard Eoin Nash

Richard Nash, former publisher of Soft Skull, has been making waves ever since stepping down from the acclaimed indie earlier this year to “go all in” and pursue his vision of the future of publishing. Equal parts philosopher and raconteur, his over-the-top performance at BEA’s 7×20×21 panel reminded me of Frank T.J. Mackey, Tom Cruise’s motivational speaker in Magnolia; I fully expected him to start yelling “Respect the READER!” at one point.

He caught some flak as the focal point of my post asking “Is Social Publishing simply Vanity Publishing 2.0?“, not so much because I think he’s actually going into vanity publishing, but because of the various social/digital/ePublishing initiatives I’ve seen popping up lately, Cursor seemed to have the closest thing to a viable business model worth critiquing.

After doing exactly that backchannel, he graciously agreed to a brief interview to shed some more light on the subject and I’m thrilled to have him as the second in a sporadic series of interviews with insightful publishing and marketing professionals – Richard Eoin Nash, Social Publisher.

1) Define “social publishing” in terms the average book reader would understand; no buzzwords, no “organic gurgle of culture”. What is it, and what’s in it for the reader?

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6Qs: Maria Schneider, Editor Unleashed

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:May 6, 2009
Post category:Media Personal
Post comments:3 Comments

“I don’t know if there’s any light at the end of the tunnel for publishers, but I think the future for writers is bright.”

–Maria Schneider, Editor Unleashed

I had the pleasure of working with the Editor Unleashed herself, Maria Schneider, for about 18 months, back when we were both with Writer’s Digest — as Editor (her) and Ad Director (me) — and am happy to still call her a friend despite no longer being corporate colleagues and with more than 600 miles separating us.

Maria is a smart, savvy writer AND editor, who understands the difference between the two, and who fully grasps the integrated world publishing has become, able to speak fluently in print and digital. Her ability to brainstorm new ideas that work from multiple angles without ever compromising her editorial integrity made my job much easier, and her outspoken, engaging personality has always been refreshing.

Her openness to new ideas and engaging personality allowed her to hit the ground running when she left Writer’s Digest last year, immediately launching her own website on October 8, 2008 with a post entitled, “So here’s how I got here…“, adding a forum two weeks later, and never looking back. Since then, she’s been offering near-daily content, featuring inspiring writing prompts and invaluable resources; interviews with successful agents, editors, and authors; and sharing her own hard-won insights with an appreciative and steadily growing community of aspiring and professional writers.

I’m delighted to have her as the first in a new series of interviews with insightful publishing and marketing professionals — 6Qs: Maria Schneider, Editor Unleashed.

It’s been just over six months since you were “unleashed” and went freelance. What’s surprised you, in a positive way, and what hasn’t quite gone according to plan?
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Not just empty words, not just false hope

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:February 14, 2008
Post category:Uncategorized
Post comments:4 Comments

Not all Obama supporters are being driven solely by emotion and recent articles about the “cult-like” aura surrounding his campaign seem to suggest there’s a not-unexpected backlash brewing in the media. The most overt instance of this was probably the FOX News stunt with one of Frank Luntz’ post-debate “focus groups” where several Obama supporters were asked to name a single accomplishment of his and none of them could. Of course, the combination of FOX News and Luntz has about as much credibility as Jay Leno’s “stupid people” quiz show skit, but they’re not the only ones guilty of such disingenous “gotcha” tactics.

There’s a great video clip on YouTube that’s getting a lot of attention right now of an interview with an Obama supporter outside of the Kodak Theater before the debate a couple of weeks ago, and what starts out looking like a weak attempt at a “gotcha” sound bite turns into the kind of moment that rarely gets any play on the evening news:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kica8hmSdAM]

This kid is much more representative of the majority of people I know who are supporting Obama, and anyone who has primarily been swept up by the undeniable emotional appeal of his message owes it to themselves to learn about what he actually stands for, not just to counter inaccurate assertions about his campaign, but because it’s important to be an educated voter.

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Spindle: February ’08

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:February 12, 2008
Post category:Personal
Post comments:0 Comments

In the midst of all the political blogging I’ve been doing lately, I had a Spindle update looming on the calendar for today and stole time here and there over the past two weeks to sift through the surprisingly steady stream of submissions that have come in since last month.

I was worried in mid-January that the aggressive “official launch” schedule I’d set up for January, posting 15 new pieces over three weeks, would deplete my inventory and leave me scraping through some marginal work to get something up this month but it all worked out nicely in the end as we have new work from Alan King, Eric Payne, Rachel L. Olivares and Julian Taub, plus new columns from Stephanie R. Myers (Myers Music Experience) and Brooke Wacha (On the 1).

Log on now and get into a New York state of mind @ http://www.spindlezine.com

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McCain knocks out Giuliani AND Bloomberg!

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:January 31, 2008
Post category:Personal
Post comments:2 Comments

John McCain apparently landed a devastating 1-2 punch with his victory in Florida Tuesday night, not only knocking the clueless Rudy Giuliani out of the race but also effectively knee-capping Michael Bloomberg’s oft-rumored, self-financed Independent run:

Senator Lieberman says the increasing likelihood that Senator McCain will win the Republican nomination could keep Mayor Bloomberg on the sidelines of the presidential race this fall.

“My feeling all along has been that if he ran, it would be because he had a real reason to run, and frankly, he and John McCain have a lot in common,” the Connecticut senator said in a telephone interview this afternoon. “So if John gets the nomination, I would guess it’s less likely the mayor will run for president.”

While I think there’s enough of a distinction between McCain and Bloomberg that a McCain/Clinton race would still make him a viable third candidate, I suspect the combination of [relative] moderates like Lieberman and Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsing McCain means he’d risk being cast as the Republican’s Ralph Nader and simply ensure an easier path to victory for Clinton. McCain/Obama would be even more problematic for him as Obama’s already secured the “change” mantle and offers a much starker contrast to the 71-year-old McCain than Bloomberg ever could.

Interestingly, one of the key figures behind the Draft Bloomberg effort here in NY, Karin Gallet (whom I interviewed for Spindle last year), has given up the cause:

“He’s not running. He’s convinced me… Even his good buddies are backing McCain. I think they would know if there was a reason to hold off on an endorsement. McCain is MB’s base, so the opportunity has faded. And besides, even with the best effort of the big bad unity 08 boys, we’ve not seen any significant pop support, none of that lefty groundswell ala Clark.”

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Time Out!

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:January 22, 2008
Post category:Personal
Post comments:3 Comments

Okay, once I start posting 2am rants about politics, it's clearly time to pause for a deep breath and talk about something else for awhile. ... Spindle? Chugging along quite nicely. We hit 15,000 page views on Sunday and today's update concludes the "official" launch. Now I have to start working on February's content, including a new Notable New Yorker interview. Writing? Haven't written anything new in a few weeks (the random villanelle doesn't count) and have to put together at least one submission before the end of the month. Read "A Change in Direction" last night in the open mic. Reading? I'm juggling…