Comments on: Book fair horror

By: 101 Reasons to Stop Writing : » Weekend Update (8-14 October 2007)

101 Reasons to Stop Writing : » Weekend Update (8-14 October 2007) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:03:40 +0000

[...] If you read only one linked article from this Weekend Update, I’m wasting my time. (Via Justine Larbalestier.) [...]

By: Lizzy-wa

Lizzy-wa — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:40:44 +0000

hehe. arent frankfurters like…hot dogs or something? hey Justine-la, i just finished EXTRAS and started Magic or Madness. im on the part where Reason is exploring the witches castle. spooky-making…like it so far! gotta go read now.

-Lizzy-wa OUT!

By: Kadie-Wa

Kadie-Wa — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:00:48 +0000

i love that! it’s so cool!!

By: Nicholas Waller

Nicholas Waller — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:55:27 +0000

I used to go to Frankfurt in my publishing days and it is colossal but it is worth pointing out that fiction is only a small part of it. I was in college textbook publishing with Prentice Hall and Frankfurt was a convenient one-stop-shop to meet those of my more obscure Middle East and Africa customers it was not economic to travel any further to see (though it would have been more fun).

The story in the article about “The Lord of the Rings” and Faber’s slush pile can’t be right as LotR was famously published by Allen and Unwin, who had published The Hobbit, and involved a reader’s report by Unwin’s young son Rayner.

The “oddest title” prize mentioned is known as the Diagram Prize and is presented by UK trade mag The Bookseller. Prentice Hall had the honour of snaffling one of the earliest with “The Joy of Chickens” in 1980.

Some winning titles may be a bit too self-consciously contrived, but you can find a list by googling/wikipedia “diagram prize”. My favourites include “How to Avoid Huge Ships”, “Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice” and “Reusing Old Graves: A Report on Popular British Attitudes”.

By: Justine

Justine — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:43:10 +0000

Yeah, the whole article is packed full of excellence. I laughed and laughed.

By: jennifer, aka literaticat

jennifer, aka literaticat — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:20:21 +0000

this might be my favorite part:

Pat Kavanagh—or Pat, as I’ll call her rather inappropriately, since she expressly said in an email she didn’t want to talk to me

nono i like the whole thing.