I found this great collection of quotes, and I decided to share it…
What Is Science? From Feynman to Sagan to Asimov to Curie, an Omnibus of Definitions
Chinese poetry and Michael Bay
A few hours back I was chatting with my friend Lucy about one of the trickiest part of publishing.
Synopses, Amazon calls them.
But I prefer blurbs.
You know, the digital equivalent of the book’s back cover copy.
The text that’s splattered under your book details on the Amazon page, and probably you attach to your ebook as part of the metadata.
It’s not the first thing the readers sees about the book – title, cover, author name and price come first – and yet it’s important as hell.
Because if it’s true that often the cover sells the book, the blurb has the all-important purpose of tipping the scales, helping the undecided to go on and shell out their hard-earned money.
There might be a job, in there – blurb-writer.
A sure-fire, 100%-hits writer of blurbs could sell them for five bucks per copy and make a living out of it. Continue reading
Cheap without cheapening would be nice…
… and as I am on the subject of doing research for my new story, I think I’ll plug another fine book.
The Shambhala Guide to Taoism*, by Eva Wong, is a wonderful one-stop resource on the history and structure of Taoist thinking. Miss Wong’s guide is a perfect reference to keep handy as I write.
This, in its Italian edition, was the suggested “textbook” for my course, in the days of old, together with Cleary’s Vitality, Energy, Spirit: The Taoist Sourcebook*.
Now, I used to suggest this book because it’s complete, clear and, in its Italian edition, it was rather cheap (less than ten bucks) – perfect for my students.
On the other hand, as I found out while writing this short post (but as I had been suspecting for quite a while), the original edition features about fifty sketches and tables, while the Italian edition only has fourteen.
The quality of the paper is also dismal for the Italian book – but that’s sort of ok.
I can take the cheap paper, but not the elimination of part of the contents as intended by the author – be it text, or figures.
This is the sort of thing I find really irritating.
The same happened with Luce Boulnois Silk Road: Monks, Warriors and Merchants, a wonderful illustrated book I can’t recommend enough, that was published without illustrations and printed on cheap throwaway paper in Italy.
I understand the need to provide high-quality texts at low prices, and I fully support any viable strategy to bring more good books to those that can’t afford high-end editions (heck, I can’t afford them!)
But butchering the books to make them cheaper is not the way to go.
OK, end of pet peeve.
Sorry for the brief rant.
Looks like I’ll have to get me an English-language copy of Eva Wong’s Guide… I’m curious about the missing images.
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* Hmmmm… that’s a lot of Shambhala Publishing books in one day… If it’s any consolation, they are not paying me to plug their excellent books.
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Again on the joys of research…
I said it in the past and I’ll keep saying it – the best part of writing historical adventure is often doing research.
A few years back I taught a course on Taoist Culture for the Italian-Chinese association in Turin.
It was a short introductory course, based on my somewhat non-systematic study of Taoism and Zen – something I started as an “interest” in the mid-80s.
The course was well received – and with the money I got from it I decided to buy me something I had desired for a long time: the four volumes of Thomas Cleary‘s translations of the Taoist Classics, published by Shambhala Publications. Continue reading
Back on the (Silk) Road
The great news is, a suitably pulp-ish project is taking shape right as I’m writing this, that promises to bring me back to the Silk Road as a setting for a new story (alas, I’ll be on the Silk Road in spirit, not in person).
So here’s some music to set the mood.
The Silk Road Ensemble featuring Yo-Yo Ma, live.
Enjoy.
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The Hand of Isfet – Contubernium
OK, you know the drill – new ebook coming in two weeks, great cover, you can pre-order it…
What about a sneak peek at the contents?
The Hand of Isfet is a 35.000+ words collection, with five new stories about Aculeo & Amunet – that some of you might already have met in Bride of the Swamp God and in Lair of the White Ape.
What’s inside The Hand of Isfet?
Well, for instance, there’s Centurion Nennius Britannicus, and his band of brave legionaries – a contubernium, to be more historically accurate.
This happens somewhere near the middle of the story that gives the title to the whole ebook. Continue reading
Karavansara 