Frequently and randomly I give away books on Twitter. I ask people what they want, they tell me, and I do my best to get the book(s) in the mail sometime in the next couple of days. I'd guess that in the last four months we've given away...

Three years ago it was all the rage to say that you believed in Hope and Change. The mistakes and missteps of the recent past could be tidied up and moved to the attic as relics of a bygone era. Today, the overwhelming sentiment seems to be that the cleanup...

A few years ago I was in the office of a fairly prominent NYC literary agent. In those earlier days, back when we were still developing the Bleak House Books brand, I'd get nervous in Manhattan--worried like I was that somebody was going to ask to see my invitation or...

This is the first in a two part series discussing the author's experience and questioning of what he, as a reader and 21st Century American, wants as far as "reality" goes in non-fiction, television, and pop culture. It is a story about family.

It's quiet when I step into the...

This fall I'll be traveling to a few writing conferences where I will sit on a panel with a few other publisher or agent types and we'll do our best to answer questions about the industry, trying to manage expectations but to also keep people excited about writing. Inevitably, the...

A few years ago I made some overly-dramatic proclamation in Publishers Weekly about never accepting e-books and "they'll need to pry my paperback from my cold, dead hands" and probably some other shit that sounded like I was standing on the front porch of our office shaking my...

Though you may have seen some worrisome headlines over the last few years, I want to let you know that publishing isn't dead. Or dying. The way publishing has traditionally run is, perhaps, on its way to the nursing home, but the next of kin has been notified, and things...

I am a self-identified dirtball.

I am only three generations removed from the coal mines of southeastern Kansas. I went to a second rate university and took six years to graduate. On the days I wasn't in class, I was installing carpet or working in a warehouse, lots of the...