A reprise of a post from last year. Contract clauses beginning with the phrase, “For the avoidance of doubt” are a common feature of business contracts. For example, Company A is negotiating a three-year contract with Company B to purchase twenty different products from Company B. The contract includes ten pages outlining minimum purchases, pricing … Read more
Contract clauses beginning with the phrase, “For the avoidance of doubt” are a common feature of business contracts. For example, Company A is negotiating a three-year contract with Company B to purchase twenty different products from Company B. The contract includes ten pages outlining minimum purchases, pricing and quantity discounts, price adjustments for changes in … Read more
From Independent Book Publishers Association: Hybrid publishing companies behave just like traditional publishing companies in all respects, except that they publish books using an author-subsidized business model, as opposed to financing all costs themselves and, in exchange, return a higher-than-industry-standard share of sales proceeds to the author. A hybrid publisher makes income from a combination … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: Graphic novels, nonfiction, and poetry stand as one of those topics in the wider industry of publishing that seem to be continually “new,” strangely needing to be “introduced” over and over. . . . . As Publishing Perspectives readers know, France’s Festival d’Angoulême recently had its 47th iteration and other festivals and … Read more
From The Washington Post Magazine: In December 2018, celebrities and collectors jetted into South Florida for Art Basel Miami Beach, the annual contemporary art fair. Hundreds of people in blazers and party dresses crowded into the Rubell Family Collection, a private museum, for the opening of an exhibit of work by the late Purvis Young. … Read more
From Aeon: ‘I think, therefore I am,’ the 17th-century philosopher René Descartes proclaimed as a first truth. That truth was rediscovered in 1887 by Helen Keller, a deaf and blind girl, then seven years of age: ‘I did not know that I am. I lived in a world that was a no world … When … Read more
It’s been five months since Passive Guy started this blog. The original business purpose was to build a platform to support some PG works of fiction that won’t see the light of day for awhile (PG has issues with letting go of backstory). Since his readers are his constituency, PG decided to provide a State … Read more
From The Nation: It’s a common trope in movies: A mob enforcer walks into a shop, looks around, and then says to the owner, “Nice place you got here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.” Every viewer understands that a shakedown is in the works. The shop owner can either pay up … Read more
From The Economist: Aaron was winding up a work call as his partner Jim waited at the dinner table. “I’ll just be a minute or two here,” Aaron whispered, cupping his phone. “No probs,” Jim whispered back. Minutes passed and Aaron was still pacing around the apartment with the phone to his ear. Turning to … Read more
From Woman Writers, Women’s Books Every writer gets stuck at one time or another. Being stuck can trigger feelings of anxiety and self-doubt (to name just a few!) but it doesn’t have to spell the end of your project, or you as a writer. Ray Bradbury famously said: “Writer’s block is just a warning that … Read more
A comment to one of the many Amazon posts Passive Guy has made recently included a link to Borderlands Books, a San Francisco fantasy, science fiction and horror bookstore selling new and used books. Of specific interest was an essay written by owner Alan Beatts entitled Amazon is Nobody’s Friend, Part One Excerpts from a much … Read more