K. Marvin Bruce

I love used bookstores.  While visiting one recently, I thought of how used books represent immortality to a writer. As usual, I came out with mostly an armload of non-fiction.  I write mainly fiction, but non-fiction gives me the material with which to work.  Many of my ideas come from the world of what really happened, often to someone else. Nevertheless, I lingered long over the fiction section.  Maybe it’s because it’s harder to find specific books of fiction.  I keep a list and I take it with me to stores—otherwise I get over-excited and can’t find anything.  I did spy an early set of Poe, but I left him for a more worthy owner. The fact that many people came in on a pleasant Saturday kindled my hopes.  There’s so much you can do with a summer Saturday.  Spending it looking at old books is one that few select, but here I was among other inveterate readers.  Readers unite! Used books mean that an author’s words continue a...

Have you ever gone to a used book store and found uncorrected proofs for sale?  Some store owners give them away.  In the same store you might find multiple copies of a book that had been a best seller, once upon a time.  It all has to do with how publishing works. Once a book has been accepted for publication, the publisher has to guess how many might sell.  Although this is an educated guess, it always involves a risk.  A friend in publishing told me that’s way it’s always important to point out a book that is similar to yours.  A unique book is high risk. For a while there, anything vampires would sell.  I think we might be seeing a kind of dawn rising on the vampire genre (now that I’ve written a vampire novel), but because of the—love it or hate it—success of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga, everyone wanted vampires.  They sucked in money. A traditional publisher will send your manuscript to a copy-editor and then a typesetter....