“Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense.” ~ Robert Frost

Ye Olde Assorted Nonsense 

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Three Fave Books
Books, Publishing, Marketing Joe Mahoney Books, Publishing, Marketing Joe Mahoney

Three Fave Books

Recently I was invited to participate in a terrific project by the folks at Shepherd, led by Ben Fox. The whole project is about leading readers to books. Some pundits think the book is dead or dying. Ben sure doesn’t. He’s almost single-handedly trying to revitalize book discovery. And as an author, I sure appreciate it.

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Erratum
Publishing, Books, Memoir Joe Mahoney Publishing, Books, Memoir Joe Mahoney

Erratum

Whenever you write and publish a book, you do your best to get it right. Make it as perfect as possible. It’s really difficult to accomplish that, even with the best of editors, which I had while putting Adventures in the Radio Trade together.

Since the book’s publication I have become aware of a few little glitches. The following errors, typos and omissions were all my fault, introduced after the substantive edit of the book, or simply not the sort of thing an editor could catch.

The beauty of owning your own publishing company, which I do, means that one can fix such glitches with relative ease.

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Reflections on a Book Launch
Publishing, Marketing, Fiction, Life, Friends, Name Dropping Joe Mahoney Publishing, Marketing, Fiction, Life, Friends, Name Dropping Joe Mahoney

Reflections on a Book Launch

“How’d the book launch go?” somebody asked me the other day.

There aren’t enough superlatives in the English language to answer that question.

“Amazing,” I tried.

I could also have said, “Magic.” Or: “One of the best days of my life.”

All completely true. Certainly the beginning of an answer.

Here’s a longer answer.

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Dear Author Joe
Marketing, Publishing, Life Joe Mahoney Marketing, Publishing, Life Joe Mahoney

Dear Author Joe

The one sure way to make money in publishing is off the backs of gullible authors. Offering dubious marketing schemes, for example.

If I had any brains at all I would give up my foolish dream of making a go of it as an author and immediately start exploiting my fellow authors for all they’re worth. I would likely make a mint.

I would certainly be better at it than the fellow who attempted to exploit me today.

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Robert J. Sawyer’s SF Academic Conference at McMaster, 2013
Writing, Publishing, Academic, Name Dropping, Science Fiction, Fiction Joe Mahoney Writing, Publishing, Academic, Name Dropping, Science Fiction, Fiction Joe Mahoney

Robert J. Sawyer’s SF Academic Conference at McMaster, 2013

On September 14th, 2013, I attended an SF academic conference at McMaster University.

The conference was in honour of science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer’s archival donation to the university library collection.

It wasn’t a typical science fiction convention. There was nobody in costume. This was a conference in which academics from all over North America presented papers and talks on the subject of science fiction. Talks on subjects like “Russia’s Afrofuturism” by Anindita Banerjee from Cornell, and “Sawyer and Czernada in the Classroom” by David DeGraff of Alfred University.

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Just Peachy
Publishing, Writing, CBC, Marketing Joe Mahoney Publishing, Writing, CBC, Marketing Joe Mahoney

Just Peachy

It has been about a month since I released my memoir about working in radio, Adventures in the Radio Trade, into the wild, the day after I retired from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the day I became a full time writer.

“How’s all that working our for you?” someone asked me the other day.

“Just peachy,” I told them.

“What do you mean by just peachy?” they wanted to know.

“My wife bought a whole bunch of peaches and we had to eat them all up before they went bad,” I explained. “They were some good though.”

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Of Novels and Nephews
Health, Publishing, Conferences, Life Joe Mahoney Health, Publishing, Conferences, Life Joe Mahoney

Of Novels and Nephews

My novel, A Time and a Place, is about an uncle trying to save his nephew. The nephew’s name is Ridley. I wrote the first draft (and named the characters) long before Ryley was born. Like the uncle in my novel, I once turned into a seagull to try to save my nephew. No, wait, that didn’t happen. But the fact that I should be offered a publishing deal for a book about an uncle trying to save his nephew on a weekend that I would be visiting a nephew in serious trouble struck me as eerily coincidental.

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