Deep Thoughts

Our #FridayReads-2012!

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Ali Fisher

friday reads pile

Talia's reading:

A MURDER AT ROSAMUND'S GATE by debut author Susanna Calkins and she's delighted to report that it's catching her in the same way that Charles Todd's Bess Crawford series caught her.

Ali's reading:

JOHN DIES AT THE END by David Wong, a pseudonymous senior editor of Cracked.com, because she guzzled the
sequel, THIS BOOK IS FULL OF SPIDERS, and just had to go back and read the
first one.

We're both reading:

ROOKIE YEARBOOK ONE edited by fashion wunderkind Tavi
Gevinson (RookieMag.com) because holy crap this book is full of amazing stuff—honest articles, fashion shoot
photos, and glittery teen world gems (ie: stickers!).

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FSG is Book Keeping on Facebook!

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Ali Fisher

book keeping

Those of you on Facebook (I think there are a few of you out there) are really going to want to take a peek at Farrar, Straus and Giroux's new readers' community page, Book Keeping!

They post lots of lovely digital tidbits for book lovers and it's a great way to stay updated on the latest news and reviews for FSG titles. There are also exclusive Book Keeping extras for likers (is that a word yet?).

Did we mention that they have the cutest logo on Facebook? Because, honey, they sure do!

Bee a part of it here: Facebook.com/FSGBookKeeping [...]

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Portrait of a Pocket Kitten

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Guys! Boss Lady Talia is back in the New York office for a few days and she brought a little buddy to keep me company...

Librarians, meet my as yet unnamed pocket kitten:

pocket kitty to scale

The AYUPK is pictured here next to a binder clip for scale. [...]

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Monday Fun Day! (9/10/2012 Edition)

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Ali Fisher

We're kicking off the week with some award-nominee announcements (yay!) and a few articles by some of our favorite science-fiction authors.

- The 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury has announced the 2012 longlist and we're excited to see the following titles on their list:

RU by Kim Thúy (Bloomsbury, 11/2012)

THE IMPOSTER BRIDE by Nancy Richler (St. Martin's Press, 2/2013)

Finalists will be announced in October. See the full longlist here!

- The Crime Writers' Association shortlisted GOOD PEOPLE (Minotaur Books, April 2013) by Ewart Hutton for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award! The winner will be announced on October 18th. See the full shortlist here!

- Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross spent nine years working together on what ultimately became THE RAPTURE OF THE NERDS and there's a great article on the Tor/Forge blog in which they interview one another. Read it now!

"So we began emailing the story back and forth, adding around 1000 words each time, building on each other's work (and, I think, trying to provoke each other by periodically adding preposterous elements—'here, write your way out of this!'). And at the end of the day we wound up with a novella, which Ellen Datlow bought for SciFi.com. And there matters rested in 2003 or 2004 or thereabouts, until..."

- John Scalzi was interviewed in Locus and you can read part of that interview online.

"I’ll be blunt about it: humor is one of the great taboos of science fiction. It’s not just an issue of being able to write it well. When I first started writing, I was told, 'You can’t sell a humorous science fiction novel.'"

[...]

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The Talia Show is On the Road

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Welp, it's official: Talia has taken The Talia Show on the road.

From now on, she'll mostly be working out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and occasionally returning to Macmillan headquarters in New York. Don't worry, you'll still see her at conferences and online.

Yesterday Talia had Shmackies and Marcy pack up at home while she packed up her office and they're all soon to be on the road south (I was promised road trip pictures!).

The cats seem to be taking the move in stride so far (proof!), but I will keep you updated.

Be well until next we see you, Talia!

Take care of our girl, Shmackies!

Send me coping chocolates, everyone else!

If you hear soft whimpering sounds coming from the Flatiron, that's just me being a baby.

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Monday (Absurdly) Fun Day! (7/16/2012 Edition)

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Welcome to a new week, biblio-buddies!

We put up a number of important and delightful posts last week that we don't want you to miss including:

- An interview with debut novelist Lydia Netzer whose curious and compelling first novel, SHINE SHINE SHINE, comes out this week!

- Sign up information for the Edelweiss Librarian Boot Camp which you should all add to your calendars.

- The list of forthcoming titles that Talia presented during the most recent Booklist webinar, Book Battle 2: this time it's personal!, and we included a link to her slides.

GalleyCat has your cat video fix covered with The Most Popular Literary Cat Videos of All Time.

But most importantly: Sunday was Talia's birthday! I stayed behind on Friday with Peter and Emily from Academic Marketing and we did that thing that everyone hears about, but no one actually does: we blew up hundreds of balloons to leave in Talia's office...

Total balloon count: 432.

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Hey There, Fellow UNSHELVED Readers!

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Welcome to the Macmillan Library blog! We're so glad you were intrigued enough by our goofy faces to click through and see what we're all about (if you didn't make it here via Unshelved, see the adorable ad that Bill made here).

We'll kick off introductions by letting you in on the things we secretly love the most. Talia, for one, goes crazy for mini-cupcakes, costume fairy wings, and her two sassy cats. And Ali is a sucker for sweaters with foxes on them, puppies in top hats, and American macaroons.

When it comes to our reading preferences, Talia is all about the psychological thrillers—the gorier the better—whereas Ali opts for the epic sci-fi and fantasy stories—the more spaceships the better. Both of us are suckers for anything with a cute animal on the cover.

But that's not all we read. We're here specifically to chat with you about all of the great Adult books coming from Macmillan's publishers (including St. Martin’s Press, Henry Holt, Tor/Forge, Minotaur, Picador, and Farrar, Straus & Giroux) as well as our distributed publishers. Please feel free to ask us questions!

We encourage you to browse through our recent posts, head straight to our digital catalogs, or sign up for our Booklist webinar.

And for the Sherrilyn Kenyon fans who are quick on the draw:

We have 10 extra galleys of Sherrilyn Kenyon's TIME UNTIME, the latest book in the Dark-Hunter series. Just send an e-mail to Library-at-MacmillanUSA.com with your name, the library you work for, and the full mailing address where you would like to receive the galley.

If you're new, introduce yourselves in the comment section below or come chat with us on Twitter (@MacmillanLib)! We look forward to getting to know you.

All the best!
Talia & Ali
[...]

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Macmillan Library Presents: Tips from Grammar Girl!

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Class act Mignon Fogarty (a.k.a. Grammar Girl) has kindly agreed to teach us how to talk and write about books the proper way and we'll be posting her monthly tips here on the blog! Take it away, Grammar Girl!

Talia, the blood-queen of library marketing, is obsessed with murder but also wants some grammar tips. So many people to rub out, so little time, but you still need to do it with style and proper grammar.

Addictive Versus Addicting

That feeling your favorite detective gets when he finally gets the bad guy in his sights--it's addictive. That's right, dopamine-releasing addictive, but it's not addicting.

Reserve addicting for something or someone who creates a dependency: "That darn Chelsea Cain is addicting me to Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell's twisted love story."

Between Versus Among

How could you possibly choose between DEAD SCARED, KILL YOU TWICE, and THE OTHER WOMAN? You shouldn't have to! Get them all.

Further, you shouldn't be afraid to use between when you have more than two distinct items. That you shouldn't do so is just a nasty grammar myth. (What do we love? Mythology? Yes. Grammar myths? No.)

Among is for groups of people (fear spread among the criminals when they learned that Detective Talia was on the case) and locations (they hid among the vagrants in Central Park).

Flaunt Versus Flout

Criminals flout the law. They're on the outs, just like the "out" in flout.

When you flaunt something, you're showing it off, perhaps throwing it in someone's face. My favorite TV almost-a-detective, Rick Castle, usually doesn't flaunt his wealth, except when he's upset with the real detective, Kate Beckett. Then he brings blondes to crime scenes in his Ferrari. Flaunting extraordinaire.

Find more about these 3 topics and 98 more in Grammar Girl's forthcoming book, 101 TROUBLESOME WORDS YOU'LL MASTER IN NO TIME (out July 3).

Grammar Girl will be signing books at ALA Annual on Friday, June 22nd at 5:30pm in booth 2544!

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Monday Fun Day! (6/18/2012 Edition)

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Ali Fisher

It's a Monday morning Macmillan party and you're invited, my friend!

- Can you believe it? ALA Annual is almost here! Add our events to your schedule now: The Great Non-Fiction Read-Alike! Book Battle II: The Sequel! Author signings! Glitter stars! Tea!

- The Locus Award winners were announced this weekend and we're delighted to see that Ellen Datlow was awarded Best Editor and Tor was awarded Best Publisher—woohoo! See all of the 2012 Locus Award winners here.

- The LA Times published their extensive 2012 Summer Reading Guide including some excellent picks from Macmillan including:

Beach Reads:

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson
Monarch Beach by Anita Hughes
The Nightmare by Lars Kepler
The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer

History and Biography Reads:

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Our Divided Political Heart by E.J. Dionne Jr.
A Good Man by Mark K. Shriver
James Joyce by Gordon Bowker

Young Adult & Children:

This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

Lifestyle:

Bring It! by Tony Horton
The Gift of Pets by Bruce R. Coston
Meander by Jeremy Seal
What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz

Audio:

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

- For those of you curious about the inner workings of Macmillan, you may be interested in reading "Reorganization at Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck."

- And finally, can somebody get this pup a sandwich already?!

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The Post-BEA/Pre-ALA Non-Freak Out

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Yes, BEA just ended and yes, ALA is next week and no, we're not packed or prepped or awake... but are we freaking out?

Ha!

Who us?

HAHA!

These two? NO WAY!

Us two?

THE TWO CHILLEST LIBRARY MARKETERS EVER?!

Ok, yes, we're a little wigged. But we picked out a mascot for the week to help us keep it cool:

Coffee and hugs welcome.

[...]

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Our #FridayReads-2012!

Talia's reading:

Ali's reading:

We're both reading:

FSG is Book Keeping on Facebook!

Portrait of a Pocket Kitten

Monday Fun Day! (9/10/2012 Edition)

The Talia Show is On the Road

Monday (Absurdly) Fun Day! (7/16/2012 Edition)

Hey There, Fellow UNSHELVED Readers!

Macmillan Library Presents: Tips from Grammar Girl!

Addictive Versus Addicting

Between Versus Among

Flaunt Versus Flout

Monday Fun Day! (6/18/2012 Edition)

Beach Reads:

History and Biography Reads:

Young Adult & Children:

Lifestyle:

Audio:

The Post-BEA/Pre-ALA Non-Freak Out