Who Is That Guest Blogger?

Well, well, well! The Writers’ League’s new administrative assistant, Sara Ortiz, is a guest blogger at the Austin360.com “Out & About” blog!

She makes an excellent point about the demise of print as a medium, sigh, inspired by John Freeman’s recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

Check it out!

Google Settlement Teleconference

The Writers’ League of Texas Presents

The Google Book Settlement:

What’s an Author to Do?

Teleconference Call with Media Attorney Steven D. Smit

4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2

Free to Writers’ League members / $10 for nonmembers
Register here

Steven D. Smith

If you’re an author who has received an opt-out letter regarding the Google Book Settlement, it’s hard to know what opting out or staying in actually means for you. And with the opt-out deadline of Sept. 4 approaching, authors are scrambling to make a decision.

As a service to our members and other authors, the Writers’ League of Texas is hosting a teleconference call with attorney Steven D. Smit, of Graves, Dougherty, Hearon, & Moody in Austin. Steve  has been monitoring the Google settlement and will give an overview of  the settlement and review the pros and cons of opting out.

NOTE: The conference call is limited to the first 90 registrants; you MUST register here. The dial-in number and pass code will be sent to registrants in an e-mail confirmation.

For more on the Google Settlement, see our previous post, “The Google Settlement: Opt Out or Stay In?”

The Google Settlement: Opt Out or Stay In?

We’re just as puzzled by authors as to what the Google Book Settlement really means for them and whether they should or should not opt out of the settlement. Although the Writers’ League of Texas cannot advise our members one way or another, we can provide some resources to help authors make an informed decision.

Bloggin’ the Book Tour

Could this be the future of book tours? Jeff Salamon at the Austin American-Statesman writes: “In a tweet a couple of weeks ago from the Texas Writers’ League conference, I professed befuddlement at the notion of a ‘blog talk radio show,’ and also felt befuddlement about the notion of a ‘blog book tour,’ which someone mentioned. Apparently, these are for real. Scroll down on this page to see one author’s jam-packed virtual book tour.”

That looks like like one promising list of book blogs. Even if you’re not plotting a virtual book tour, they’re worth checking out.

P.S. Thanks for the shout-out, Jeff! And be sure to bookmark Jeff’s “Litcetera” column for your weekly reading!

Good News: Fiction Reading is UP!

This just in from the New York Times and the National Endowment for the Arts: “Fiction Reading Increases for Adults”!

“After years of bemoaning the decline of a literary culture in the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts says in a report that it now believes a quarter-century of precipitous decline in fiction reading has reversed.” See the full story here.

Hurrah!