Penquis Valley High School

The traditional marketplace for book sales is shrinking. The six largest publishers are shipping more books and selling less than ever before, even though the distribution chain is saturated with copies that will eventually be returned. The basic laws of supply and demand are being ignored and no one is trying to do anything about [...]

My publishing journey has been unusual enough that friends and publicists alike have suggested I write about it, especially the part about being a man writing love stories in a woman’s genre. But it’s not just the genre. The whole publishing and agency world I encountered was dominated by women. Sound interesting enough? Okay. There’s [...]

One day when I had nothing to do (well, actually, I had a lot to do, but I didn’t want to do any of it), I decided to play the Google game. This is the one where you input your own name or something else into the field in quotes to see how many search [...]

Yes folks, it’s the long awaited OJ Simpson confession book! Except that in OJ’s mind it was anything but, he claims it is a fictional account of how we would have done it, if he had done it! I have lots of problems with this book, not least of which is what was going through [...]

You must be prepared to work always without applause. - Ernest Hemingway
Much of the wisdom available from established authors may be surprising in it’s honesty and straightforward nature. The reason this is likely true is the authors in question have had enough success that there is no need to candy coat the truths they have [...]

Love songs are everywhere. But does anyone have a definition of love, which &ndash people claim &ndash makes the world go around? Sure, it’s easy to tell when you’re in love with someone. [The heart pounds and you act like an idiot.] But it’s much harder to say if you actually love someone.
Enter the mind [...]

Landmark Status is a wonderfully funny book. Alan Rolnick uses Miami as the backdrop, and real estate as the weapon, to take the reader on a madcap journey that I can guarantee you will enjoy. When I put the put the book down and wrote the review, I just knew I wanted to talk to [...]

Someone said: “Writing is either easy, or it’s impossible.”
He was lying.
I can’t tell you how to finish your book, but I can tell you how I finished mine. Please apply these simple, difficult steps to your writing process.
1. Appropriate aptitudes and psychopathology
I’ve always scored highly on the verbal portions of standardized aptitude tests&ndash&ndashthe SAT, GRE, [...]

Ever had your moral convictions put to the test? Most of us think we know what we’d do in any given situation. But do we really? Maybe another unknown part of us surfaces and takes over&ndashleaving us in a confusion of questions. But the deed is done and we cannot take it back.
This is the [...]

Today, Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest, Helen Barer author of Fitness Kills.
Helen is a native New Yorker and has spent many years as a writer of non-fiction ranging from cookbooks to television documentaries.
Norm:
Good day Helen and thanks for participating in our interview.
Helen:
I’m delighted to have been [...]