Kevin Reichard

Which is why I have some very mixed feelings about it. On the one hand I don’t see the usefulness of Claude learning about a Linux guide I wrote 27 years ago. On the other hand, I hate the deception of it all.

We’re being offered $3K per title to settle the Anthropic lawsuit. This for some very outdated technical texts.

Data point for #publishing folks out there. We used to ship at least one copy of our spring training guide to Canada. Since August, exactly zero copies of the paperback guide have been shipped to Canada, with ebook sales remaining steady.

Baker & Taylor Prepares Plan to Shut Down At a town hall yesterday, B&T owner and CEO Aman Kochar announced that following the termination of the ReaderLink acquisition deal, he does not see a path to keep the library wholesaler in business.

Can’t say I am surprised. Very unresponsive, very slow to pay bills (if they did; now we have another bad debt to write off). Sad for the employees losing their jobs, though www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

I tested positive last week. My get-better routine involved walking my Cockapoo four times a day. So get a dog and start walking. Feeling great today.

I check Bluesky publishing posts every few days, and it struck me why I find it a very sad place: no one seems to be having fun! Retired from web publishing to focus on books, and overall it’s been a hoot. People: if you don’t find any joy in the creative process, then maybe it’s not for you.

St. Paul Pioneer Press owned by Alden and run separately from the 32 Chicago-area Pioneer Press papers controlled by the Tribune. STPP bought by Alden long before Alden bought Tribune Publishing.

So unsafe. Here’s Gold Medal Park in downtown Minneapolis. Walk the dog here four times a day. He is so full of crap.

Everyone’s golden age of alt-weeklies is when they hit 18 and saw glimpses of the wider world. Had the same reaction when I first read the Twin Cities Reader as a high schooler. ;)

Go back farther to the 1980s and the rise of the local music scene. It was essential reading. Cut my teeth with a few bylines there.

Amazon’s sales rank algorithm—not a pure sales listing—doesn’t work the way you think it does. It’s a combo of interest in the sales listing plus a percentage of sellthroughs (a stat available to sellers) plus units moved. You can’t externally fake it, but it’s more a measure of movement, not sales.

Social media interns likely prepared this blurb.

Sicced, not sicked

It was not but tends to be recognized regionally, not nationally. Never had a Minnesota or Wisconsin employer recognize it; my NYC employer did. Just because a day is a federal holiday does not mean an employer needs to recognize it.

Art in Bloom, Minneapolis Institute of Art. Great crowd — IG heaven.

There is no platform where I see worse writing and publishing advice than Threads. It’s really confounding.

Oh, sweetie, are you out of touch if you want to pitch furry novels to a middle grade audience. ;)

Returned from AZ spring training to find our 2025 print guides completely sold out. Yay. Next book went to the printer yesterday. Yay. Will announce next two books shortly. Yay. Met with author in AZ about 2026 title. Yay. Jim Gilliam bio a solid seller. Yay. Print is a hoot.

I didn’t say it was a great system. It sucks when a print mag is discontinued and it sucks to be laid off because of circumstances beyond their control. Btw, do you actually know if PE is involved with Outside, or are you just throwing out buzz phrases? I have never worked with PE firms.

Based on actual knowledge after working 20 years in the mag publishing industry. Laid off folks myself; not to be crass, but they are the least likely to have a broad view of everything. Outside is doing exactly what it said it would going back to 2022–going digital.

Outside acquired a travel firm and is laying off some employees and hiring in other areas. www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/... it announced plans to move totally to digital in 2024. help.outsideinc.com/hc/en-us/art... far from dead.

So you deduced this based on the math? It’s 100 percent inaccurate. Here is a stat for you. We have been blessed with a lot of great blurbs authors, ranging from John Feinstein and the late Bill Walton to Andrew and David Maraniss, and they all supplied original prose.

Won’t happen — meta and X algos penalize posts with links. They don’t want to lose the eyeball.

New to you, but not new in general.

Boy, this is a pitch that’s been around for a decade or more

Huh. Look at that. Landed at #1 on a few lists today. Beat out a Big Five title as well. www.augustpublications.com/products/jim...

You are so right about that. And the Amazon app itself is pretty evil.

The Amazon app is first. That’s not the same as the Kindle app, I believe. In fact, you can’t even buy Kindle content from the Amazon mobile app.

Argh! Sorry, Kobo.

Don’t use Kindle in my iPhone.

One more thing to note: Lino sources most of its titles from Ingram. And, as any publisher can tell you, Ingram is such a JOY to have as a partner. ;)