Category Archives: Mike H

October 01, 2013   mhoogland   characters, chat, classics, debate, dialogue, endings, fun, Mike H, opinion  
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Memorable characters

One of the greatest television shows of all time ended Sunday night. Breaking Bad wasn’t incredible because of its cinematography, its acting, or its storyline—though all contributed to the brilliance of the show. It was its characters, one in particular.

Walter White. Heisenberg.

It’s not a new story. Well, not completely. Breaking Bad is, at its core, the story of a man who, little by little, loses himself to the darkness within. The progression is always gradual, and the trick is making it seem natural, but some of the greatest (and by greatest, I mean my favorite) characters in literature wage this type of internal struggle. As readers, we love emotional turmoil. We can relate to it. It’s what defines us as human beings.

Some of my favorites:

Rand al’Thor from Robert Jordan’s THE WHEEL OF TIME series is driven insane as the series progresses.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is literature’s greatest detective, yet Holmes is a struggling drug addict and habitual tobacco user, habits that threaten his trademark deductive capabilities.

LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding. Pick a character, any character.

There’s a few. Let’s hear others. Who are your favorite characters?

September 17, 2013   mhoogland   adaptation, audience, book to film, celebrity, classics, commercial, community, critiques, dialogue, fun, interaction, Mike H, opinion, reviews  
7

Why are the books always better?

I watched Gatsby the other day. Excuse me, let me clarify. I tried to watch yet another disappointing movie adaptation, another beloved-book-turned-train-wreck-of-a-movie. And I’ve never once gushed over F. Scott Fitzgerald’s magnum opus like so many do. No, I went in with reasonable expectations. Expectations even Leonardo DiCaprio with all his talent and all his movie-star swag couldn’t help the movie live up to.

So cheers to good books that can’t be experienced any other way than through the written word. Gatsby was flawed from the start. People have tried to make the movie before…and all have failed. Some other good examples of poor movie adaptations:

 

The Road by Cormac McCarthy: The man’s a genius. Again, another flawed project from the start—it was near impossible for this movie to live up to the book. Nobody does McCarthy better than McCarthy.

 

Any one of the Harry Potter movies: I know a lot of people liked these movies, but as someone who read the books, I can tell you that they don’t compare. So much was missing. Great parts were inevitably left out, and I was inevitably let down.

 

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events: This was truly the worst adaptation of a book I’ve ever seen. The whole film was one unfortunate event after another. Someone during my show time screamed out, “My eyes!” and ran crying from theater only twenty minutes in.

My question to you is: why? Why are the books always better? What does the written word evoke that motion pictures can’t? Is it simply the element of surprise or something more? Can you think of a movie that defies this unwritten rule and surpasses its source material?

September 03, 2013   mhoogland   advice, chat, dialogue, Mike H, numbers, problem solving, questions, resources  
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Behind the numbers

Looking at a royalty statement for the first time can be a little confusing. While the math is never hard, certain terms like “reserve against returns” and “subsidiary rights” can cause headaches where there needn’t be. The layout of a royalty statement is important too—an unorganized format can make reading a royalty statement ten times harder. Since there is no standard format though, I’ll just touch upon some basics.

Reserve against returns. Yes, most publishers don’t pay authors all the royalties they earn in the one period covered by a statement. The reserve against returns shows the amount withheld by the publisher for a limited period of time against the expectation of returns. This reserve is then released on later statements (assuming the book continues to sell).

Subsidiary rights. This is the section of the royalty statement that lists the revenue accumulated from rights that the publisher has sold to third parties. For example, this could include any earnings accrued by foreign editions of a book.

Unearned balance. An advance is simply that ladies and gentlemen. An advance. In order for a book to start earning royalties, it must first earn out the advance payment. Only then will an author see a positive balance. Negative balances are usually portrayed in parentheses.

Royalties earned. This amount depends on both the net units sold, as well as the terms stipulated in the author’s contract. Royalty rates range, but earnings are generally calculated based on the net or retail price of the book.

So those are some basics. Have more questions about royalty statements? Bring ’em!

August 20, 2013   mhoogland   art, favorites, fun, lists, Mike H, opinion, photos, trends  
3

Less is more

I judge books by their covers. Literally. And so does everyone else.

Lately, I’ve handed down some pretty harsh judgments. Not many covers have really called to me in recent months. In fact, the covers that catch my eye tend to be the least obnoxious, the ones with the simplest designs and quietest colors.

For instance, check out Boris Kachka’s HOTHOUSE.

 

 

I mean, c’mon. That’s a pretty cool cover. Nice color contrast and some fancy text. This book has absolutely everything going for it. Check out Jane’s post, and you’ll see what I mean.

 

What about this one?

 

 

Chad Harbach’s THE ART OF FIELDING has a pretty similar style to Kachka’s HOTHOUSE, and again, I love it. When in doubt, you can’t go wrong designing a book cover with some nice colors, and flowing script.

 

Once again, less is more:

 

 

One of my all-time favorite reads, too. But I’ll get to that in another blog.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: this guy just doesn’t like book covers with pictures. Wrong!

 

 

One chair leaning against another chair: that’s some real stuff. Simple yet beautiful.

And the minimalist cover to end all minimalist covers:

 

In case you missed it:

 

Who wouldn’t want to pick this book up and see what it’s about? ONE RED PAPERCLIP by Kyle MacDonald may just have the best cover of them all.

So I guess I’m a minimalist. (What would my parents think?) How about you guys? What are some of your favorite book covers?

August 06, 2013   mhoogland   advice, audio, fun, guilty pleasures, Mike H, opinion, reading, recommendations, suggestions, timing  
3

Look ma’, no hands!

Lately, I’ve been reading with no hands. Well technically I’ve been listening with no hands, but that’s a far less impressive feat. Essentially, I’ve become an audiobook junkie.

Many of my colleagues have asked for recommendations about what to read on vacation. Suggestions range, but notice the common element here? Vacation. There’s a reason people read a lot on vacations. It’s relaxing, it’s enjoyable, and I can’t stress this enough: people have the time.

But what about if you just can’t find the time to pick up a book during the work week? What if you’re like me and you wake at 5:00 am, go to the gym, head off to work, head home, eat dinner, and then go to bed?

I’ve found that audiobooks are actually very enjoyable to listen to, and they’ve quenched my thirst to read quite nicely. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the same, but my morning workouts, commute, and dinner are now all enjoyed while “reading.” Suddenly, I have all the time in the world to enjoy a good book. Granted, some genres are generally easier to listen to than others, but that’s a topic for another post.

How about you guys? Ever listen to an audiobook? I’m currently looking for my next good listen. Suggestions?

July 23, 2013   mhoogland   dialogue, favorites, fun, hypothetical, interaction, Mike H, opinion, reading, recommendations, sarcasm, suggestions  
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If You Had to Choose

Very recently, I had to play that desert island game—you know the one where you’re stranded on a desert island and have to choose what to bring? It’s all pretend, of course. Just a quick little skip through Imagination Town, a vacation in make believe. Except I was forced to make my desert island choices for real. I’ll explain.

No, I wasn’t stranded on a desert island. Quite the opposite actually: I moved to Manhattan. Granted, moving into a tiny apartment in Manhattan isn’t on the same level, hardship-wise, but coming from a spacious place in the suburbs certainly made things difficult, especially when it came to choosing what books to bring.

Smaller room = less shelf space = the fewer books I can bring. It’s that simple; yet, you find yourself considering some difficult choices. Do you bring that book you’ve read dozens of times with the hundreds of dog-eared pages and even greater number of coffee stains? Or do you bring leave those behind, as painful as that is, to make room for those new books you recently acquired (say at BEA, maybe) and haven’t had the chance to read yet?

In the end, I cheated. One conference call with my soon-to-be roommates, and we worked out a way to put together a respectable library. John brings the Hemingway, while Ryan is in charge of all non-fiction. We managed to make room for everything, from the favorites like Infinite Jest right down to your political thrillers, such as a couple of Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp books. Oh yeah, and we have Kindles too…

What would you bring?

July 09, 2013   mhoogland   about us, changes at DGLM, fun, Mike H, What's New at DGLM  
0

Hello World!

Thank you for the introduction, Jane. It’s a pleasure to be here at DGLM. I am looking forward to working closely with all the wonderful people here at Dystel & Goderich as well as our many talented clients. My goal has always been to find a job that I would look forward to going to each and every morning, and I’m lucky enough to have found exactly that. If you want to learn a little bit more about me and  how I got here, feel free to check out “Who We Are and What We’re Looking For” for a short bio and personal essay.

 

July 08, 2013   Jane   about us, Jane, Mike H, Sharon, What's New at DGLM  
2

We’re growing!

One of my favorite things to do on this blog is welcoming new members of our team.  This time, I am delighted to introduce two:

Michael Hoogland joined us on May 20th as our new Royalties Manager.  Michael graduated from Colgate University in 2012 and also attended the Columbia publishing course.  We are excited to have his interest in the business side of publishing which is so important to the continued growth of Dystel & Goderich.

On June 3rd, Sharon Pelletier joined us as the manager of our digital publishing program.  Sharon was previously at Barnes & Noble, Europa Editions, and Vantage Press.  She is extremely knowledgeable about the world of digital publishing and will be helping us grow this exciting area of our business.

I hope all of our blog readers will welcome both Mike and Sharon who are available to answer any questions our clients might have for them.

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