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“Shit storm” at Granta explained, sort of On Wednesday, I wrote about the weird closed-mouth policy at Granta regarding the magazine’s month-long spate of high-level departures. Well, yesterday the Guardian’s Alison Flood got a bunch of people… Read more »
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What’s the future for the UK’s local libraries? Yesterday, Arts Council England (ACE) published its report into the future of local libraries. ‘Envisioning the library of the future’ is ‘a major research project undertaken over the past year’ during… Read more »
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Sherman Alexie and Laurie Halse Anderson address censorship Yesterday the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression released videos of bestselling authors Sherman Alexie and Laurie Halse Anderson discussing the censorship of young adult literature. For a time, Alexie’s… Read more »
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Chinua Achebe buried in Nigera On Thursday, the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe was buried in his hometown of Ogidi, Nigeria. Achebe, who died on March 21 and twice refused Nigerian state honors, suffered a semi-official funeral… Read more »
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Following the footsteps of the Romantic poets in Italy In the mountains above Lucca in Tuscany, hill towns nestled on tree-lined ridges with dense foliage, wildflowers, grape vines, and narrow roads with hairpin turns, look down over the Lima… Read more »
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Penguin settles antitrust suit, will pay nearly $90 million Penguin, one of five big publishers to be targeted by the Department of Justice in an ebook price-fixing investigation, has settled antitrust claims brought on behalf of consumers and 33… Read more »
The DOJ's publishers lawsuitMobyLives’ coverage of the DOJ lawsuit
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Amazon to monetize fan fiction, he moaned “Blair,” Jeff whispered, his lips almost touching her earlobe, “I have something I need to tell you.” “Jeff, please,” Blair danced away. She laughed coyly, mercilessly. They’d both had too… Read more »
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How do you publish long form work? Talking shop with Evan Ratliff, Aaron Lammer, and John Shankman We wrote to three publishers—Evan Ratliff of The Atavist, Aaron Lammer of Longform, and John Shankman of The Awl—to ask how they continued to publish long form work, how they… Read more »
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Talking to editors about the “Vigilante Copy Editor” Some of us correct typos for a living—as I do with my variously colored pencils, pens, and Post-it notes—and some of us correct them in secret, as Jay Dockendorf began… Read more »
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Gerbrand Bakker and David Colmer: happy together It’s relatively rare that, when an author wins a major international prize, the main news stories on it show a photo of the author and their translator. It’s even rarer… Read more »
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Even more turnover at Granta A month ago, Granta announced that editor John Freeman was leaving to teach creative writing at Columbia University. Three weeks ago, it was reported that the New York office would be… Read more »
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UK indie booksellers protest Amazon’s tax avoidance Last week I reported on the astonishing and inexplicable news that Amazon’s UK operation received more money in government grants than it paid in tax. Since those reports came in,… Read more »
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Short story stamp catches “the essence of Dublin” Dublin, Ireland has unveiled a 60¢; postage stamp printed with the full text of a short story by Eoin Moore (cue headlines with puns related to “licking”). Moore’s story was… Read more »
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Stephen King kills ebook in favor of print for his latest, Joyland Stephen King has been an online pioneer, digitizing his work long before other authors and publishers caught on, but in the case of his latest novel, he’s insisting readers go… Read more »
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Illinois parents protest book about two dads for kindergartners Kristy Kennedy reported for the Chicago Tribune yesterday that a group of parents in the Indian Prairie School District (in the Chicago suburbs) have taken up arms over a menace… Read more »
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What does it mean that the New York Times Book Review is no longer listing bestseller prices? Having recently taken the helm of the New York Times Book Review, Pamela Paul recently charted her first series of course corrections. Most curious among them: book prices are no longer to be printed… Read more »
Book journalism & criticism-
How do you publish long form work? Talking shop with Evan Ratliff, Aaron Lammer, and John Shankman -
Yesterday was a bad, bad day for book editors UPDATE: Today also sucks -
Ten Nights On Long Island: The Great Gatsby's early reviews -
Pink unicorns and pastel bling: Maureen Johnson calls out gendered covers
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Interview: Rudolph Herzog, author of A Short History of Nuclear Folly In A Short History of Nuclear Folly, Rudolph Herzog presents a devastating account of history’s most irresponsible uses of nuclear technology. From the rarely-discussed nightmare of “Broken Arrows” (40 nuclear… Read more »
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Nuclear Folly Locator In honor of Rudolph Herzog’s excellent A Short History of Nuclear Folly, we built this handy “Nuclear Folly Locator,” so you can browse a few of the strange (and sometimes horrifying)… Read more »
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Charlie Rose to host new primetime show Unless you’ve written a heartfelt book about a cute dog that changed your life or seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s difficult for an author to… Read more »
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Bookseller sculpts unwanted books into art This week, the British Academy is celebrating Literature Week, five days of events including an evening of William Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre, lectures, and poetry readings. Throughout the week,… Read more »
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Copyright reform discussions underway, first punches being thrown When the current Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante called for an overhaul of the copyright system back in March, the House listened. And last week, hearings began in the Courts,… Read more »
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Academic publisher sues librarian blogger for millions “Beall’s list”, created by University of Colorado metadata librarian Jeffrey Beall, collates the academic journals which he regards as questionable. His hard work on outing journals whose business and academic… Read more »
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Eleven tactics to keep your reading choice a secret Over at the Literary Saloon Michael Orthofer discusses the secrecy with which the Nobel committee must read over the works that have been nominated, lest the names of those under consideration… Read more »
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Baltimore’s Poe House to reopen this fall Last year was a tumultuous one for Edgar Allan Poe’s onetime home in Baltimore. The Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum had its funding from the city cut off in… Read more »
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Senator Claire McCaskill fights for plane readers’ rights If you travel with an ereader, you’ve encountered that moment on a plane when you’re required to shut off your device during take-off. The reason that airlines cite for this… Read more »
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‘Just a joke’: Amazon gets more money from UK government grants than it pays in tax In the continuing saga of Amazon’s tax dodging (see here and here for just a couple of our reports on this), it was revealed this week that the company’s UK operation made £4.2bn in sales… Read more »
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DOJ calls Apple “ringmaster” in pretrial filings Two weeks before United States of America vs. Apple Inc., the infamous e-book price-fixing case originally brought against Apple and five of the Big Six publishers, goes to trial, the… Read more »
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How to redesign a classic, or, The Bell Jar strikes back Book designers are used to working quietly behind the scenes. If authors are the star athletes in publishing, designers are more like the training staff—there to make sure the stars… Read more »
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First Publishing Hackathon to be held in NYC and judged at BEA Hackathons have become common in the tech industry as a way to bring bursts of creative and programming energy to solve a problem in a short amount of time. According… Read more »
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Community Bookstore to open Terrace Books UPDATE: the new Astoria Bookshop Community Bookstore in Park Slope, Brooklyn plans to open a new store in Windsor Terrace. Called Terrace Books, it will carry used titles and occupy the space that used to… Read more »
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Amazon employees strike in Germany More than 1,000 staffers at two German Amazon warehouses walked off the job Tuesday in a one-day work stoppage. The workers are seeking higher pay and collective bargaining agreements, which are… Read more »
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Gatsby & the great green light: MobyLives goes to the movies Alex: Hello again, old sport. Dustin: Is that how we’re doing this, Alex? Because no amount of jokes can salve the wounds this movie inflicted on me. Chiefly on… Read more »
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Editor Drenka Willen wins new international literature prize These past few years have been good ones for awards honoring international literature: prizes have mutated in and out of sponsorships fairly successfully, gained traction and publicity, honored translations and… Read more »
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Jaron Lanier offers to save the book business, but even his own publisher doesn’t listen Jaron Lanier has been called an “internet pioneer,” a “digital visionary,” and a “technology humanist.” He shaped the internet as it was being formed, later criticizing Web 2.0 for making… Read more »
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W.H. Auden’s “lost” journal recovered, 75 years later One of three known journals written by W.H. Auden has been recovered nearly 75 years after it was written. This journal dates between August and November 1939. Auden died in… Read more »
