Stop copying and start working on your craft
Every time self-publishing inches closer to becoming a more acceptable and viable choice for writers, something like this happens. In fact, it keeps happening. The idea of self-publishing affords a degree… Read more »
Scathing review of Bret Easton Ellis results in book sales
Andrea Long Chu of Bookforum gave a very negative review of White by Bret Easton Ellis (author of American Psycho). Long Chu is the author of a soon-to-be-published book on… Read more »
After being pulled, Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life is available again at Whitcoulls in New Zealand
About ten days ago we wrote that Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life was being pulled from a major New Zealand bookstore chain in the wake the anti-Muslim attacks in Christchurch. On a… Read more »
New biography on Barbara Bush reveals her own dissatisfaction with the Republican Party of today
This past week, USA Today published an excerpt from The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty, a biography about the late former First Lady who passed away in… Read more »
Michelle Obama’s Becoming is becoming the best selling memoir of all time
Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, is becoming (sorry) the best selling memoir of all time. According to a report from Stephanie Merry at The Washington Post, the book from the former… Read more »
The RSL Ondaatje Prize longlist is revealed and includes Melville House author S.K. Perry
Let Me Be Like Water by our very own British author, S.K. Perry, is a beautifully moving, poignant, and lyrical debut novel set in Brighton, a seaside town in England.… Read more »
Waterstones booksellers’ petition for a living wage attracts thousands of signatures
This week, Alison Flood of The Guardian and others reported on the story that booksellers at Waterstones were campaigning for a living wage (in the UK, that’s £9 p/h; £10:55 p/h in London).… Read more »
Nearly ten years in the making, Chelsea Green Publishing completes transition to employee ownership model
As reported by Alex Green in Publishers Weekly, Chelsea Green Publishing has completed their transition to employee ownership. The employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) was conceived by founders Ian and Margot Baldwin in… Read more »
Print books > digital when reading to your kid
A recent New York Times article by Perri Klass briefs readers on a recent study published by the Journal of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan that looked into the… Read more »
Anyone can write a best selling Amazon novel, just ask Logic the rapper
On a recent episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, platinum-achieving, grammy nominated rapper Bobby Hall, aka Logic, was brought on air to discuss his new album novel. Yes,… Read more »
This year’s Story Prize goes to Groff’s Florida, honors Brinkley and Eisenberg
If you’ve got a good story to tell, then there may be a lot of money to make off it. No, I’m not talking about that Cut interview with Jessica… Read more »
A winner was announced for the new(ish) Desperate Literature award
Women and indies dominate the Man Booker International shortlist
The Women’s Prize for Fiction is reconsidering its gender criteria amidst controversy
The RSL Ondaatje Prize longlist is revealed and includes Melville House author S.K. Perry
How the publishing business could integrate blockchain technology
Let’s face it, book publishers are not always the first to adapt to new technologies. I mean, how many of our entry level jobs involved taking dictation? Imagine an analogous… Read more »
Q&A with Gary Fuller, author of The Invisible Killer
Dr. Gary Fuller, air pollution scientist and author of The Invisible Killer, joined us yesterday for a Reddit AMA. We’ve compiled some of the best questions and answers below. … Read more »
Robot authors trying to compete with Orwell
A non-profit lab called Open AI has announced that they’ve trained a machine to read, write, translate, and summarize text unsupervised. According to Open AI’s blog post, the objective is… Read more »
Book reading models are lit
Bella and Gigi Hadid make books the hot new accessory of 2019 https://t.co/TR3gIo0Vrv pic.twitter.com/Zg3H5JQefU— New York Post (@nypost) March 19, 2019 Last week, infamous tabloid newspaper the New York Post… Read more »
Five koans of wisdom from the screenwriter of Blade Runner
Melville House just published The Wall Will Tell You, a collection of meditations on the art of screenwriting by Hampton Fancher of Blade Runner fame. Written as a series of bite-sized meditations,… Read more »
Major New Zealand bookstore chain removes Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life from its shelves
New Zealand’s response to the horrific string of deadly shootings in mosques on March 15 is one worth studying. Most notably, the country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Arden announced in no uncertain… Read more »
The Netherlands swaps train tickets for books—for one day, at least
After being pulled, Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life is available again at Whitcoulls in New Zealand
Waterstones booksellers' petition for a living wage attracts thousands of signatures
James Patterson creates award to celebrate young booksellers
Never-before-seen letters by Georgia O’Keeffe offer perspective into her life in the 1930s
The Library of Congress has acquired “a trove of letters” by the famous artist Georgia O’Keeffe, according to Elizabeth Blair at NPR. What these long-lost letters elucidate is a woman deeply… Read more »
An online petition to stop Brexit crashes government website due to sheer number of supporters.
You know that feeling before an exam, of sheer panic and anxiety in the pit of your stomach? The dread of realising your coursework is due in and it’s nowhere… Read more »
Everyone we saw at the London Book Fair 2019
The London Book Fair can be a pretty overwhelming place. As one of the biggest trade fairs in the world, you can expect a LOT of people to show up—many… Read more »
Thousands of Indonesians have opened their own libraries
Promoting reading in Indonesia has long been a struggle—so citizens have taken it upon themselves to make books accessible to children. Indonesia is vast, with “17,000 islands and a geography that almost… Read more »
Alaa al-Aswany, Egyptian author and activist, is being sued by the Egyptian military for insulting President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
Alaa al-Aswany, author of The Yacoubian Building and critic of the political regime of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, will face a lawsuit filed by the military authority of Egypt. According to reporting… Read more »
Last year's 11 most challenged books in schools and libraries
After being pulled, Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life is available again at Whitcoulls in New Zealand
Amazon removes from the marketplace books promoting dangerous and false "cures" for autism
The PEN America Literary Awards shortlist has been announced! Here's a totally unbiased look at it—especially the biography category
Youth Climate Strike left us full of hope
Last Friday, two Melvillians got to take part in history at a Youth Climate Strike in NYC. Last week’s Strike was part of an international effort led by teens to… Read more »
Disney inches toward world dominance with Fox acquisition
All around the world / we’ll go marching / who’s the leader of the club / that’s made for you and me / M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E Yes, capitalism’s favorite anthropomorphic mouse continues… Read more »
I like rare books and I cannot lie
I like rare books and I cannot lie, but like most of us, I’m too poor to ever own any rare books. But I can window-shop! I can read and dream… Read more »
Facebook local news aggregator can’t find enough local news to work with
Today, a riddle: How can I live in a cool to semi-arid part of the United States and still live in a desert? Well my friend, that’s because you probably… Read more »
Wellcome Prize shortlist honors writers exploring gender, identity, and sexuality
As the awards season continues on amidst major changes, a younger prize is honoring spectacular new voices in fiction and non-fiction. In its tenth year, The Wellcome Prize just announced… Read more »
“Civilization backup” on its way to the moon
Corey Powell of NBC News reports that the Arch Mission Foundation is designing a “civilization backup” that will be sent to other planets and last at least 6 billion years. The… Read more »
On literary citizenship and giving back to the literary community
“Literary citizenship”—we hear this term tossed around a lot. From MFA programs to online literary communities, being a “lit citizen” is tantamount to being, well, a person with more than… Read more »
Hail and Farewell: Jake Phelps of Thrasher magazine
As our man on the skateboard-publishing beat, it is my unfortunate duty today to report some sad news from one of the raddest corners of the publishing world: Jake Phelps, editor of Thrasher… Read more »
Nonprofit Literacy Partners unveils campaign to fight adult illiteracy
Those of us who love to read probably take it for granted. But Literacy Partners is a New York City-based nonprofit dedicated to improving literacy in families, and they’ve recently… Read more »
Scholastic Harry Potter editor launching an independent publishing company
We all know J.K Rowling (a.k.a Mother Potter) to be the source of all things Hogwarts and Harry, and rightfully so. But what about the man behind the scenes responsible… Read more »
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day thrives on a new stage
Ishiguro fans get treated well. From countless movie adaptations to a Nobel prize, their beloved author has thankfully received his due. Like many, I’m fascinated by Ishiguro’s range, capable of… Read more »
Amazon removes from the marketplace books promoting dangerous and false “cures” for autism
One week after concerns regarding Amazon’s algorithmic promotion of whack-o conspiracy theory garbage made headlines, the company is back in the news for removing a different breed of insane and… Read more »
This year’s Man Booker Prize International longlist is pretty freaking awesome
The Man Booker Prize, soon to simply be the Booker Prize, has announced the 2019 longlist for its coveted prize for best work of literature in translation. It’s a nifty… Read more »
The U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Marriage Equality (Gift Edition)
The Philosophy of Beards
Bartleby Mug
The Art of the Novella subscription + Referral Rewards!
The Essential Heinrich Böll
La Femme de Gilles
Bolaño
The Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture
The Duke’s Table
Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality
Nora Ephron: The Last Interview
Half The Kingdom
The Establishment
Wittgenstein Jr
Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview
Patience and Fortitude
Ada’s Algorithm
Billy Budd, Sailor
The North of God
The Next Next Level
The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure
The Dog Walker
The Weirdness
Trainwreck
Philip K. Dick: The Last Interview
Not on Fire, But Burning
Why I Am Not a Feminist
The Buenos Aires Quintet
What We Do Now
“I Would Prefer Not To” Bartleby Tote Bag
Cat Out of Hell
Bartleby the Scrivener
Bernie goes to the Vatican Bundle
How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive
Ernest Hemingway: The Last Interview
Melancholy Accidents
The Quest for a Moral Compass
How to Do Nothing
Ray Bradbury: The Last Interview
An Exaggerated Murder
Happiness
The Day the Renaissance Was Saved
The Damned Utd
The Dark Net
The Dunwich Horror
We, Robots
Future Days
The Constitution Demands It
The Utopia of Rules
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: The Last Interview
Contraband Cocktails
A History of Money
Sophia
Spurious, Dogma, & Exodus
Rules for Werewolves
The Jane Austen Rules
The Dead
Gnarr!
The Ghost Network
James Baldwin: The Last Interview
Red or Dead
