Anti-Antifa book protested at Powell’s Books; free speech confusion continues
Protestors have gathered at famous indie bookstore Powell’s, in Portland, Oregon, to express their opposition to the store’s selling of Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy, by right-wing… Read more »
Poet’s prize prompts pettiness: rights plight cited
[Note from the marketing director] After last week’s fiasco the managing editor has been restored to factory settings, but is currently on probation. We will be watching him closely. AS… Read more »
Bye-Bye BEA: Big Book Bonanza Bails, No Replacement Seen
In a move that surprised exactly no one, trade-show behemoth ReedPop announced that BookExpo, formerly the annual conference of the American Booksellers Association, would cease to exist, ending a tradition… Read more »
Internet Archive vs. Publishers feud intensifies; court ruling will settle kerfuffle
The battle between the nonprofit Internet Archive and the publishing industry, which has accused the former of digital piracy, took a definitive turn when the publishers filed a copyright infringement… Read more »
Publishers sue “Internet Archive”; authors & editors irate
On Monday, a group of publishers sued the nonprofit Internet Archive, claiming that the group’s distribution of free e-books violated the terms of copyright and amounted to digital piracy. According… Read more »
Weird Sub-Federal-Reserve Report swims across our field of vision, unsettles, amuses
We here at Melville House like to feel that our intellectual diet is broad and diverse; we consider ourselves genteel scholars, Renaissance persons to whom no form of discourse about… Read more »
Book industry grits collective teeth; hard road seen ahead
On April 9 the Book Industry Study Group held a collective survey and televideo call in response to the ongoing novel coronavirus, with a tone that could be best described… Read more »
Barnes & Noble struggles to stay afloat; warehouse workers protest
In a publishing landscape devastated by the novel coronavirus and industry-wide shutdowns, famed chain retailer Barnes and Noble is being hit especially hard. According to Publishers Weekly, the superchain has… Read more »
There’s a lot to unpack in the controversy surrounding American Dirt
If you were even remotely tapped into the American publishing industry in 2019 you likely heard about Jeanine Cummins’s novel American Dirt. Positioned by publisher Flatiron Books as the book… Read more »
New study contains silliest publishing infographic ever
Infographics are eminently mockable, but some are more mockable than others. Top of the pile this week is IT Strategies’ infographic illustrating the history of publishing from the 1700s to… Read more »