Category: publishing

“I put it to you that there are no British poets, there are no British novelists. I have heard myself described as one, but I think really I’m an English novelist; there are Scottish poets and Scottish novelists.” (His surname notwithstanding, McEwan was born and educated in England.)

“Lately, some of the more popular emerging titles seem to be disrupting the basic pillars of dystopia and distracting from the main mission of any dystopian novel: to caution against current societal practices that could lead to such a society’s existence.”

“In a country that now regards money as the highest good, doing something for the love of it is not just odd, but downright perverse. Imagine the horror and anger felt by parents of a son or daughter who was destined for the Harvard Business School and a career in finance but discovered an interest in poetry instead.”

“Traditionally, publishers have used their websites for sales and marketing. We believe publishers should also use their websites to publish.”

“The map presents a rolling 30-day average of book-buying data and classifies them as red or blue depending on promotional materials and customer classifications.”

The novelist “has described anti-piracy measures for literature in the digital age as ‘disingenuous, hypocritical, ineffectual’ and ‘artistically philistine’. Speaking in Edinburgh at a debate on the future of the novel, Miéville said that just as music fans remix albums and post them online, so readers will recut the novel.”

“Anne Bradstreet (1612-72) was born in England, but lived, married, raised her family, and died in Massachusetts: the first American poet, or certainly the first to write in English. Her work is plain in a way that might tempt some readers to condescension, but she knew the Latin poets and writes fluently within the conventions she chose, reaching considerable intensity of emotion and idea.” Robert Pinsky considers Bradstreet’s meditation on the dangers of childbirth.

“Anytime Biz Stone and Evan Williams have any sort of announcement, the tech world listens. Late Tuesday, via a blog post, Williams, one of Twitter’s co-founders, introduced the world to Medium, a new platform for online publishing” that is, at least superficially, like a Pinterest for books.

“This means you no longer have to have material out of print. It means you have access to the bookstore market, especially the online bookstore market. You can turn a profit on shorter print runs through Diamond Comics Distributors than you previously could.”

“The award, [Irvine Welsh] said, was ‘based on the conceit that upper-class Englishness is the cultural yardstick against which all literature must be measured.'”