Category: publishing

“Once the wrapper is removed and the book is cracked, the ink begins to age; it’s got a lifespan of less than two months. Just months after being opened, The Book That Can’t Wait is filled with nothing but blank pages.”

Is Martin Amis in the grip of the fame monster? “Only this week, his comments about how the British don’t show enough respect to writers made the headlines. You have only to think about how he dismissed the royal family as ‘Philistines’ or the absurd kerfuffle when he chose to spend a chunk of a large advance on having his teeth fixed. Or the discovery of a daughter from a previous relationship. Or the criticism he got for writing about his cousin who was murdered by mass murderer Fred West. Or that he has moved to New York with his wife, Isabel Fonseca, and their two daughters. Or the fact he has never been shortlisted for the Booker.”

“Absalom, Absalom! has been well described as the most serious attempt by any white writer to confront the problem of race in America. There is bravery in Faulkner’s decision to dig into this wound. He knew that the effort would involve the exposure of his own mind, dark as it often was.”

Music critic Tim Page brought author Dawn Powell’s books back into print through his critical attention. Now he intends to sell her diaries online to help pay for his sons’ college educations. One rare books dealer: “What he’s doing is highly unusual, and it seems to me based on an unrealistic hope that maybe he could do this in such a way that it would go viral. He’s trying to catch lightning in a bottle. I hope it works.”

Publishers give away a ton of Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) at the annual American Library Association conference – but when strategic book bloggers snag many of the ARCs before librarians can get them, an online brouhaha ensues. (Followups here and here.)

“Set up in 2003, the magazine took a high-brow look at music and culture whilst trying not to sound stuffy or pretentious.” But circulation dropped, and the July issue will be its last.

“This is a sad, bad day for journalism. The Word was a music magazine that burst its banks to cover pop culture, and life, in general. It was smart, funny, original and tremendously human.”

“With writings by African authors the question persists: Is it high art delivering timeless and universal commentary on the human condition, or is it little more than a guide to the culture and politics of a specific continent (with occasional literary flourishes)?”

“In the past, publishers and authors had no way of knowing what happens when a reader sits down with a book. Does the reader quit after three pages, or finish it in a single sitting? Do most readers skip over the introduction, or read it closely, underlining passages and scrawling notes in the margins? Now, e-books are providing a glimpse into the story behind the sales figures, revealing not only how many people buy particular books, but how intensely they read them.”

“Nothing is so debilitating to a copy editor as having to lavish care on illiterate tweets laced with obscenities. … There should be a detox facility for proofreaders who have undergone this kind of extreme experience.”