Category: publishing

“The Cats of Copenhagenis a ‘younger twin sister’ to his published children’s story The Cat and the Devil, which told of how the devil built a bridge over a French river in one night.” Both stories originated as letters from Joyce to his grandson.

“A self-published author has beaten names including Lee Child, James Patterson and Stieg Larsson to become the bestselling ebook author on Amazon.co.uk for the last three months of 2011, the online retailer said on Wednesday.”

“The cold war between north American booksellers and Amazon has hotted up this week, with the booksellers joining together to announce that they will not be selling any of the titles published by the online retailer.”

“If the scientific community wants to engage and inform the public, science fiction is an excellent strategy. Stories captivate people, they survive the test of time, and they become part of the popular culture.”

The ‘More than Magic’ competition, run by the Tulsa chapter of the Romance Writers of America, this year for the first time declined to accept any gay- or lesbian-themed entries. (Sex with vampires, werewolves and aliens is fine.) The backlash was so swift and fierce that organizers have now cancelled the event.

“Using Rice’s Connexions platform, OpenStax will offer free course materials for five common introductory classes. The textbooks are open to classes anywhere and organizers believe the programs could save students $90 million in the next five years if the books capture 10 percent of the national market.”

“In extending Canada Reads to include works of non-fiction for the first time since the contest’s inception 10 years ago, the CBC has inadvertently transformed a friendly, domestic literary debate into a geopolitical furor focused on volatile questions of truth and justice in distant totalitarian regimes.”

“The following are real, quirkily obtuse entries from the Missed Connections section of Charleston Craigslist, broken into lines and stanzas and minimally edited for clarity…”

“In Nicolas Sarkozy’s second crisis-budget plan, which raised taxes to try to plug the deficit, he raised VAT on books from 5.5% to 7%. … Booksellers’ unions are up in arms against the measure, which comes into force in April … Some booksellers have hinted at a possible ‘labelling strike’ where they simply refuse to stick on new price tags.”

Adam Mars-Jones’s review of Michael Cunningham’s novel By Nightfall in Britain’s The Observer. The citation for the prize, awarded by The Omnivore, says “Adam Mars-Jones’s review … was at once erudite, attentive, killingly fair-minded and viciously funny. Every one of his zingers … is earned by the argument it arises from.”