Category: publishing

This past spring, Darcie Chan “bought some ads on Web sites targeting e-book readers, paid for a review from Kirkus Reviews, and strategically priced her book at 99 cents to encourage readers to try it. She’s now attracting bids from foreign imprints, movie studios and audio-book publishers, without selling a single copy in print.”

“John Kinsella has become the second poet to withdraw from the TS Eliot Prize in protest over its sponsorship by investment firm, Aurum Funds. The Australian, who was shortlisted for his collection Armour, said he was withdrawing on “ethical” grounds. Prize organisers The Poetry Book Society made the deal after losing its public funding earlier this year.”

“In the postapocalyptic fantasy series The Hunger Games, starving characters eat whatever they can kill or forage: wild dog, horse, tree bark, mouse meat. It’s not exactly the kind of story that demands a recipe swap” – let alone a cookbook. But there is one now.

“An over-reliance on coy terms such as ‘family jewels’, ‘back door’ and ‘front parlour’ has won acclaimed American novelist David Guterson the dubious accolade of the Literary Review‘s bad sex in fiction award.”

“Award-winning poet Alice Oswald has pulled out of prestigious poetry award the TS Eliot prize in protest over its sponsorship by an investment company.” Says Oswald, “I think poetry should be questioning not endorsing such institutions.”

“On the spectrum of extreme literature, Dennis Cooper lies somewhere between the Marquis de Sade and the Old Testament.” Yet, says the author, “I’m interested in how Disney flattens fairy tales. Disneyland just fascinates me. I grew up in Disneyland, went there a few times a year every year, so it’s in my blood. I still think it’s the happiest place on earth.”

“Writing can’t be planned for or predicted, and when it happens, when the surge begins, it brings a satisfaction like nothing else. There are finer sensualities, sure, and basic emotions that give joy or connection when released, but as far as giving me a sustained sense that this is who I am, this is what I do, a full-fathom immersion in writing is the ultimate verification.”

“However much they certify their authors as professionals and win them jobs and tenure, essays and books of high scholarly merit in literary studies suffer the same inattention all the time. Why?”

About four million children in the U.K., a third of the total number of kids, don’t own a book – and guess what? Boys are less likely to own a book than are girls.

Niall Ferguson could have argued with the pen instead of the lawsuit. Why didn’t he?