Category: publishing

“Days after a judge shot down rival Google’s plans to create a digital library of the world’s books over copyright concerns, Chinese search giant Baidu has come under fire for its own library project.”

“British thriller writer John Le Carre asked Wednesday that his name be withdrawn from the shortlist for the prestigious Man Booker International Prize, leaving judges stumped about what to do.” Among the other 12 nominees for the biennial prize are Philip Roth, Anne Tyler, Juan Goytisolo, Amin Maalouf and Philip Pullman.

Just under six months after the death of one of the beloved Washington shop’s founders, two former Washington Post writers, Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine, are purchasing the store for a price said to be around $2 million.

James Hopkin: “A mistress of metaphor and sparking detail, and with more punch than Proust, Colette’s descriptions are often laugh out loud funny, at once cruel and compassionate, but usually followed swiftly by a warm, reflective melancholy.”

“Spring Fashion Modeled by Rising Young Poets.” The words are heart-sinking. For some readers, this will be because poetry represents a higher form of culture that can only be debased by the commentary of Oprah Winfrey and the pencil skirts of L’Wren Scott. But this isn’t quite right.”

“Tim Waterstone is working with Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut on a bid for Waterstone’s and would take a senior role at the book chain that bears his name if they were to win control.”

“This decision to scuttle the Google Books settlement marks a turning point in Google’s ambitions. Between being slapped around by China in the past year and now getting its rather creative class-action settlement rejected, Google might finally learn some humility.”

The term – short for “Oh my God” – is one of dozens of new entries in the authoritative reference book’s latest online update. Other Internet-inspired expressions given the stamp of approval include LOL, “laughing out loud”; IMHO, “in my humble opinion”; and BFF, “best friends forever.”

Amanda Hocking, whose self-published novels have sold roughly one million copies, has signed a four-book deal with St. Martin’s Press.

Dale Peck’s “argument is that editing has been corrupted by the new commercial mandates of publishing – or, at least, is more prone to a precautionary principle that dictates that if there are any reasons why a reader might not like something in a book, say an unsympathetic character, then there is a case for demanding the author get rid of the unsympathetic character.”