Category: publishing

“The economy has crashed on a supposedly recession-proof industry: book publishing. There is consolidation at Random House Inc., as well as layoffs at Simon & Schuster and at Thomas Nelson Publishers.”

The editor of the book Other People’s Love Letters is seeking submissions for his latest compilation, to be titled Other People’s Rejection Letters. But one journalist and editor who used to compose and send out such rebuffs reminds us that “writing rejection letters is a delicate skill, one that must be fine-tuned over time (weeks, even) as one digs out from under the slush pile. For it is not easy to achieve and balance the two central goals of a truly accomplished rejection letter: trying not to make the writer feel distraught whilst also discouraging him or her from ever contacting you ever again.”

Steven Rosen suggests that, if President-elect Obama is going to launch a latter-day New Deal, he should revive the first New Deal’s Federal Writers’ Project. The project could employ some of the countless journalists laid off in the past couple of years; it might update the first FWP’s American Guide series; it could potentially even subsidize some existing blogs and loss-making Web sites that provide useful services to the public.

Never let it be said that Rupert Murdoch doesn’t try to get value for his money. This past weekend, for the first time, his New York Post ran a story from The Wall Street Journal, which Murdoch’s News Corp. acquired last year as part of its purchase of Dow Jones. Journal staffers expect more of this, and it makes them queasy: “If this becomes common practice, Journal stories could be published in the tabloid with Post headlines and graphics, or vice versa. Not to mention story subjects who agree to an interview with one paper might not be aware of it running in another that day.”

“Google executives sound like they are doing the world an immense favor by digitizing books, rarely mentioning that they are in business to sell stuff, not give it away.” One early alternative group devoted to open access, the Open Content Alliance, “is morphing into the Open Knowledge Commons, now supported by the Sloan Foundation, which will hold an organizational meeting at the Library of Congress next week.”

“My self-imposed challenge this week was to save money by reading a book that I own but have never read. … Try it yourself and see how many pitiful excuses you can find for not reading a book you own.”

“The mother of a prominent barrister faces a legal bill of £500,000 after losing a High Court libel action against her daughter over allegations of abuse in Ugly, the bestselling memoir. … The verdict is both a triumph and a relief for [author Constance] Briscoe, a criminal barrister and one of Britain’s first black part-time judges. Her career was at stake had she lost.”

“The Cervantes prize, the Spanish-language equivalent of the Nobel prize for literature, has been awarded to Catalan novelist Juan Marsé for a body of work focusing on the hardships of life in post-civil war Spain.” The award comes with a €125,000 ($158,500) cash prize.

“Even as Philadelphia announces a plan to shutter 11 of its city libraries, there is more and more anecdotal evidence to indicate that libraries really matter.” From keeping senior citizens connected to the world to providing a haven for intellectually curious kids, are we making a mistake in thinking that libraries are expendable luxuries?

Author M.T. Anderson doesn’t buy the notion that literature aimed at teen readers should be less sophisticated than books meant for adults. “Anderson’s attitude helps explain Octavian Nothing, an ultra-challenging, two-volume young-adult novel that runs 900-plus pages and asks teen readers to contemplate the American Revolution from a wildly unfamiliar point of view.”