“Even when it comes to inexact sciences — beauty pageants, presidential elections — creating odds for the Booker Prize is screwier than most.” In fact, the most well-known handicappers for the UK-based literary award freely admit that they don’t even read the books before setting the odds, a neat trick which allows them to post odds mere moments after the shortlist is announced. Betting on one of the world’s most infamously persnickety book prizes may seem like a losing proposition anyway, but it hasn’t stopped the gambling-happy Britons from making it a popular pasttime.
Category: publishing
How To Spend $100 Million
The Chicago-based Poetry Foundation has finally announced a plan for how it will spend the $100 million bequest which was dropped in its lap two years ago by pharmaceutical heiress Ruth Lilly. The foundation’s new initiatives will include a national study to determine current public attitudes towards poetry, an “online, electronic anthology of poetry, available to the public at no cost,” and the creation of two new annual cash prizes recognizing overlooked poets and humor in verse.
Weimar Fire Claims Tens Of Thousands Of Books
The raging fire that broke out Thursday at the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany, has destroyed as many as 30,000 irreplacable books. The damage is estimated to be in the millions of dollars, and the German culture minister has pledged that public money will play a major role in restoring the surviving books and the library building itself.
Fire Damages Famous German Library
A fire ravaged one of Germany’s most famous libraries thursday – Weimar’s Duchess Anna Amalia Library. “The library was opened in 1691 and housed the world’s largest collection of Faust by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, who had lived in Weimer.”
The Next JK Rowling?
British author Michelle Paver wrote her novel Wolf Brother in 1982 and it sat on a shelf for years. So she rewrote it as a children’s book, and sold the publishing rights internationally for a $US 5 million advance – the highest ever paid for a debut British children’s book. “The book, which went on sale on Thursday, generated record-breaking interest in publishing houses around the world.”
Conservative Authors Say Big Publishers Shut Them Out
Sure, conservative books — including “Unfit for Command,” this week’s No. 1 nonfiction title — have lately occupied a hefty percentage of the best-seller list. But at a Manhattan forum this week, right-wing authors said they were feeling marginalized. “Alleging a sort of liberal conspiracy to keep conservative authors from getting their books to the reading public, conservative authors said they had been forced to turn to scrappy, little-known alternative publishers.”
Books As Dating Aid?
“The London-based arm of the venerable Penguin publishing house has begun to advertise its books as dating aids. According to Penguin, you’re not good looking—or Good Booking—unless you’re holding a book. ‘What women really want is a man with a Penguin. You may not even need to read it, just bend the covers, let it stick out of your pocket and the book will do the talking’!”
The Secret Of My Prolificacy
How is it that some writers are so amazingly prolific? Every time you turn around, they’re popping out another book. Has anyone tested these people for steroids (or, I suppose, the literary equivalent)? Has Stephen King submitted to a blood test lately?
American Readers – And Never The Twain Shall Meet…
American readers have become so polartized in their reading. Conservatives buy conservative books, liberals buy liberal books. And what do we learn from such incestuous behavior?…
Paid Thesis: Canadian Students Complain
More than 50 Canadian colleges require graduate students who wish to see their thesis published in a national, standardized way to submit the work to an American company “which then gets non-exclusive publishing rights.” Some students protest that the American company ought not to be able to make money off their research.