From Marker: Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest person, and Amazon, the company he founded, one of the world’s most admired and valuable. Two recent books, Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, with an introduction by Walter Isaacson, and Working Backwards, by longtime Amazon executives Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, offer lessons from the … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: By now it is clear that wokeness is a contagious malady. Amazon.com made headlines in February when it suddenly delisted Ryan Anderson’s book “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” a thoughtful, humane and deeply researched investigation of a controverted subject of public debate. As the publisher of that 2018 … Read more
An Opinion Piece from The Chicago Tribune: Two striking statistics recently reported by Publishers Weekly: Print book sales rose 8.2% in 2020 versus 2019, according to NPD BookScan. Bookstore sales fell 28.3% in 2020 versus 2019, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. The year-to-year increase in book sales was the largest since 2010, and … Read more
From The US Attorney’s Office, District of Rhode Island: The former owner of an East Providence automobile transport company . . . was arrested and charged today with allegedly executing an elaborate scheme to defraud Amazon. It is alleged in court documents that Michael Chaves, 40, former owner of CAT Inc., executed a scheme to … Read more
From The Financial Post: Whether it’s a piece of fiction, a collection of poetry, a graphic novel, a self-help volume, a how-to instructional, a biography or other non-fiction genre, your book deserves to be read. Going through the steps of “traditional” publishing can be expensive and time-consuming, so why not consider becoming an authorpreneur? A … Read more
From The Bookseller: With the levelling off of e-book sales, many have begun to wonder whether the book publishing industry will be spared the kinds of disruption experienced by other sectors of the media industries. But the digital transformation of the book publishing industry was never fundamentally about e-books anyway: e-books turned out to be just … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: Scholastic’s trade group has been on a hot streak for over a year, and that performance is reflected in the publisher’s dominance of PW’s children’s fiction bestseller list in 2020. The company had 53 books that made the frontlist fiction chart last year, up from 43 in 2019. Those titles also averaged … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: As we reported in late November, Audible‘s initial response to what writers called #Audiblegate was soundly rejected as inadequate by authors’ organizations. Originally, Audible had allowed a subscriber to return or exchange an audiobook within 365 days—and had deducted an author’s royalties from her or his account when that happened if the audiobook was distributed … Read more
From Personanondata: Attorney’s Sperling & Slater acting on behalf of three eBook buying plaintiffs are suing Amazon and the “big 5” publishers (Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Harpercollins) for eBook price collusion in the Southern District Court in Manhattan. These plaintiffs are deemed representative of the following class: All persons who, on … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: Neil Young, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham owe Daniel Ek an enormous debt of gratitude right about now. The rock legends have all recently sold their song publishing rights for gigantic sums, sell-offs that can partially be attributed to the surge in digital revenue that accounts for more than half … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: Connecticut is actively investigating how Amazon.com Inc. sells and distributes digital books, according to the state’s attorney general, the latest of several state and federal probes into the tech giant’s business practices. The investigation is examining whether Amazon engaged in anticompetitive behavior in the e-book business through its agreements with … Read more
From Electric Lit: George Orwell’s 1984 is one of those ubiquitous books that you know about just from existing in the world. It’s been referenced in everything from Apple commercials to Bowie albums, and is used across the political spectrum as shorthand for the silencing of free speech and rise of oppression. And no one … Read more
From The Literary Hub: In the 70 years since the comic strip “Peanuts” first appeared, countless other comic strips have come and gone. All the while, seemingly seamlessly, utterly unconsciously, some of the themes and touchstones of “Peanuts” have woven their way into our vocabulary, our views and voices, our senses and sensibilities. “Peanuts” may … Read more
From The Los Angeles Review of Books: COMMEMORATING THE CENTENNIAL of the great Ray Bradbury, biographer Sam Weller sat down with former California poet laureate and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Dana Gioia for a wide-ranging conversation on Bradbury’s imprint on arts and culture. . . . . SAM WELLER: The … Read more
From The New York Times: Few authors have had a better shake at the movies than John le Carré, whose sophisticated novels of Cold War atmosphere, moral ambiguities and wryly observed backroom machinations have long attracted talented filmmakers and leading actors. While Alec Guinness’s definitive performance as George Smiley in the BBC mini-series versions of … Read more
From Electric Lit: Think you’re the only person who does the things you do? These books will make you feel seen. . . . . My Dog Tulip by J.R. Ackerley J.R. Ackerley’s book-length love letter to his dog is a relief to me, and I assume, to all of us who love our dogs … Read more
From GoodEreader: It’s been 12 years since the Kindle first appeared on the scene, and within a couple of years, it became clear that e-readers were no passing fad. In fact, the experts of the day confidently told us that in the dim and distant future of 2020, print books would be largely relegated to the role … Read more
From The Atlantic: In 1960, Dwight Eisenhower’s attorney general, William Rogers, read the paper with alarm. He learned that Random House intended to purchase the venerable publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Rogers began making calls to prod his antitrust division into blocking the sale. In those days, monopoly loomed as a central concern of government—and a … Read more
Shouldering the duffel bag with the Marine Corps bulldog, Old Man knocked Jan’s photo off the bed table. He turned to stone staring down at the photo. His face then splintered into hurt. Tears seeped into his eyes. He grappled for the nearest bedpost and slumped forward on extended arms. His shoulders jerked and head … Read more
From Kristine Kathryn Rus ch: Three days before I sat down to write this blog post, I finished reading Drama High by Michael Sokolove. I clutched the book to my heart, and thought, no one will ever see books like this again. Then I mentally slapped myself. I had slipped into traditional writer think. Drama … Read more
From CrimeReads: If you were worried that popular fiction for women has too often been about finding Mr. Right, well, that time is past. It’s now just as often about finding Mr. Prosecutable DNA Sample. But what looks like a change in genre and readership betrays a deeper, older current. For women, psychological thrillers and … Read more
From Electric Lit: Women providing care––and the ways in which care can be made murky by expectations related to gender, religion, and tied unfairly at times to a means of proving love—is a significant theme in Lynn Coady’s latest novel, Watching You Without Me. After Karen’s mother Irene passes away, Karen returns to her childhood … Read more
From Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris: Does the idea of “branding” yourself or your work make you cringe? (I’m an artist, dammit—not a corporate sleaze bag!) Are you confused by what “branding” for novelists, essayists, poets, or even general non-fiction writers even means? Or, conversely, are you sold on the necessity of branding … Read more
From The Los Angeles Review of Books: IN CAPITAL IS DEAD, McKenzie Wark asks: What if we’re not in capitalism anymore but something worse? The question is provocative, sacrilegious, unsettling as it forces anti-capitalists to confront an unacknowledged attachment to capitalism. Communism was supposed to come after capitalism and it’s not here, so doesn’t that mean … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: The “Battle for Attention”—part of the title of Bookwire‘s conference report from Frankfurter Buchmesse—became a lot more vivid for many professionals participating in the digital evocation of the trade show last week. That’s because the enormous fair, which draws more than 250,000 people annually in its physical setting at Messe Frankfurt, was, … Read more
From The Bookseller: Amazon has been accused of anti-competitive practices in a scathing report into US tech giants by Democratic politicians. The online retailer has rebutted the claims, saying “the presumption that success can only be the result of anti-competitive behavior is simply wrong”. The 450-page report written by Democrats on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, … Read more
From The Los Angeles Review of Books: I GREW UP ON Greek myths. My mother was a Classics major in college, which meant that every night before bed, I heard all about Athena splitting her father’s head open to birth herself, Atlas condemned to hold the world on his shoulders, Persephone being lured away from … Read more
From Jane Friedman: It hasn’t been the best decade for Barnes & Noble, the biggest bookselling chain in the United States. As sales slowly eroded—and Amazon gained dominance—the position of CEO became one of the fastest revolving doors in the publishing industry. Each new leader trotted out a revised “concept store” to revive the fortunes … Read more
From Public Books: Having thrown privacy and consumer protection overboard long ago, Google, in 2018, officially removed its best-loved maxim, “Don’t be evil,” from its code of conduct. Arguably, the company could no longer ignore the contradiction between self-declared ethics and the relentless pursuit of profit. (In only the final quarter of 2019, Google booked $46 … Read more
From Texas Monthly: If it hadn’t been for the pandemic and the near impossibility of visiting Vivian Stephens in person, I’m not sure I would have been so attuned to her voice. It is gay and mellifluous; she always sounded delighted to hear from me, a reaction most reporters are not accustomed to. But there … Read more
From The New York Times: Addison Cain was living in Kyoto, volunteering at a shrine and studying indigenous Japanese religion. She was supposed to be working on a scholarly book about her research, but started writing intensely erotic Batman fan fiction instead. It happened almost by accident. It was 2012, and Ms. Cain — who … Read more
From Slate: When schools closed this spring, many parents, including me, felt overwhelmed and underwater trying to help our children participate in distance learning. Every day seemed to usher in a new way for my husband and me to fail at reading emails, managing logins, printing worksheets, troubleshooting tech problems, photographing assignments, and keeping track … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: In a letter provided to Publishing Perspectives this morning (August 17), three leading American publishing industry professional organizations tell the House of Representatives’ Antitrust Subcommittee that “a few tech platforms in the digital marketplace” wield “extraordinary leverage over their competitors, suppliers, customers, the government, and the public. “Regrettably,” they write, “as the subcommittee’s hearings … Read more
From Women Writers, Women’s Books: Inspiration is a funny thing. Mysterious and mystical, it’s difficult to know where it comes from. And unless one writes biographical fiction, characters are inspired by something. Before I started writing books, I imagined that somehow characters formed by themselves without too much effort, as if they leapt onto the … Read more
From Reedsy Blog: The gold standard for self-publishing aggregators, Draft2Digital distinguishes itself with excellent customer service and a user-friendly interface. They’re the best way to sell your book with dozens of retailers without tearing your hair out. Pros: Quick to set-up and publish a book Robust book conversion tool Great customer service Universal Book Link helps readers … Read more
PG included this as part of a very long post earlier this month, but decided it deserved a repeat on its own for any who missed the first one or gave up partway through the earlier post. From Harper’s Magazine: Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial. Powerful protests for racial and social … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: With a release date Tuesday (July 28), Dare To Speak: Defending Free Speech for All is by Suzanne Nossel—currently the CEO of PEN America and a previous COO of Human Rights Watch and executive director of Amnesty International USA. Nossel enters this politically charged summer’s lineup in the right sector: nonfiction, and focused on the underlying … Read more
From The New York Times: The killing of George Floyd has brought an intense moment of racial reckoning in the United States. As protests spread across the country, they have been accompanied by open letters calling for — and promising — change at white-dominated institutions across the arts and academia. But on Tuesday, a different type of … Read more
From Electric Lit: It’s been said many times already that the coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the dramatic economic inequality in New York City—which of course ties into deeper systemic issues around race. But to pretend those inequalities haven’t been obvious before this time—to pretend they haven’t always been part of the city’s history—is a … Read more
From Wired: I SOMETIMES THINK that if you could look in the safe behind Jeff Bezos’ desk, instead of the sports almanac from Back to the Future you’d find an Encyclopedia of Retail, written in maybe 1985. There would be Post-It notes on every page, and every one of those notes would have been turned … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: Even as John Bolton’s The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir continues to roil the American political scene, its publisher, Simon & Schuster, now has seen yet another move against it on the month’s upcoming release, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. … Read more
From Writer Unboxed: I decided to ask a few authors and a veteran literary publicist—with many books to their credit—their their thoughts about value. Specifically, how have their marketing communications efforts evolved through the years, and what are some of the big differences between their various book releases. . . . . ROBYN HARDING, Internationally Bestselling … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: When coronavirus lockdowns sent Americans into a frenzy of panic buying, the bad news came almost as quickly as the good for online organic grocer Thrive Market. In March, the company that aims to compete with Amazon.com Inc. in the health-food sector suddenly found customers flocking to its site as … Read more
From The New Yorker: Shakespeare lived his entire life in the shadow of bubonic plague. On April 26, 1564, in the parish register of Holy Trinity Church, in Stratford-upon-Avon, the vicar, John Bretchgirdle, recorded the baptism of one “Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere.” A few months later, in the same register, the vicar noted the death … Read more
One of PG’s relatives (on Mrs. PG’s side of the family, so he’s not dodgy) called PG to ask about formatting an ebook for the first time. PG knew about Apple Pages, but not much else. Any Mac folks who have had a good experience with a different approach to writing on a Mac, then … Read more
The critic Raymond Williams once wrote that every historical period has its own “structure of feeling.” How everything seemed in the nineteen-sixties, the way the Victorians understood one another, the chivalry of the Middle Ages, the world view of Tang-dynasty China: each period, Williams thought, had a distinct way of organizing basic human emotions into … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: First, the store doors shut. Now, the walls are closing in. Retailers have furloughed hundreds of thousands of workers, cut executive pay and stopped paying rent, all to conserve cash. For the most indebted retailers, particularly those already struggling before the crisis began, those measures may not be enough. Neiman … Read more
From Book Riot: Barnes & Noble has temporarily closed over 400 of their 627 U.S. stores in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As differing guidance is issued across the country, the bookselling giant confirmed that they are working with state and local officials to determine next steps to best protect customers and employees. . . … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: As if things weren’t bad enough, now there’s a shortage of jigsaw puzzles just when we need them most. The coronavirus pandemic has forced millions of Americans to hunker down in their homes and find ways to entertain themselves. A lot of them are thinking the same thought: jigsaw puzzle. … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: As the worldwide coronavirus emergency deepens into life-and-death gravity for so many in the world, a situation in the United Kingdom has reflected a concern that may play out in many other world markets for books. At this writing The New York Times‘ tallies show Earth to have more than 341,500 people … Read more