The New York Times
September 6, 2012
New York Mets knuckleballer RA Dickey has signed on with Penguin’s Dial Books for Young Readers to create three children’s books, two of which will be released in the next two years, according to a report Thursday afternoon from Publishers Weekly.
The first book will be released fall 2013 and will be a children’s adaptation of his March 2012 book, Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball.
September 5, 2012
Watchmen it ain't, but the brief condenses complex arguments admirably. The anti-trust case against Apple, Macmillan and Penguin, all accused of conspiring to fix ebook prices, thunders on, but one part of it is shortly to come to a close. Three of the originally accused publishers – HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster – agreed to settle with the Department of Justice in April this year, and that settlement is finally coming through.
September 1, 2012
Publishers have been blessed with the gift of invisibility. For the last several decades of modern book publishing, the industry's "top-down" distribution model has allowed publishers to stand behind the scenes—working tirelessly, but not publicly—to make sure high-quality and important content found its way to the world's stage. This shroud of invisibility has long protected publishers from suffering the worst effects of their worst failures, and it has granted them certain freedoms to take the risks required of a publisher—on new authors, on new topics, on new ideas, etc. Colossal failures during these years may have tarnished the author in the readers' minds, and the booksellers who recommended their steaming pile of a book, but not the largely invisible publisher—who lived to publish another day.
August 25, 2012
TODD RUTHERFORD was 7 years old when he first understood the nature of supply and demand. He was with a bunch of other boys, one of whom showed off a copy of Playboy to giggles and intense interest. Todd bought the magazine for $5, tore out the racy pictures and resold them to his chums for a buck apiece. He made $20 before his father shut him down a few hours later. A few years ago, Mr. Rutherford, then in his mid-30s, had another flash of illumination
August 23, 2012
Earlier this month, Slate writer Jacob Silverman wrote that having a likable Twitter persona “epitomizes the mutual admiration society that is today’s literary culture, particularly online.” In other words, he thinks the Internet is coddling writers and softening critics, to the detriment of Meaningful Literary Criticism.
Literary critics everywhere joined in, creating a recursive loop of criticism about criticism about criticism.
August 15, 2012
Maria Semple made an instant, jarring discovery when she moved with her boyfriend and daughter from Los Angeles to Seattle, a city whose Patagonia-clad inhabitants like to talk about bicycling, the environment and the eternally dull question (in her opinion) of whether it might rain.
“It’s just not a funny place,” said Ms. Semple, a novelist and veteran comedy writer who worked on the television shows “Arrested Development” and “Mad About You.”
August 14, 2012
James Patterson released 14 blockbuster novels last year while writing hardly a word. Whether you consider it genius or fakery, his writing franchise has made him a bogglingly wealthy man. Patterson has taken top spot in the just-released Forbes fiction rich list, with an estimated income of $US94 million ($NZ118 million) last year. He outstrips the number-two ranked Stephen King, who settled for making ends meet on a mere $US39 million ($NZ48 million).
August 13, 2012
We caught up with Geoff Smart, coauthor of another New York Times Bestseller “Who: The A Method for Hiring,” and Tanya Hall, Director of Marketing and Business Development for Greenleaf Book Group, to chat about about the launch strategy behind the new bestseller, "Leadocracy."
August 7, 2012
“Beth Kephart doesn’t sleep much.”
This is how a recent article about author Beth Kephart in her college alumni magazine, The Pennsylvania Gazette, opened. In fact, this is something pretty much everyone who has ever spent time with Beth Kephart, or heard her give a talk or lead a writing workshop says about her. We say this to make ourselves feel better, to justify why we are not as productive as this prolific and talented writer. In the last 14 years of nearly sleepless nights, in addition to raising a son, maintaining a happy marriage, dancing, exercising and doing the mundane activities of life, Kephart has written and published 14 books, with three more coming out in the next 18 months.
August 2, 2012
My friend “J” (you remember her) finished the book. You know which book I mean. THE book. The titillating one that ladies (and men?) are reading worldwide, the wise ones hiding on their e-readers. That book.
