Category: Link

• Should J.K. Rowling Win the Nobel Prize? – Huffington Post

  Posted at 3:23 pm by Laura, on January 13, 2012

  Should JK Rowling Win the Nobel Prize? – Huffington Post -Jeff O’Neal

  

  In his will that established the prizes, Alfred Nobel wanted the Literature award to go to “to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.” This phrase is as ambiguous as it is telling; the “ideal direction” of literature is not stated, but the award clearly is intended for authors whose work strives toward some kind of literary ideal.

  …

  There are other ways of thinking about what literature’s goals should be, and the one that jumps to mind for me is reading itself. Reading is an end in itself and therefore writing that inspires people to read does indeed work in “an ideal direction.” And what living author has inspired more people to read and more love of reading than J.K. Rowling?

  I think yes. The Nobel Prize shouldn’t just be limited to “high art” literature. Many of the authors and poets who have won the award are generally unknown, or known but the work is difficult to read and enjoy. Rowling has changed the lives of millions, and I believe she should be recognized for it.

  But, feel free to read the article and discuss your opinion!

  Posted in books, Link | 0 Comments | Tagged authors, books, news, newspaper

• Mad for ‘Downton?’ Publishers Have a Reading List! – NYTimes

  Posted at 11:38 am by Laura, on January 13, 2012

  If You’re Mad for ‘Downton,’ Publishers Have Reading List – New York Times – Julie Bosman

  I’m a huge fan of Downton Abbey, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have a reading list that relates to Highclere, Yorkshire, WWI, elite life, and servant life in the early 1900s. In case you’re interested, here’s a link to a great book list!

  Happy reading!

  Posted in books, Link | 0 Comments | Tagged books, genre: fiction, genre: history, genre: nonfiction, history, newspaper

• A Publisher’s Perspective on Ebooks – AmLib

  Posted at 11:32 am by Laura, on January 13, 2012

  A Publisher’s Perspective on Ebooks – American Libraries – Andrea Fleck-Nisbet

  As publishers, the challenges we face in light of the digital revolution are myriad and touch every aspect of the business, from acquisition, design, and production to marketing and distribution.

  …

  Although the possibilities for producing interactive ebooks and apps are now seemingly endless, resources for most publishers are limited and the market has been slow to keep pace with our enthusiasm for creating these new products. One of our biggest challenges today is deciding where to focus our time and energy as the digital landscape evolves and the consumer’s needs change.

  An excellent history of digital publication, and a practical outlook for the future.

  Posted in books, Link, publishing | 0 Comments | Tagged books, ebooks, magazine, news, publishing

• Children’s Authors at Winter Institute – PW

  Posted at 8:21 pm by Laura, on January 12, 2012

  Children’s Authors at Winter Institute – Publisher’s Weekly – Judith Rosen

  Ever since Algonquin used the American Booksellers Association’s Winter Institute to get booksellers to read and fall in love with Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, which sold more than a million copies before being turned into a film, publishers have been using the winter bookselling confab to generate excitement—and not just for adult titles. This year more than 20 children’s book authors and illustrators will be on hand to greet booksellers at the seventh annual gathering, Wi7, next week in New Orleans.

  John Green, Jennifer Nielsen, and Lisa Stasse are among the YA and children’s authors at this event! Check out the link for a full list of the authors and books.

  Posted in Link, publishing | 0 Comments | Tagged authors, books, genre: children, genre: young adult, magazine, news, publishing

• Random House of Canada Takes Over M&S – PW

  Posted at 3:38 pm by Laura, on January 11, 2012

  Random House of Canada Takes Over McClelland & Stewart; Canadian Pubs Unhappy – Publisher’s Weekly – Leigh Anne Williams

  Canada’s biggest multinational publishing house just got bigger. Random House of Canada has become the sole owner of McClelland & Stewart, one of Canada’s oldest publishing houses.

  Random House has owned a share of M&S since 2000 when its sole owner and chairman Avie Bennett sold it 25% of the company and donated 75% to the University of Toronto with the intent that M&S would maintain its editorial independence. Random House had been providing services such as sales, production, human resources and accounting to M&S since that time. But according to the announcement from Random House today, M&S had “been experiencing financial challenges” attributed to the difficult economy and digital-driven transitions.
  Posted in Link, publishing | 0 Comments | Tagged magazine, news, publishing

• For Reading and Learning, Kids Prefer Ebooks to Print Books – DBW

  Posted at 7:11 pm by Laura, on January 10, 2012

  For Reading and Learning, Kids Prefer Ebooks to Print Books – Digital Book World – Jeremy Greenfield

  Given the choice between reading e-books or print books, children prefer e-books, a new, exploratory field study shows. Children who read e-books also retain and comprehend just as much as when they read print books, the study also suggests.

  Be wary of this “study” – there were only 24 families, and most reliable studies should have over 100 at the very least. However, the results are still interesting to read.

  Posted in books, Link, publishing | 1 Comment | Tagged books, ebooks, news, publishing

• Why Authors Tweet – NYTimes

  Posted at 11:44 am by Laura, on January 9, 2012

  Why Authors Tweet – New York Times – Anne Trubek

  W. B. Yeats remarked that the poet “is never the bundle of accident and incoherence that sits down to breakfast.” T. S. Eliot further argued that “the progress of an artist is . . . a continual extinction of personality”; forget about getting to know the figure behind the words: “Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.” On his Facebook page, created by his publisher, Jeffrey Eugenides recently expressed similar sentiments. In “A Note From Jeffrey Eugenides to Readers,” he described his joy at meeting them, but concluded by saying he doesn’t know when or if he’ll post on the page again: “It’s better, I think, for readers not to communicate too directly with an author because the author is, strangely enough, beside the point.”

  But readers are not heeding Eugenides’s advice, nor are many writers. Why? For one thing, publishers are pushing authors to hobnob with readers on Twitter and Facebook in the hope they will sell more copies. But there’s another reason: Many authors have little use for the pretension of hermetic distance and never accepted a historically specific idea of what it means to be a writer.

  To tweet or not to tweet? Be sure to read the full the two pages!

  Posted in Link | 0 Comments | Tagged authors, news, newspaper, technology

• What Occupy Can Learn from the Hunger Games – Salon

  Posted at 3:23 pm by Laura, on January 8, 2012

  What Occupy can learn from the Hunger Games – Salon – Mike Doherty

  Stories of people who are trampled on by competing ideologies and broken by enforced scarcity are certainly apt at a time when the U.S. political system is regularly brought to a standstill by politicians unwaveringly devoted to ideologies, the European Union threatens to disintegrate due to its members’ conflicting demands, divisions between the rich and the poor are ever-increasing, and those with the power to help offer rhetoric instead. The Occupy movement, as a loosely affiliated band of concerned people – Marxists, anarchists, environmentalists, survivalists, and more – has on the whole avoided ideology and embraced diversity and democracy. Some would say its lack of specific goals has undermined it, but the adoption of a V-style oppositional stance surely wouldn’t help. Occupy has done much to cast the U.S. and U.K. as dystopias, as pictures of police in riot gear confronting protestors have proliferated in the media…

  …Propped against a wall inside the Bank of Ideas is a placard that reads, “’1984′ was not an instruction manual.” Nor, indeed, is “V for Vendetta,” and neither are “The Hunger Games” or “Chaos Walking.” The new YA dystopian novels are thoughtful books, but they don’t offer solutions or blueprints – they merely suggest ways of combating stifling political ideologies. They’re full of different voices, or what literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, writing in – and against – Soviet Russia, called “polyphony”: the opposite of propaganda, and the enemy of ideology. Where they resonate with the Occupy movement, it’s in the protagonists’ determination to recalibrate the world around us in creative ways: seeing a bank as an educational institution, a tent as a library, a movement as a gathering of people asking questions, and encouraging ways of thinking by which solutions could be found.

  A moving piece that links dystopian novels such as V for Vendetta, 1984, Brave New World, Divergent,  and The Hunger Games to the Occupy movements worldwide. 2011 was marked as the year of the Protestor, and publication popularity had leaned towards dystopian novels at the same time.

  Seeing how the world culture and book culture influence and mirror one another is fascinating and intriguing!

  Posted in books, Link, publishing | 2 Comments | Tagged books, genre: dystopian, news, politics, publishing

• Traditional Books, Dressed to Kill… – The Observer

  Posted at 1:05 pm by Laura, on January 8, 2012

  Traditional books, dressed to kill… – The Observer – Robert McCrum

  From the outside, the book trade looks staid, static and conservative, but inside the publishing jungle there’s a life-and-death struggle between E and P. This competition has begun to sponsor a literary bonanza. If ever there was a golden age of reading, this is it.

  The flip-side of ebooks: they are encouraging more purchases of print books. What do you think? What is your opinion on E versus P?

  Posted in Link, publishing | 0 Comments | Tagged books, ebooks, news, newspaper

• Authors, Directors, and Tours!

  Posted at 2:14 pm by Laura, on January 6, 2012

  • Director Chris Columbus to Write Three-Book Middle-Grade Series – Publisher’s Weekly

  HarperCollins has announced it has preempted rights to a three-book middle-grade series by director Chris Columbus, to be called House of Secrets. Columbus, the director of two Harry Potter movies and many other films, will co-author the books with YA writer Ned Vizzini (It’s Kind of a Funny Story). The first book is slated for spring 2013.

  Read on for some more information about this series! Sounds very intriguing – I think I’d enjoy it, too.

  • Looking for John Green? Find Him on Tour – Publisher’s Weekly

  If you’re a Nerdfighter like me, you probably already know all about John and Hank’s awesome TFiOS van and their tour across the country. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, continue on…

  An abundance of fans (among them, some Katherines) will see Printz Award-winning author John Green on his 17-city tour for The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton, on sale Jan. 10).

  That day the Looking for Alaska writer and his younger musician brother, Hank, will launch their three-week road trip in a Sprinter van, decorated with the cover of the new novel (about two teens with cancer who fall in love) and quotes from Markus Zusak (“you laugh, you cry, and then you come back for more”) and Jodi Picoult (“an electric portrait of young people who learn to live life with one foot in the grave”). As the 34- and 31-year-old siblings travel, they will broadcast shows through their VlogBrothers YouTube channel.

   

  “I’m a pretty introverted person, but I decided to go on tour because I knew it would be good for the book,” says Green, who will leave his wife (a contemporary art dealer) and two-year-old son at home in Indianapolis. “It’s really important to launch the book as aggressively as possible. I also feel really strongly about trying to make the case for brick-and-mortar bookstores…. I think it’s crazy, crazy that book tours lose so much money. They shouldn’t. Book tours should be part of what keeps independent bookstores vibrant and profitable.”

  Side note: I received The Fault in Our Stars early by accident, and am waiting till January 10 to read it just like the rest of his fans.

  See Green on tour! Read TFiOS! Look out for Columbus’s book!
  Posted in books, Link, publishing | 0 Comments | Tagged books, genre: contemporary, genre: fiction, genre: young adult, magazine, news, publishing

• 

• Hello, I’m Laura!

  I'm a bookish bookworm and book hoarder. By day I'm a literary agent, and by night I'm forever rearranging my bookshelves. I could talk your ear off about Gothic literature, and in my past life people thought I'd become a professional musician. I have a fluffy black cat named Rossetti, I love to travel, tea is my drink of choice, British TV is the best, and I'm always down for chips-and-queso nights. Welcome to Scribbles & Wanderlust! Grab your favorite hot beverage and let's chat books!

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