By Daniel Kalder SANTA MONICA: For over 60 years now the RAND Corporation has carried out research and analysis for governments, organizations, and institutions around the world. Famously, it was the work of Dr. Herman Kahn — a RAND employee –- that provided the seed for the military doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (Kahn was lampooned by Peter Sellers in …
It’s Dostoevsky Time! PP Tackles ‘Crime and Punishment; Starting This Week
By Dennis Abrams The lights are coming down. The tree has been dragged out to the curb. The tinsel has been vacuumed out of the carpet. Another holiday season has come and gone, and with it, a new year is here. It’s time for resolution and reflection. In other words, it’s time to put away the genre fiction and read …
Nicolas Gary: France’s Digital Man of Letters
By Olivia Snaije In a corner of the traditional, safe and slightly musty world of French publishing, Nicolas Gary, the principal founder of Actualitté, a website and daily newsmagazine on French and international publishing, is a blast of fresh air. The Canadian-born 30-year old, a fan of Frank Herbert’s Dune but also of poet Saint-John Perse, founded Actualitté with three …
Serbia’s Geopoetika Publishes English Translations with an Eye Towards Foreign Rights Sales
By Chad W. Post Unfortunate as it is, the situation facing Serbian literature is incredibly common for “small language” cultures: although a number of Serbian writers from the first half of the twentieth century have been translated into English and published throughout the world (like Danilo Kiš, Milorad Pavić, and Borislav Pekić), many of the best writers of the past …
The Digital Book in Practice: Valentine’s 14 Languages, Multiple Formats, Wireless Delivery
By Alex de Campi BROOKLYN: Imagine a graphic novel series, released every month simultaneously in 14 languages and across all major wireless platforms (Kindle, e-Reader, Android phone, iPhone), hopefully soon via the Web and, eventually, in collected print editions. Every month, you pay 99 cents and get 70-75 screens of action, adventure and suspense. In its first fortnight after launch, in …
The Myth of Amazon’s “Exclusive” E-books
By Emily Williams Amazon.com made a big splash earlier this month with its announcement that international megastar Paulo Coelho would make 17 of his books in the original Portuguese available exclusively on Amazon for six months. The press release, parroted on a number of news sites, proclaimed this “the first time any of these editions have been available as electronic …