By Edward Nawotka Mark your calendars: The schedule for the PEN World Voices Festival was released today. You can read it here. A few of the writers featured include: Mohsin Hamid, László Krasznahorkai, Andrea Levy, Yiyun Li, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, Sofi Oksanen, Atiq Rahimi, Salman Rushdie, Alberto Ruy-Sanchez, Patti Smith, Andrzej Stasiuk, and recent Publishing Perspectives contributor Miguel Syjuco. The Festival …
Asian Prize Changes Seem Puzzling, But Perhaps For the Better
Editorial by Miguel Syjuco, Winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize MONTREAL: When news arrived this week that the Man Asian Literary Prize would no longer be accepting unpublished manuscripts, and instead only published novels, dismay broke out among writers. On blogs, newsgroups, email, and networking sites, the communal shock developed into debate. On one side, the door through …
Stumbling on My “Dream Story” in Malta (Circa 1941)
By Mark Mills My new novel, The Information Officer, marks something of a new departure for me in that it’s a story that came about through pure chance. My previous two novels, Amagansett and The Savage Garden, are set in corners of the world that I know intimately — the South Fork of Long Island and the hills of Tuscany, respectively. …
The Book That Almost Never Was: ‘100 Stories for Haiti’
By Greg McQueen AARTHUS, DENMARK: The book 100 Stories for Haiti — a forthcoming charity anthology with proceeds going for Haitian earthquake relief — wouldn’t have been possible five years ago. As it happened, I posted an appeal for stories on the morning of Tuesday, January, 19. Just one week after the earthquake that left over 200,000 dead. The final …
Author Nick Flynn Finds an Unlikely Friend in Facebook
By Sharon Glassman How do you go out into the world to promote a book about “torture and babies?” For Nick Flynn, author of the recently published memoir The Ticking is the Bomb (WW Norton), the answer mirrors the author’s way of working. The PEN Award-winning author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City writes memoirs that limn personal tragedy in poetic prose. …
My Publisher, My Wing Man
By Franz Wisner Why stop at piddly promotions or insufficient inventory when you can blame your publisher for every setback in life? A cavity? The scoundrels diverted me from quality floss time. Bounced check? Sorry, Mr. Banker. I used publisher math. With my latest book, How the World Makes Love, I had a change of heart. My publisher gave me an assist …
Can the Mega-author Exist Without the Mega-bookstore?
By Edward Nawotka In our lead article today, Liz Bury writes about the launch of Mills & Boon India, prompted in part by the widespread use of English, globalized communications and the growth of India’s middle-class, which likes to shop in the new chain bookstores and supermarket-style outlets in India’s metro centers and their newly-built shopping malls. The shift has …
The Rise of “Cause” Publishing
By Gabriel Levinson Contrary to death knell hyperbole of many pundits, we are entering a publishing epoch. Cause publishing, a vital trend being set by the independents, holds the future of the printed word. But in order to reinvent its influence on society, the big houses must follow the lead of the independent scene. Now is the time to take risks, and the …
Is Amazon’s 70% Royalty on E-books Worth the Restrictions?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story by Emily Williams questions the “exclusive” status of Amazon.com e-book deals with Paulo Coelho and Harvard Business Review Press. As she demonstrates, both Coelho and Harvard Business Review Press have offered e-book versions of their work for sometime, including titles that overlap with Amazon’s offerings. Of course, the news that these two well-known brands …
Competitors and Collaborators: The New Age in Agenting
Editorial by Jason Allen Ashlock NEW YORK: In December, five of the largest magazine publishers in the United States — Time Inc., NewsCorp, Conde Nast, Hearst, and Meredith Corp — announced a joint venture. In an effort to take control of their own fates, the five will become equal partners in developing a new e-reader for magazines. These longtime competitors …