From cancelled books to ‘review bombing’, it might seem as though the website can make or break a career. But how influential is it really?Something dramatic happens on a social media platform every day. On Goodreads, the anachronistically designed website for logging, rating (out of five) and reviewing books, the dramas are more amusing, and they occasionally even draw attention from areas beyond the site’s supposedly book-loving users. The most recent featured Cait Corrain, the fantasy author who set up an elaborate network of fake accounts to post positive reviews of her own forthcoming book as well as negative reviews of authors she felt were her competitors. When citizen journalists uncovered her plot in December 2023, her book was cancelled, and she lost her agent and a future book deal.A juicy, postmodern story of self-sabotage, or a sad one about the intersection of the internet and mental health. Regardless, its stakes are relatively low: publicly harassing one’s colleagues is a sackable offence anyway, and it’s hard to find someone who really cares about the vicissitudes of the young adult literature world who isn’t part of the subculture. I’m not; I’m a professional critic, and an author of a literary novel. I’m a snob. I care about my book, and the authors I feel are my competitors. And while Goodreads has been around since 2007, its significance to the broader literary world remains steadfastly confusing. Does it sell books? Does it make and break careers?... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-17 09:00:10 UTC ]
Hachette is selling three of its titles, including Amanda Palmer's new book 'The Art of Asking,' using buy buttons on Twitter. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette has partnered with Gumroad, a company that enables direct sales through Twitter, to see if the social media platform can sell books. The post Hachette Tests if Gumroad Can Sell Books on Twitter appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette Book Group in the US has partnered with Gumroad to sell books directly through Twitter. From later this week (11th December), tweets from certain authors will contain buy buttons allowing customers to buy the books without leaving Twitter. The first book to be offered this way will be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James Patterson has launched a campaign in the US to persuade President Barack Obama to draw attention to the importance of reading. The campaign, which has the hashtag #SaveOurBooks on Twitter, asks people to sign a petition, write to their politicians, spread to word on social media and find... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Man Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan and distinguished novelists Haruki Murakami and Michael Cunningham are among the authors whose books are in contention for the 22nd Bad Sex in Fiction Award. The prize awards the “most egregious passage of sexual description in a work of fiction”, and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon and Hachette have resolved a contentious contract battle that caught readers and authors in the crossfire for months. Neither company is talking specifics, but the New York Times reports that Hachette will get the ability to set its own ebook prices. At the same time, Amazon will offer... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors such as Phil Klay and Valeria Luiselli were selected by past National Book Award winners as rising stars in the literary world. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I don’t have any do’s for writing book reviews on slavery—I don’t have any do’s for writing book reviews, period—but I have a few don’ts, courtesy of the Economist’s now-withdrawn review of The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, a new book from Cornell... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2014-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Ice Bucket Challenge, created to raise awareness of ALS, was taken by such book world figures as author Stephen King, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and author and indie bookstore supporter Stephen Colbert. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-08-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This month, Dan Kois, David Haglund, and New York Times Book Review editor Parul Sehgal discuss My Struggle: Book One, the Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard’s six-book autobiographical epic. Can the endless accretion of detail a masterpiece make? Would people respond differently to this... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2014-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, the chair of Irish PEN, outlines how Ireland continues to punch above its weight in the literary world. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a cycle seemingly as old as the literary world itself, Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is now the subject of criticism after first experiencing major success. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new study reports that after a book wins an award its social media ratings tend to dip. The Guardian explains why. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hardie Grant Egmont will sell books from U.S. based Capstone Young Readers) and Curious Fox in the U.K. to readers in Australia. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Setting up Wednesday's #EtherIssue debate on Twitter, Porter Anderson looks at recent writing on perceptions of elitism in the literary world. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Footlights, the screen legend's unseen prequel in prose to the film Limelight, reflects his sadness at declining stardomRead an extract from Footlights by Charlie ChaplinThe only work of prose fiction ever written by Charlie Chaplin, a dark, nostalgic novella which was the root of his great... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Xiaolu Guo warns that English-language mainstream has warped a broader 'reading habit', on panel with Jhumpa Lahiri and Jonathan FranzenAmerican literature is "massively overrated", the award-winning author and film-maker Xiaolu Guo told the Jaipur literature festival – and fellow panellist and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the week after Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for literature, sales of her books jumped 6,650% in Canada, and saw significant bumps around the world. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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PEN American Center's report "Chilling Effects," offers some disturbing data about the effect of government surveillance on free expression and self-censorship in the literary world.PEN American Center’s report “Chilling Effects,” officially released Tuesday morning, offers some disturbing data... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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