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 ]
Viewers of Netflix’s recent documentary "The Social Dilemma" will now know, more acutely than ever, the impact that platforms like Twitter and Instagram are having on our lives, including unprecedented rises in pre-teen suicides and self-harm admissions to hospital. Hearing about addictive,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-15 16:27:55 UTC ]
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Between 1,500 and 2,000 members of the North American literary world signed an open letter offering support to trans and nonbinary communities. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-10-09 21:31:58 UTC ]
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Hodder & Stoughton will publish broadcaster Nicky Campbell's memoir One of the Family, which will focus on family, adoption, mental health and Campbell's "miracle dog" Maxwell. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-29 15:35:17 UTC ]
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Are you happy in your current book world job? Do you arise each morning with a sense of purpose? Does social isolation, political turmoil, and inclement fall weather agree with you? Can you turn up to work barefoot and go snorkeling on your lunch break? If you answered “no” to any of the above... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-24 16:47:43 UTC ]
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Illustrations by Charlie Mackesy are to appear in a Public Health England video, as part of a campaign encouraging better mental health in young people, children and their parents. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-14 20:59:22 UTC ]
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YouTube star Daniel Howell is releasing a guide to mental health, You Will Get Through This Night, with HarperCollins imprint HQ. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-13 20:48:44 UTC ]
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Alka Joshi’s debut novel, The Henna Artist, is taking the literary world by storm. On The Literary Life, she talks with Mitchell Kaplan about the small leap from writing ad copy to writing a novel, how both her mother and mother-in-law informed her protagonist, and the joy she’s deriving from... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-11 08:47:09 UTC ]
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Hachette Children's Group will publish The Sad Ghost Club, a graphic novel tackling mental health by author and illustrator Lize Meddings. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-04 20:11:34 UTC ]
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Congratulations to Ethan Hawke, star of my favorite film (Gattaca) and arguably the most bookish man in Hollywood, who has, with today’s inclusion in the (web) pages of the New York Times Book Review, completed his Literary World Bingo Card! What is the Literary World Bingo Card you ask? Well,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-01 18:45:05 UTC ]
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Though you’ve probably only learned Mieko Kawakami’s name recently, with the release of Breasts and Eggs from renowned indie press Europa Editions, she’s been a well-known figure in the Japanese literary world for several years. Haruki Murakami called her his favorite young novelist, and the... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Harnessing the power of extremely famous people to sell books is nothing new, but what about combining the influence of multiple famous people—from billionaire “philanthropist” Richard Branson to beloved journalist/Twitter lush Susan Orlean—to sell books combined with the vaporous concept of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-19 14:44:04 UTC ]
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Ingrid Persaud made the grandest of debuts in the literary world by winning the BBC Short Story Award in 2018 with “The Sweet Sop,” the first short story she ever wrote. After this extremely auspicious beginning, the Trinidad-born writer, whose resume includes stints in legal academia and art... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Mental health and wellbeing publisher Trigger Publishing has acquired its first book on pregnancy from consultant midwife Sian Warriner and children’s mindfulness author Mark Pallis. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-16 13:40:22 UTC ]
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From mental illnesses to physical disabilities, new books from religion publishers explore how marginalized people are treated in churches and what faith communities can do to help. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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As the month of May comes to a close, and things slowly start to sort of resemble the way they were before March, we continue to see publishers step up and help out their communities. For more than eight weeks we have spotlighted these efforts and have given shout-outs to publishers from every... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2020-05-29 16:34:42 UTC ]
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Taco Bell Quarterly is the literary magazine for Taco Bell-inspired literature. When I started it, I had heard the jokes about the looming cease and desist that Taco Bell would eventually banhammer down upon me. Rebellious and having no working knowledge of copyright laws, my motto was RIDE OR... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-19 08:49:11 UTC ]
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Innovation means a lot of different things to a lot of different people in a lot of different industries. In publishing, the word has typically been tethered to data-driven digital products, rather than ideas and ideators. But at Cosmopolitan, innovation is taking on a more complex meaning that... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2020-04-23 19:03:42 UTC ]
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San Francisco’s iconic City Lights bookstore, which has been an anchor of the city’s literary world since Lawrence Ferlinghetti founded it in 1953, is asking for help to stay financially afloat as its doors remain closed. The store launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for staff and to pay... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-10 16:03:18 UTC ]
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How can technological solutions adopted during the coronavirus outbreak foster a greater sense of connectivity in the literary world post-pandemic? Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-03 05:03:51 UTC ]
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As the COVID-19 pandemic forces marketers to tighten their advertising budgets and organizers to cancel or postpone events, media companies of all sizes are scrambling to account for lost revenue. In cities across the U.S., a virtual suspension of public life is taking a disastrous toll on... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2020-03-23 14:46:51 UTC ]
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