Two years after her apparent suicide, the novelist has announced she is still very much alive. Is this what it takes to sell books nowadays?‘All publicity is good publicity,” Susan Meachen thought to herself as she prepared to stage her suicide. In September 2020, Meachen, the self-published author of what she described as “perfectly flawed” romance novels, logged on to Facebook, pretended to be her daughter and wrote a post declaring herself dead. Meachen’s “daughter” continued to post numerous times after that. She suggested that Meachen was “bullied in the book world to the point of suicide” and encouraged people to buy Meachen’s “final” book. Then, plot twist: last week, Meachen posted on Facebook again to declare that she wasn’t actually dead. Surprise! “Let the fun begin,” she added.My very first sentence, by the way, was – like Meachen’s death – part fiction. I have no idea what the romance writer was thinking when she offed herself online. Nobody does. But people have a lot of questions. Meachen has alluded to mental health problems, which should obviously be taken seriously – but that still wouldn’t excuse using your fake death to try to hawk books, as has been suggested in the days since she announced her resurrection. People in Meachen’s writing community are furious. “I think she believed that if she died, her books would get attention,” an author in Meachen’s writing circle told the BBC. “Now, this is a new gamble: ‘Hey, if I come back, that will get... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-01-11 07:00:12 UTC ]
How publishing should respond to Trump 2.0, on the joy and pain of tracking reading, and ONYX STORM is out: all in today's book news. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-01-21 17:23:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Well, here we are. Here is our world. Here is our next few years. Book people may not have as much economic or political power as other people in other industries, but we have some power. And if we don’t use the power we have, no matter how limited it may feel, how can we […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-01-21 14:44:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Retellings of novels like Huckleberry Finn and David Copperfield help to keep the canon aliveIt might have lost out at the Booker, but James, a reworking of Huckleberry Finn by Percival Everett, was the unofficial book of 2024, topping best-of-the-year lists and winning the prestigious US Book... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-12-30 18:25:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The best gift books of 2024, the New York Times's 100 notable books of the year, Costco updates its in-store book plans, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-12-01 16:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Cormac McCarthy's secret relationship with an underage girl, the winners of the 2024 National Book Awards, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-11-24 16:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Police investigation into writer’s alleged tweet has sparked a debate over free speech, albeit a somewhat selective one There are few columnists with whom I disagree more than I do with the Daily Telegraph’s Allison Pearson. Yet, I welcome the decision by the police to drop their investigation... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-24 08:30:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The Telegraph journalist sent a deeply offensive and inaccurate tweet. Yet she has won the support of a swath of newspapers, an ex-PM – and Elon MuskThe Allison Pearson saga is nothing if not a morality tale about the modern media. Among its many learnings are that calling a group of people of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-20 08:50:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Schwartz, a former high school English teacher who founded Children's Book World in Haverford, Pa., in 1989, died on November 8. The store, celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, is one of the country's oldest children's bookstores. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-11-13 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
There is so much to complain about in the book world at the current moment, from Amazon’s stranglehold on book retail to the increasing usage of generative AI to replace writers and artists of all kinds. But you’re reading this column on Thursday; I turned it in on Tuesday, Election Day. I have... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-11-07 12:52:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Heartland Fall Forum, the joint fall trade show of the Midwest Independent Booksellers and the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Associations, is taking place in Milwaukee this week—and it's been a celebration of everything that makes the Midwest book world unique. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-10-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“I was loath to jump into it,” Black List founder Franklin Leonard says of expanding into publishing. “It’s not a great look to be like, ‘I'm from Hollywood and I'm here to save you.’” Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2024-10-04 15:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Organizers of Frankfurt’s 2025 Guest of Honor Philippines program describe crime and mystery writing in the Philippine market. Sponsored. Publishing Perspectives Staff Report ‘More Than Solving a Mystery’ hile much of the book world is focused on the upcoming 76th edition of Frankfurter... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-10-04 12:00:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this
An international writing organisation appeared to greenlight the use of AI, prompting anger, the resignation of four board members and an entire creative community to ask: ‘What?!’Please spare a thought for artificial intelligence (AI). It may not have feelings yet but, if it did, it would feel... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-09-11 10:00:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Chicago booksellers and other literary-minded organizations are responding to the crowds in town for the Democratic National Convention by selling books, promoting causes, and, in the case of one publication, reporting on the proceedings from a literary perspective. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-08-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Some stories come and go, but there are some stories that are part of fundamental questions that the book world is asking and trying to answer. Here are the ten that I find to be the most important at the moment. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-21 10:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Contemporary literature is one of those four-dimensional things that seem to expand whenever you take a closer look. No one really knows more than a corner of it, perhaps a very large one, but a corner nevertheless. This quality, this mercuriality, of literature makes it more endless than any... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-08-16 11:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Susan Wojcicki, best known as the head of YouTube but also a key player in convincing the book world to allow Google to scan books into its search engine, died of lung cancer on August 9. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-08-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
I reviewed Lev Grossman’s The Magicians when it was launched in 2009, with amazing timing: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book, was out in paperback, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was at last onscreen. Fans were bemoaning the coming Harry Potter vacuum. Grossman, at... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-07-23 08:55:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Peter Schjeldahl’s final book collects the essays and reviews he wrote in the years after a cancer diagnosis. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-07-15 09:03:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The new book World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the 21st Century lays out what might actually happen if China were to invade Taiwan in 2028. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2024-06-19 10:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this