Penelope Lively's recent short ebook for Penguin drew criticism for its brevity – but readers should not be put off the genre as a whole"Overpriced", "ridiculous", I feel cheated". Amazon reviewers haven't been wholly positive about a digital short Penelope Lively has written for Penguin Specials. On the evidence of the story itself, it's not Lively's fault. Abroad is about a pair of art students who travel to 1950s Spain in search of picturesque peasants and are disappointed when they don't live up to expectations. It's funny and evocative of a time when rural Europe was still exotic.It also peters out after just 4,000 words, so I sympathise with anyone who felt ripped off by its £1.99 price tag. These days you can buy two whole novels for that. The sad fact is, publishers don't make any money if an ebook costs less than £1.99. Amazon does, because singles are the literary equivalent of a gateway drug.This was brought home to me on finishing Susan Hill's latest effort, Printer's Devil Court (99p), a haunting tale about pre-second world war medical students who experiment with resurrection. More substantial than Lively's, it's a great, old-fashioned ghost story, whose chilling impact was somewhat undermined by turning the final page to find Amazon ordering me to rate, review, tweet, Facebook and buy more books by Susan Hill. Was the ebook I'd enjoyed little more than a trailer?Singles are a clever marketing tool. But it would be a shame if readers short-changed by one... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
A Chicago-based independent publisher has responded to the recent attack on Black History by offering free books. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-02-08 16:46:55 UTC ]
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Family memoirs are never about one thing. There’s always a compelling domestic story; in her new memoir, The Critic’s Daughter, Priscilla Gilman tells a fascinating story about her dynamic parents and the literary world that they inhabited. But good memoirs always involve a secondary subplot (or... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-06 09:54:35 UTC ]
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Star Wars: Visions is returning for a second 'season,' this time with a more international scope — including a studio you might not have expected. Disney has announced that Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 will premiere May 4th (aka Star Wars Day) with shorts from nine countries, including one from... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-02-02 15:41:49 UTC ]
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The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. William Trevor famously described the short story as “the art of the glimpse,” and compression is generally a virtue. But the most engaging and compelling short stories and novels are not necessarily the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-27 09:52:28 UTC ]
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Following the new double-dipping template of memoir and documentary, Pamela Anderson finally tells her own story with remarkable matter-of-factness. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-01-27 08:01:22 UTC ]
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Talking about punishing parents, backstabbing besties, and book club breakups with guest Hugh Ryan Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2023-01-24 20:00:00 UTC ]
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The 2023 PEN American Literary Award Longlists have been announced! This year’s awards will confer $350,000 to more than 100 writers. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-01-23 17:48:28 UTC ]
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Having written and taught short stories for many years, I’ve become increasingly interested in writers who are pushing the edge of how “story” is defined. While “flash fiction” and “micro fiction” are buzzy terms, writing extremely short pieces is nothing new—as I tell my students, Poe did it,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-20 09:53:22 UTC ]
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BMW is once again ready to give the world a glimpse of the futuristic tech it has in the works as p[art of its i Vision concept vehicle program. Following 2017's iVision Dynamics, 2018's iNext SAV, and last year's iVision Circular, the German automaker revealed at CES 2023 on Thursday the i... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-01-05 04:15:55 UTC ]
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With the acquisition of the literary agency Fletcher & Company, UTA added hundreds of authors to its client roster. The deal comes amid consolidation in the entertainment industry. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-01-04 17:18:03 UTC ]
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As the cofounder of BookXcess and Big Bad Wolf, Andrew Yap is the most powerful bookseller you likely don’t know. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-12-30 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Naira Kuzmich died in 2017, at age 29 from lung cancer, but her posthumous short story collection, In Everything I See Your Hand, was only recently brought to fruition by University of New Orleans Press (June 2022). The included stories were widely published in literary journals and one was... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-22 09:53:38 UTC ]
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“Thomas Pynchon is a young writer, just twenty, who has previously published fiction in Epoch. He is a Cornell graduate and now lives in Seattle.” Writers know that the time between when a piece is accepted by a literary magazine and when it is actually published can be rather protracted—my... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-21 09:53:25 UTC ]
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Revisiting a now quaint conflict about Barnes & Noble displacing indie booksellers in New York. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2022-12-20 08:00:00 UTC ]
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The longtime agent of Samuel R. Delany, Dean Koontz, and Robert Ludlum died November 2. He was 86. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-12-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
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During a panel, "Do Publisher’s Have a Moral Obligation to Diversify American Literature?", authors Min Jin Lee, Chris Beha, Roxane Gay and publishing veteran Erroll McDonald weighed in on a central issue in the book business. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-12-16 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The list of novels that began their lives as short stories is long and well known. Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides, Eudory Welty’s The Optimist’s Daughter, Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake (which began as a short story titled “Gogol”), Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (expanded from her 1923... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-15 09:52:44 UTC ]
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To the members of the literary community we lost this year, we say a last thank you, and goodbye. You will be missed. * F. Sionil José, “the grand old man of Philippine letters,” died on January 6 at the age of 97. Terry Teachout, the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, died on January […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-14 09:59:24 UTC ]
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The Aspen Words Literary Prize 2023 longlist includes seven fiction debuts and five short-story collections. The post The $35,000 Aspen Words Literary Prize Names Its 2023 Longlist appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-12-12 20:25:30 UTC ]
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Lit Hub is excited to feature a new series from Poets.org: “enjambments,” a monthly interview series with new and established poets. This month, they spoke to Robin Coste Lewis, the author of To the Perfect Realization of Helplessness (Alfred A. Knopf, 2022) and Voyage of the Sable Venus (Alfred... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-12 09:56:26 UTC ]
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