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 ]
The book critic and Fake Accounts author says that smart readers are not being served by the publishing industry. The post Lauren Oyler on America’s Alienating Literary Culture appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2020-11-18 21:30:25 UTC ]
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This morning, Publishers Marketplace reported that two-time Booker Prize winner and historical fiction supremo Hilary Mantel has a new short story collection on the horizon. Learning to Talk, which will be released by Holt at some point next year, is billed as “a collection of loosely... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-18 18:07:12 UTC ]
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Every year, we ask The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Finalists to reminisce about the first book they fell in love with. This year, we asked Finalists to reflect not just on the first story that stole their heart, but the story that seeded curiosity and empathy for the plight of others... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-17 09:48:30 UTC ]
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Printed book sales plunge in first six months of 2020 on back of shop and school closuresSee all our coronavirus coverageSales of digital books by British publishers are set to hit an all-time high this year as the public turns to reading to escape pandemic cabin fever.However, the ebook and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-11-14 07:00:02 UTC ]
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Take a tour of literary Kolkata, India, from its museums to its cafes and bookstores to a reading list of books set in the metropolis. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-11-11 11:36:00 UTC ]
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M John Harrison has won the £10,000 Goldsmiths Prize for The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again (Gollancz), a genre-blurring tale of broken life in Brexit Britain hailed by judges as a “literary masterpiece”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-11 04:07:19 UTC ]
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The Aspen Words Literary Prize is focused on authors whose work deals in cultural relevance and contemporary conditions. The post Aspen Words’ Issue-Driven Literary Prize: The 2021 Longlist appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-11-10 18:06:42 UTC ]
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The newly launched Liverpool Literary Agency has signed its first deal, signing Jack Byrne with Northodox Press, a publisher "catering to readers of crime fiction with the authentic voice of northern England". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-10 13:52:09 UTC ]
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Do you feel old yet? If the answer is yes, then join the club! Today, director and author Matthew A. Cherry announced via Twitter that Blue Ivy Carter (that’s right: Beyoncé and Jay Z’s eight-year-old daughter) is the narrator of the audiobook adaptation of his 2019 animated short film Hair... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-09 18:06:17 UTC ]
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Imagine bookstores, libraries and life really, without Anne Frank, The Little Prince, the Quran, and Murakami. This is what a world without literary translators would look like—our literary travels would be devoid of global textures and much, much less rich. Through the work of translators,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Dealing with Security Holes in Chips — system security starts at the hardware layer. Ubooquity — free home server for your comics and ebooks library. “Like plex for books.” Noisepage — a relational database management system developed by the Carnegie Mellon Database Group. The research goal of... Continue reading at O'Reilly Radar
[ O'Reilly Radar | 2020-11-06 11:59:34 UTC ]
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A new collection of rejigged tales gets much closer to the spirit of these stories than the ‘traditional’ versions we’re force-fed There’s a book called Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, written by James Finn Garner, which used to be on my parents’ shelves, and is now on mine. Published in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-11-04 09:00:13 UTC ]
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Penguin Michael Joseph has acquired the literary suspense novel More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez after a late night pre-empt made within 24 hours of reading the manuscript. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-03 11:44:54 UTC ]
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As the literary world moved online in 2020, a central question for many organizations was how to manage the annual festivals that gather thousands of readers from around the world. Here, the directors of five festivals—Sara Ortiz of the Believer Festival, Lissette Mendez of the Miami Book Fair,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-03 09:57:24 UTC ]
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We're examining the eligibility requirements of five major literary awards, specifically looking at their positions on citizenship. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-11-02 11:33:00 UTC ]
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We asked for your favorite short stories and got a long list! Here are 53 of the most outstanding short stories our readers have read. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-11-02 11:31:00 UTC ]
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Welcome to the virtual book launch of Tiny Nightmares: Very Short Tales of Horror, brought to you by The Antibody Reading Series in collaboration with WORD Bookstore (buy from the bookstore here). Tonight’s guests include editors Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto, along with contributors Meg... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-29 23:30:17 UTC ]
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Speak to us, oh lovers of short fiction: what are the most outstanding short stories you've read? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-10-27 10:31:00 UTC ]
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Leaders from 2U, Global Citizen Year, Minerva, and Pearson reveal which elements of the higher-ed ecosystem are getting stronger and which are poised to collapse. For Fast Company’s Shape of Tomorrow series, we’re asking business leaders to share their inside perspective on how the COVID-19 era... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2020-10-27 07:00:15 UTC ]
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Today, Graywolf Press announced that Anna Burns’ Milkman has been selected as the winner of the International Dublin Literary Award. The Award, now celebrating its 25th year, is the world’s largest annual prize for a single work of fiction published in English. The prize comes with a whopping... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-22 15:20:06 UTC ]
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