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 Lost Girls” is a group biography of love and lust among the wartime literati. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-02-19 07:00:00 UTC ]
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Bad Idea is a newly launched comics publisher designed to revive monthly periodical comics and provide economic support to direct market comics shops. Beginning in May the house will publish a limited number of monthly serials by popular artists, sold exclusively via comics shops. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-18 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The Carol Shields Prize is an effort to raise the visibility of women writers, in part with a sum that far exceeds many other book awards. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-02-07 10:00:17 UTC ]
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The Katniss Everdeen of our generation—aka the anonymous Trump administration official who wrote a high-fructose op-ed and bestselling book about… silently and ineffectually resisting?—is the subject of Beltway rumors, as some are suggesting that “Anonymous” is, in fact, a high-ranking National... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-03 15:22:54 UTC ]
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Walk into a contemporary bookstore and self-help manuals are likely to be among the first books you’ll see. In my local Barnes & Noble, a “self-improvement” section is featured in the vestibule, luring customers before they even open the store’s main doors. Inside the store, the boundary... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-29 09:49:07 UTC ]
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Subscribe on iTunes | Spotify | SoundCloud | LARB Editor-in-Chief Tom Lutz is joined by author and USC Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Sympathizer, at a recent LARB Luminary Dinner. Viet begins by talking about about his family’s... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-01-27 20:01:38 UTC ]
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Aimed at growing consumer revenue, Hearst's new experiential division will work to build deeper relationships with readers by creating events that enthusiasts will be tempted to pay for. The post How Hearst is building an ‘experiences’ business appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2020-01-21 05:00:50 UTC ]
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Frank Cruz always told other people's stories. Now, he tells all in his memoir about his days as a reporter, Telemundo co-founder and everything in between. He carved paths for others along the way. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-01-18 13:48:12 UTC ]
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These days, it seems like every book that gets even the barest amount of hype gets snapped up by a production company in the first month of its publication, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those are the books whose adaptations get made. 2020 starts out with a whole host of movies adapted from... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-16 09:50:47 UTC ]
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From POETRY Magazine to The Paris Review, here are 9 literary magazines to check out for the 23rd task of Book Riot's 2020 Reader Harder challenge! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-01-13 11:36:36 UTC ]
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Janice Hadlow's début novel, The Other Bennet Sister, has been optioned for TV by Bad Wolf. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-12 22:44:25 UTC ]
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Returning to earlier career experience in comics and graphic novels, Janna Morishima is focusing on visual storytelling in her relaunched agency venture. The post New Literary Agency Specializes in Children’s and YA Graphic Content appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-01-10 12:30:35 UTC ]
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We're in a new golden age of science fiction, especially science fiction short stories. These are some of the best stories you can read right now online. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-01-09 11:35:44 UTC ]
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My Afghan godfather, a bristling military man, who at one time back in the 1930s held the all-India motorcycle speed record, spoke of A Sportsman’s Notebook as one of the two or three books that formed and continued to inform his mind. I remember his copy of it lying on his bedside table,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-07 09:48:06 UTC ]
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Independent publisher the Experiment has acquired Appletree Press, a publisher of titles on health, food, and lifestyle. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-01-07 05:00:00 UTC ]
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This week, Annalisa Quinn reviews John L’Heureux’s story collection “The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast.” In 1984, L’Heureux wrote for the Book Review about “The Best American Short Stories 1984,” selected by John Updike. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-01-03 10:00:04 UTC ]
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Literary agent alerts (this one is with Megan Manzano of D4EO Literary) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list. The post New Agent Alert: Megan Manzano of D4EO Literary by Robert Lee Brewer appeared first on... Continue reading at Writer's Digest
[ Writer's Digest | 2020-01-01 10:00:05 UTC ]
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Test your knowledge of women writers with a fun pop quiz. First Round Name the title and author of the first-ever science fiction novel. This Pulitzer-prize winner and Italian translator declared in 2015 that she is now only writing in Italian. Name this author. The 2018 Nobel laureate for... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-12-27 12:00:00 UTC ]
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One night, when he was seven or eight, she read her son a story from a book called These Bad Things. It was surprisingly scary, and she knew she should stop, but they were so far in. She wanted to see how it ended. The post These Bad Things appeared first on Guernica. Continue reading at Guernica
[ Guernica | 2019-12-23 19:30:20 UTC ]
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Ready to dig into this fascinating nonfiction read? Here's your reading guide and BAD BLOOD book club questions to get the conversation going. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-12-23 11:35:34 UTC ]
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