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 ]
It’s been a rough year for the literary festival. Sparked by a campaign from Fossil Free Books (FFB), nine festivals that previously relied on support from the Baillie Gifford Foundation dropped or lost that company’s sponsorship after the firm failed to divest from fossil fuel companies and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-08-19 16:14:49 UTC ]
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After publishing my first novel Catalina I spiraled into strange despair. Writing, for me, had always been about connection, yet I felt both disconnected from what I’d written and by how it was being received. Had I written a noir? I hadn’t set out to. Was my protagonist unlikeable? I liked... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-08-19 08:56:33 UTC ]
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The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which “honors writers whose work demonstrates the power of the written word to foster peace,” has today announced its 2024 book award finalists. The winners in each category will receive a $10,000 cash prize, and the runners-up will be awarded $5,000. The 2024... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-08-15 12:00:52 UTC ]
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The Sleep Room in The Outlast Trials is named after a real-life space at McGill University’s Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal, where from 1957 to 1964, doctors conducted mind-control experiments on patients as part of the CIA’s MK-Ultra initiative. Led by Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron, these tests... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-08-14 19:50:55 UTC ]
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We cannot let real books go the way of vinyl records, writes 15-year-old Jude Brayton. Plus letters from Celia Anderson and Jean Jackson Sadly, it may well be that books go the way of vinyl records (I fear books are going the way of vinyl records – a rarefied pursuit for hobbyists, 6 August).... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-08-09 16:54:51 UTC ]
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The award—a collaboration between Freedom Reads, the National Book Foundation, and the Center for Justice Innovation—is judged by more than 200 incarcerated individuals from 12 prisons across six states, making it the first of its kind in the U.S. Imani Perry's 'South to America: A Journey Below... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-08-07 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The author of 'The Country Girls' and 'The Little Red Chairs,' among many others, was best known for challenging Irish literary taboos through candid depictions of the lives of Irish women in full revolt against the oppression of traditional values—especially those of the Catholic Church. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-07-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors from across the globe document the joys and travails of diaspora communities. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-07-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
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New picture books, graphic novels, and YA fiction grapple with the short- and long-term effects of leaving home. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-07-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Welcome to I’m a Writer But, where writers discuss their work, their lives, their other work, the stuff that takes up any free time they have, all the stuff they’re not able to get to, and the ways in which any of us get anything done. Plus: book recommendations, bad jokes, okay jokes, despair,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-07-23 08:01:09 UTC ]
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Books with short chapters, Christmas in July Reads, YA book out this week, and much more on Book Riot today. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-07-16 00:08:38 UTC ]
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Scribbling on the pages of a real book is a capital sin, but not when you have a Kindle Scribe. It has all the features of a Kindle except you can also write and draw directly on the pages of your ebooks. And right now the Kindle Scribe is more affordable than ever at $260 for Prime... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2024-07-10 14:20:14 UTC ]
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The second annual Queen’s Reading Room Festival at Hampton Court Palace celebrated what Queen Camilla has called the “great adventure” of the written word. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-07-03 09:01:09 UTC ]
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Last fall, around the time Britney Spears’s memoir The Woman in Me was published, I went to the Brooklyn stop of Liz Phair’s 30th anniversary tour for her debut album Exile in Guyville. Exile is one of the epochal albums of the 1990s, a Gen X classic; it came out when I was a freshman […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-26 08:56:16 UTC ]
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Among this fall’s noteworthy titles are novels by Rachel Kushner, Richard Price, and Elizabeth Strout about people grasping for a sense of community in a changing world. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The 36th annual Lambda Literary Awards in 26 different categories of LGBTQ+ books were announced. Here are the winners. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-06-12 16:52:46 UTC ]
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Photo by Arturo Villarrubia Science fiction writer Ted Chiang has won the 2024 PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. The award is given each year to a writer who has “demonstrated exceptional achievement in the short story form.” Ted Chiang has published two... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-12 14:52:48 UTC ]
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At the June 11 ceremony honoring LGBTQ literature, Catherine Lacey and Bryan Washington took home top prizes in an evening otherwise dominated by small and independent presses. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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A prolific translator, novelist and essayist, the French-Jewish writer Cécile Wajsbrot wins Novi Sad's 2024 Tišma Prize. The post France’s Cécile Wajsbrot Wins the Tišma International Literary Prize appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-06-10 20:27:13 UTC ]
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Now in its seventh year, the Deep Water Literary Festival will return to Narrowsville, N.Y., in the Catskills June 21–23. This year, it has added a new independent book fair and expanded its programming to year-round. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-07 04:00:00 UTC ]
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