The first-person essays boom: top editors on why confessional writing matters

A Slate piece on first-person writing has prompted debate in the digital media community. We asked editors at BuzzFeed, Jezebel and other leading sites to weigh in on the importance of such pieces – and why there is a gender divideOn Monday, Laura Bennett’s Slate piece on the boom of first-person essay writing sparked a fierce online debate between editors and writers: how can one best work between the vulnerability of a writer and the traffic goal of an editor? What’s the line between publishing someone’s personal experience and exploitation?In response to Bennett’s piece, we asked senior editors at several publications known for publishing first-person stories about what they value in them, how they look after their writers, and why it is that so many confessional stories seem to be written by women, and not men.This route to publication and a book/movie deal simply is not open for non-white womenAnd now Pollitt’s up at bat. Her three previous essay collections gathered brilliant commentary on welfare, abortion, surrogate motherhood, Iraq, gay marriage and health care, mostly from the pages of The Nation. But with “Learning to Drive,” she gets personal, and shameless. She has decided to wave her dirty laundry (among which she found unidentified striped panties) and confesses to “Webstalking” her longtime, live-in, womanizing former boyfriend. (Take that, you rat!) It’s hard to tell if she’s coming into her own, trying to sell more books or has lost it entirely. Or... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #gay marriage #health care #dirty laundry #ve heard

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Little, Brown promotes two senior editors

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 27/07/2011 - 14:57 Little, Brown Book Group has promoted two of its senior editors, with Emma Beswetherick becoming editorial director for Piatkus fiction and Rebecca Saunders moving to the role of editorial director for Sphere commercial... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harper Lee tops World Book Night picks

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 27/07/2011 - 15:15 Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird has been voted the most popular title to be given away as part of World Book Night 2012. The organisation launched a public vote last month asking people to vote for the titles they... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Latest Digital IQ Index Says Top-Ranked TIME is “Genius”

TIME is ranked number one in the latest Digital IQ Index from "digital innovation think tank" L2 that measures the digital aptitude and ad revenue-per-page of 87 magazine brands.The rankings were developed by NYU Stern professor Scott Galloway. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mail boosts Dukan as French reclaims top spot

Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 26/07/2011 - 15:10 A resurgent Dawn French narrowly beat Sophie Kinsella to the summit of The Official UK Top 50 this week. The former’s A Tiny Bit Marvellous (Penguin) sold 29,725 copies at UK booksellers last week, just 356 more than Kinsella's... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reynolds to write new Doctor Who novel

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 21/07/2011 - 13:00 British Science Fiction award-winner Alastair Reynolds is the latest author to try his hand writing a Doctor Who novel, after signing a deal with BBC Books. Editorial director Albert DePetrillo bought world rights from Robert... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Forbes Media Makes Minority Investment in Startup of Ex-Fortune Editors

Forbes Media has struck a strategic partnership with Techonomy Media, a new media business founded last year by former Fortune magazine editors and writers David Kirkpatrick, Peter Petre and Brent Schlender. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ziff Davis Promotes Dan Costa to VP of Content and Editor-in-Chief of PC Mag

Dan Costa is now senior VP of content for Ziff Davis and editor-in-chief for PC Mag, harnessing his 17 years in technology journalism. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media Decoder: Sheila Bair to Write Book on Financial Crisis

Sheila C. Bair, who ended a tumultuous five-year term as chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation this month, has landed a book deal to give her inside account of the financial crisis. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dawn retains top spot but fiction sales slump on 2010

Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 05/07/2011 - 16:04 Dawn French’s début novel, A Tiny Bit Marvellous (Penguin), retains its position at the summit of The Official UK Top 50 week-on-week, thanks to a promotional appearance on ITV’s “This Morning”, and a “£2.99 if you spend £10”... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media Decoder: Lawrence Steps Down as Norton's Editor In Chief

The longtime editor said that the coming of ebooks played a role in his decision. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Crossan writes three YA titles for Bloomsbury

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 30/06/2011 - 15:01 Bloomsbury has acquired three YA books by Irish author, Sarah Crossan. Senior commissioning editor Ele Fountain acquired the trio of titles through Julia Churchill at Greenhouse, with the first title, Breathe, to be... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writing young-adult fiction: Better than going to the prom.

Young-adult books are being sold to an audience that can't vote, yet they're being written by people commonly referred to on the Internet as "the olds." We should know. We're two of them. Both of us have made our living writing. One of us in journalism (Grady) and the other in literary fiction... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2011-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Editors "need digital vision" for their books

Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 21/06/2011 - 11:46 Editors need to have a "vision" of how the content can be used beyond the traditional book, otherwise they risk losing control of the book to the "digital department", Publishers Launch London heard today. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Patterson top in another Random week

Written By: Tom Tivnan Publication Date: Tue, 21/06/2011 - 15:59 Random House had another stellar week, there was a record for Wilbur Smith and a Father's Day push led to double digit week on week rise in value and volume sales for the trade. RH did not repeat its unprecedented octet of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #wilbur smith #volume sales #pretty close


Grisham top for a second week

Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 16:09 John Grisham's The Confession (Arrow) has retained its position at the summit of the Official UK Top 50 despite a 24% drop in sales week-on-week. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Quercus buys football title by Constable editor

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 13/06/2011 - 08:45 Quercus has acquired a history of Latin American football, written by Constable publishing director Andreas Campomar. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Larry Hackett Re-Elected President of the American Society of Magazine Editors

Larry Hackett, managing editor of People magazine, has been re-elected president of the American Society of Magazine Editors today at its annual meeting. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Grisham top as children's book sales soar

Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 07/06/2011 - 15:44 Thanks in part to a "better than half price" deal at Waterstone's, John Grisham tops the Official UK Top 50 for the first time in five and a half years. The Confession (Arrow), the Arkansas-born legal thriller writer's 23rd... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Madeleine tops charts again as Bond misses number one

Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Wed, 01/06/2011 - 14:53 James Bond has failed in his latest mission: to top the bestseller charts. Despite a bargain £5 deal at Tesco (75% off the £19.99 r.r.p.), sales of Jeffery Deaver's 007 novel, Carte Blanche (Hodder & Stoughton), were... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers Starting to Name-Check iTunes "Top Grossing Apps"

From Yahoo's The Cutline: At a panel during the TechCrunch conference in New York last week, Greg Clayman, publisher of News Corp.'s Daily iPad publication, said the application had "almost a million downloads" since its launch in February. "This puts us in the large pantheon of large apps,"... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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