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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Unruly Writing: On the Problem with the Fragmented Art History Book

There is a disturbing trend that has emerged in the literary world as of late. Let’s call it the “Fragmented Non-Fiction Art History” book. These titles look good on bookshelves, with their aesthetically-inclined covers and trendy lineup of female artists they purport to be about. The covers are... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-05 09:53:47 UTC ]
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TikTokers help drive Sarah J Maas ‘romantasy’ boom for Bloomsbury

Publisher tells investors profits will exceed expectations, attributing this to release of House of Flame and Shadow The publisher Bloomsbury has lifted its annual profit forecasts after the latest novel from the fantasy author Sarah J Maas topped bestseller lists across the world, aided by fans... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-02-14 13:36:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #publisher bloomsbury #british publishing #bestseller lists #bloomsbury


With Sarah J. Maas Sales Booming, Bloomsbury Ups Its Financial Forecast

As 'House of Flame and Shadow' hits number one in numerous markets around the world, publisher Bloomsbury predicts that total sales for the company will increase by 10% over last year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #financial forecast #total sales #bloomsbury


Profits Soar at HarperCollins as Audio Sales Boom

A 29% increase in sales of digital audio, coupled with lower costs, resulted in a 67% increase in profits at the publisher in the quarter ended December 31, 2023, over the comparable period a year ago. Total sales were up 4%. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #total sales #digital audio #lower costs #harpercollins


PRH Led in Children’s Picture Book Bestsellers in 2023, While Scholastic Took Top Spot in Fiction

Penguin Random House strengthened its grip on the picture book lists and made gains on the frontlist fiction lists, which Scholastic still rules. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-02 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Audiobooks Are Booming. Spotify Wants in on the Action.

There are early signs that Spotify’s addition of audiobooks to its streaming service is helping drive audiobook consumption — already a growing market. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-01-29 17:00:09 UTC ]
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Jonathan Escoffery: ‘I was trying to write novels aged nine’

The If I Survive You author on the suspense of the Booker ceremony, Americans’ warped view of the Caribbean, and writing his next novel on the roadJonathan Escoffery, 43, was born in Texas and lives in Oakland, California. His debut, If I Survive You, about a second-generation Jamaican in Miami,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-27 18:00:42 UTC ]
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A Boom in Comics Drawn From Fact

One in four books sold in France is a graphic novel. Increasingly, those include nonfiction works by journalists and historians. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-01-24 05:01:16 UTC ]
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Attendance Slips at ALA’s Second In-Person LibLearnX

Despite modest attendance, LibLearnX 2024 once again offered an engaging program, including compelling talks from Kate DiCamillo, Michele Norris, and Jesus Trejo, among others, and a professional program exploring a range of such hot topics as the freedom to read, sustainability, and AI. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-22 05:00:00 UTC ]
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‘There is joy, and there is rage’: the new generation of novelists writing about motherhood

From the shock and awe of labour to domestic isolation, a wave of recent novels captures the transformative nature of being a motherThey say nothing prepares you. Before having my baby, I approached the literature of motherhood as though I were about to sit an exam. If my studies tempered the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-20 11:00:01 UTC ]
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Call of Duty didn’t top the yearly sales charts for one of the first times since 2009

Just like death and taxes, you can usually rely on a Call of Duty game to top the sales charts each year. The various entries in Activision’s warfare simulation franchise have mostly done just that, going all the way back to 2009. This year’s a bit different. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III has... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-01-18 19:16:41 UTC ]
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Lisa Marie Presley started writing a book before she died. Riley Keough completed it

Lisa Marie Presley's posthumous memoir will hit shelves later this year, with the help of her daughter Riley Keough, who picked up the pieces. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-11 20:25:14 UTC ]
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Writing as an Act of Grieving

In her essay for PW, author E.L. Shen reflects on the experience of losing her father as a teenager and the catharsis of writing about grief in her forthcoming book for middle graders, 'Maybe It's a Sign.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Marc Jaffe, Editor Whose Work Spanned Nearly a Century, Dies at 102

The former editorial director of Bantam and Ballantine and founder of Villard Books at Random House and an eponymous imprint at Houghton Mifflin, whose long and storied career in trade book publishing lasted into his final hours, died on December 31. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #eponymous imprint #houghton mifflin #storied career #trade book #random house


What Booksellers Can Teach Us About Reading, Writing and Publishing

My longtime girlfriend is a longtime bookseller. Her relationship with bookselling predates ours three times over. It is a surprisingly taxing career path—one that asks of the body, and of the mind. There are the bad days, where she brings home the classic bookseller gripes: failed hand-sells,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-01-05 09:56:55 UTC ]
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The Top 10 Book Business News Stories of 2023

The book business in 2023 in a nutshell: Amazon got hit with a federal antitrust lawsuit, Scholastic got mired in a censorship controversy, Simon & Schuster finally found a buyer, AI fever gripped the book business, and publishers stepped up to book bans. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-29 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #censorship controversy #book bans #scholastic #book business