The Prose Factory by DJ Taylor review – beware the suggestion that literary life isn’t what it used to be

The truth about book prizes, why Amazon is like an old-fashioned library and how much famous writers really earned from their journalism …Periodically, signs go up saying that Grub Street is closed to through traffic. Observers speculate that the street is being redeveloped as gentrification forces the former inhabitants to move out, or else that the closure may be due to the expansion of the neighbouring university’s English department. Older heads are shaken in what had been the local pub but is now a coffee’n’crafts shop: there used to be more life in the place, they mourn, when bohemian writers could dash off a review against the clock to pay for their round. Even if Grub Street is eventually reopened, it will never be the same again, and anyway it will probably have been renamed “Creatives Crescent”.Such cliches and exaggerations are characteristic of this genre of lament. Like most keening for the good old days, these threnodies are not pieces of dispassionate historical analysis: they are attempts to compensate for so much that is disagreeable about one’s own time by inventing a more or less idealised version of the past. Still, it is worth wondering why “Grub Street” should be the form taken by paradise lost in this case. After all, the street originally so named in London (it was real before it was metaphorical) came to be the home of that kind of “grub” defined by the OED as “a person of mean abilities; a dull industrious drudge; a literary hack”. Even allowing... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2016-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]

Other Publishing stories related to: 'The Prose Factory by DJ Taylor review – beware the suggestion that literary life isn’t what it used to be'


Scribd Responds to Writer Beware on Pirated Content

A Scribd executive acknowledged the problem of pirated content on Scribd and also outlined the company's efforts to prevent unauthorized uploads. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Chicago Review Press Acquires Academy Chicago

Academy Chicago Publishers will become an imprint of Chicago Review Press and will expand its publishing program to 15-20 titles per year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #publishing program


Marc Andreessen sees no bubble, suggests Snapchat may grow to $100B

Influential venture investor Marc Andreessen isn't blinking an eye over Snapchat turning down a $3 billion buyout offer from Facebook. And don't count him among those who are worried that we are in another tech investment bubble. Those are a couple of the points made in an interview published... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2014-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #things digital #andreessen horowitz


PW Online and On Air: PW’s Digital Year in Review

Last year was a great year for PW online. We added new podcasts and newsletters, made a ton of friends on Twitter and Facebook, and have had the busiest year ever at publishersweekly.com. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pw online #great year #busiest year


The Whale; The Ladybird Books Story – TV review

A sinking ship of a drama that managed to be neither monstrous nor deep"Thar she blows!" said one of the crew as a whale came to the surface. The cetacean wasn't the only thing blowing heavily in The Whale (BBC1), a 90-minute dramatisation of the sinking of the Essex, a Nantucket whaler, by a... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2013-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #falklands war


Breakfast with Lucian: A Portrait of the Artist, by Geordie Greig – review

Frances Spalding on one of the most revealing accounts of Lucian Freud ever writtenGeordie Greig's book is an unapologetic mixture of intelligent perception and high gossip. It deepens the reader's understanding of Lucian Freud, as both man and artist, but it also connives with the kind of... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2013-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Lindsay Lohan reportedly at work on a book about her life

Lindsay Lohan now has a literary agent, according to TMZ. And where a literary agent with celebrity clients goes, book deals tend to follow.Lindsay Lohan now has a literary agent, according to TMZ. And where a literary agent with celebrity clients goes, book deals tend to follow. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literary agent


Rewind radio: Live coverage of Nelson Mandela's memorial service; Book at Bedtime; Alice's Wunderland – review

The World Service's expert reporting of Mandela's memorial service showed why its grant shouldn't be cutLive Coverage of the Memorial Service for Nelson Mandela (World Service)| iPlayerBook at Bedtime (R4) iPlayerAlice's Wunderland (R4) | iPlayerThe BBC comes into its own when covering state... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2013-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Do libraries matter? 94 percent of Americans say libraries make life better

In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 54 percent of respondents said libraries aren't as necessary as they once were when it comes to finding information. However, 94 percent said a library improves a community's quality of life. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #recent survey


Wiley trials 'transferable peer review'

Wiley is to trial a transferable peer review scheme for nine of its neuroscience journals, which... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


The 2013 PW Children's Starred Reviews Annual, Available Now

The Publishers Weekly Children's Starred Reviews Annual is your source for the best books that 2013 has to offer. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Reading the New York Times Magazine isn't what it used to be | Michael Wolff

The magazine was once the most hotly anticipated Sunday read. Now it's been eclipsed by the showy T style publicationTwo magazines, both published by the New York Times, arrived in my house over the weekend, one thin, the other thick.The thin one, The New York Times Magazine, is largely about... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ad revenues #media business


Pembrokeshire reviews mobile libraries

  The mobile library service run by Pembrokeshire County Council, used by about 1% of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


The Slate Book Review Top 10 of 2013

Monday: Slate staffers pick their favorite books of 2013. Tuesday: The overlooked books of 2013. Wednesday: The best lines of 2013, and the best poetry of 2013. Thursday: Dan Kois’ 15 favorite books. Friday: The Slate Book Review Top 10. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2013-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #overlooked books #dan kois


Taylor & Francis Vid Explains OA

Taylor & Francis Group has released a short motion graphics film entitled What is Open Access Publishing?, which offers an explanation of the concept in under two minutes. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


G’day! New Aussie/Kiwi Literary Festival Sets Sail in London

London's new Australia & New Zealand Festival of Literature & Arts had a glamorous, clever launch on Monday. It takes place May 29-June 1, 2014. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #takes place


Chicago Review Press Hits Major Milestone

Forty years ago this fall, a University of Chicago graduate student named Curt Matthews and his wife, Linda Matthews, founded Chicago Review Press, naming it after the Chicago Review literary journal, for which Curt was then poetry editor. Operating initially out of the couple’s basement, CRP’s... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #poetry editor


Pitchfork To Launch $19.96 Print Publication, "The Pitchfork Review"

Pitchfork, the web's most established voice in music criticism, offers an exclusive look inside its new print magazine--and explains why it'll be the one to (finally) get print right.When Pitchfork launched in 1996, Internet music criticism (or Internet anything) was virtually non-existent, and... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2013-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pitchfork review #music criticism


Short ebooks: don't let one bad experience ruin a literary phenomenon

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... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2013-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Big buys give Hearst second life

Though its headquarters building rises 46 stories over Central Park, and though its biggest magazine franchise, Cosmopolitan, sells more than a million copies on newsstands every month, Hearst Corp. is still, in some ways, little known to the general public. Certainly few people would guess that... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2013-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital distribution #record revenue #early 1980s