The novelist on his new collection of journalism, why he regrets criticising Sally Rooney and how he’s never shaken off the influence of JG Ballard“I’ll see your eidolon next Tuesday,” writes Will Self, 61, when I email to arrange a video call to discuss his new collection of journalism, Why Read: Selected Writings 2001-2021, which is centred on the concern (as he later told me, or my on-screen spirit-image) that “people are dumbing down their entire response to their own culture by their unfettered use of social media”. Self’s 26 previous books include Umbrella, shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2012, and its sequels Shark and Phone, the latter a single 624-page paragraph which the Telegraph called an “epic anti-tweet”. Speaking from his home in south London, he said he liked the description “because the book was a deliberate attempt to call people’s attention to what was being lost by the digital. I don’t think the Umbrella trilogy is that hard to read at all; it’s only hard to read in contrast to a tweet. By Donald Trump!”How did you pick the pieces in Why Read?Until fairly recently, certainly since 2001, I probably wrote an average of 150,000 words of journalism every year, so there’s a vast amount to choose from. My New York editor said that in the age of the web, collections like this need a theme or else readers feel they’re just getting a grab bag they could’ve sourced themselves. So the emphasis fell on the impact on reading and writing of what I choose to call... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-11-26 18:00:32 UTC ]
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Content marketing has radically changed perception between client and publisher. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2013-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing houses are Germany's intellectual backbone. For many years, they created a culture of literary abundance and generated healthy profits. But in the age of Amazon, ebooks and self-publishing, they could be facing demise. Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2013-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Malaysia's Tan Twan Eng won Asia’s most prestigious literary prize with The Garden of Evening Mists. The prize, in its 6th year, is changing the perception of Asian literature say authors, publishers. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Has the romance of publishing the way of liquor-fueled lunches, first-class book tours and boozy book parties? Or is there still enough hope and passion in publishing to sustain it? Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon is pursuing more direct relationships with literary agents and authors, targeting them... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ten finalists were chosen as finalists from among 150 submitted for the Man Booker Prize International Prize for fiction. The shortlist was revealed at India’s Jaipur Literary Festival. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Several current projects—from YA novels to television to our own year-long reading group—are striving to make Shakespeare accessible to a contemporary audience. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Pew report assures us that, even in the digital age, libraries continue to serve a variety of functions.Perhaps the most groundbreaking aspect of “Library Services in the Digital Age,” the report released today by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project is how... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-01-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Union Books has acquired a "strikingly original" non-fiction debut, The Will to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize shortlist includes books from Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan, Turkey and India; Orhan Pamuk competes with four other finalists. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The shortlist for the Man Asian Literary Prize was announced today (9th January) with two books... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The full panel of Man Booker Prize judges has been announced, with BBC broadcaster Martha... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Two novels shortlisted for this year's Man Booker will have a chance of winning the Man Asian... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waldek Węgrzyn’s innovative take on the electronic book turns the book itself into a new digital interface, without eliminating the joys of ink on paper. Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In addition to Free Press coming under the new S&S Publishing Group, the restructuring moved Touchstone from the responsibility of Levin to the Scribner group under Susan Moldow, while the Atria Publishing group added Howard Books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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One of the writers behind disaster-prone Spider-Man Broadway musical, Glen Berger, will reveal all in a "fly-on-the-wall" book. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Singer Cheryl Cole, who rose to fame on ITV's "Popstars: The Rivals", has topped... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Man Group, which also sponsors the Man Booker Prize, has withdrawn its support from the Man Asian Literary Prize, which will be unable to go on after this year if another sponsor isn't found. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A report by NPR about the history of abuse at Florida’s Dozier School For Boys that referenced Roger Dean Kiser’s The White House Boys: An American Tragedy has given a spark to sales of the three-year-old title. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When a man routinely hailed as one of America’s “greatest living writers” publishes a new novel, one hardly expects it to draw reviews posing questions along the lines of “Can he do it? Can he actually pull it off?” Because when you’re Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winner, the act of writing a... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2012-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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