13th December 2010
Are Stieg Larsson and Dan Brown a match for literary fiction?
“Not least among the reasons for the bafflement of the industry (and fellow writers) is the amateurishness of the books – something, curiously, that Larsson has in common with Brown. Readers, publishers and writers alike can agree that John Grisham, Robert Harris, Tom Clancy or Danielle Steel build up their massive readerships by knowing precisely what they are doing; they are master practitioners of their highly skilled craft. Conversely, Brown and Larsson – in their different ways – are mesmerisingly bad.
2nd December 2010
Books After Amazon
“What happens when an industry concerned with the production of culture is beholden to a company with the sole goal of underselling competitors? Amazon is indisputably the king of books, but the issue remains, as Charlie Winton, CEO of the independent publisher Counterpoint Press puts it, “what kind of king they’re going to be.” A vital publishing industry must be able take chances with new authors and with books that don’t have obvious mass-market appeal. When mega-retailers have all the power in the industry, consumers benefit from low prices, but the effect on the future of literature—on what books can be published successfully—is far more in doubt.
29th November 2010
How I got lost in translation and found my true calling
“Outside the Anglophone world, it is not unusual for novelists and poets to work at some point in their lives as translators. Though most will say that they did so mainly to subsidise their own writing, it is often clear, when you look at that writing, that it has been enriched by the imaginary conversations they’ve had with the poets and novelists whose words they have translated.
18th November 2010
Dave Eggers: From 'Staggering Genius' to America's Conscience
“Author, publisher and literary trendsetter: Dave Eggers is all those, and he’s fast becoming the conscience of liberal America too. Here he tells how he went from ‘staggering genius’ to the man who gives a voice to the downtrodden and dispossessed
2nd November 2010
Mark Twain's Amazing Embargo
“The brilliant brand management behind the handling of his autobiography.
28th October 2010
The Trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover
“No other jury verdict has had such a profound social impact as the acquittal of Penguin Books in the Lady Chatterley trial.
27th October 2010
100 Aspects of Genre: Learning from the Dead and the Dying
“In thinking about genre, the thing I struggle with the most is that it doesn’t exist. Genre can’t exist within any given project or any given author. To the degree that it’s anything at all, it’s a relationship between individual projects, individual authors, and individual books.
25th October 2010
Do Writers Need Paper?
“As the sales of e-books finally start to soar, what effect will this digital revolution have on publishers, readers and writers? Will the novel as we know it survive?
