Posts by author
Ian MacAllen
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The Million-Dollar Debut
While most debut novelists are seeing advances shrink, a handful of authors are seeing the reverse: million-dollar paydays. Consider Garth Risk Hallberg‘s City on Fire, released earlier this year. The 900-plus-page book earned a $2m advance. The novel will have…
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Notable NYC: 11/21–11/27
Saturday 11/21: Vijay Seshadri, Meghan O’Rourke, John D’Agata, and Melissa Febos read and discuss their works. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free. Bob Perelman and Elisabeth Workman join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Catherine Lacey, Jee Leong Koh, and…
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Fighting Terrorism Through Language
The terrorist organization that coordinated attacks in Paris last week has alternately been called ISIS, ISIL, and IS by government and media. However, when French President Francois Hollande addressed the world, he referred to the organization as Daesh for a…
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Unique Pageviews Don’t Pay Your Web Hosting Bill
Wil Wheaton created quite a fuss last month with an essay about Huffington Post’s request to republish an essay from his blog sans payment. When we called attention to a Salon article discussing paid versus unpaid creative work, Gawker had a…
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
Shakespeare & Co. sheltered twenty people during the terror attacks in Paris last week. New York City’s Shakespeare & Co., unrelated to the Parisian store, has some expansion plans. The shop and name was bought by Dane Neller, the CEO…
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Notable NYC: 11/14–11/20
Saturday 11/14: Meredith Alling, Shuana Barbosa, Tia Clark, Jonathan Dixon, Noy Holland, Victoria Kornick, Katie Mayfield, and Javier Zamora celebrate the launch of No Tokens Journal Issue 4. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free. Bernadette Mayer, Michael Ruby, and Sam Truitt celebrate…
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Author Dislikes Bad Review
A self-published British author disliked the online review left on Amazon by a Scottish teenager. His response was to travel the 500 miles from London to find her in a grocery store and hit her over the head with a…
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LIbraries by Camel, Ship, and Tank
Libraries find a way. Some libraries are squeezed into a vending machine while others are placed on the backs of animals. The Times of India has a rundown of some of the more unique libraries around the world.
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Book Preservation Still Essential
Caring for aging books is a specialty task, but there are fewer qualified craftspeople even as demand for preserving nostalgia grows. Customers are often looking to save heirlooms that are not easily replaced. Go Skagit takes a look at this…
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
More than 150 faculty and staff have signed a letter of protest over the commercialization of the York University bookstore in Toronto, Canada. Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s bookstore is making tons of money. A Chicago-area bookstore doesn’t intend to earn much…
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Famous Rejections Show Publishing’s Shortcomings
Rejection is often cited as an essential part of writing. Rejection is even celebrated, as if great works must be first overlooked and then pulled from obscurity. Consider Marlon James, 2015 Man Booker Prize winner: his first manuscript was rejected eighty times.…
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Grantland: A Rumpus Roundup
At the end of October, ESPN announced that Grantland, the sports and culture website it had acquired, would cease publication. Some commentators claimed the site should have been shuttered sooner when Bill Simmons, the “voice” of Grantland, parted ways with…