Alex Shepard
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Who Robbed Mark Twain’s Grave?
Sometime between Christmas and New Year’s, a dastardly criminal (or Mark Twain superfan) stole a bronze plaque of Twain’s profile from his gravestone in Elmira, N.Y. At Melville House, former Elmira resident Alex Shephard examines the city’s complicated relationship with…
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The Orwellian Blunders of Amazon
For Melville House, Alex Shephard examines Amazon’s fraught relationship with George Orwell’s publisher Hachette, criticizing the online shopping hub for misappropriating Orwell’s views on paperback publishing: In context, Orwell not only contradicts Amazon’s argument about paperbacks, he contradicts their entire business…
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Choosing Sides
Andrew Wylie, arguably the most powerful literary agent in the world, has chosen sides in the Amazon-Hachette battle for global domination, and he’s allied with Authors United. Wylie represents a slew of high-profile writers like Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, and…
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For Whom Amazon Tolls
As the Amazon versus Hachette dispute drags on into its fifth month, Alex Shepard, over at Melville House, examines the conflict, and what it means for publishers and authors: Traditional publishers can’t do what Amazon does; Amazon can’t do what traditional…