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Join NOW!Crown Publishing Group has been rolling out a marketing program hoping to leverage the power of social media. The program, Blogging for Books, offers free books to bloggers in exchange for book reviews. Ideal participants generate buzz by posting comments to social media and online bookstores, and including marketing materials like book trailers alongside their […]
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I wouldn’t be much of a book columnist if I didn’t celebrate Alice Munro and her much deserved Nobel Prize for Literature. It surprises me, the number of people who have never read Munro. If you’re one of them, you might start here. In 2004, Jonathan Franzen made an appeal in The New York Times […]
...moreAnd a good morning to you, too! Now, to the book blogs… Did you catch that The Wall Street Journal is getting rid of, wait… What did you say? No. You have to be kidding. They’re launching a book review section? The [email protected]#$ Wall Street Journal? If stuff like this keeps happening, I might have to […]
...moreMy relationship with the book blogs has hit a snag. Today, we got in a throw-down fight, and I came pretty close to breaking some china. It’s just that the blogs whine and worry and complain a lot, and they always seem to want to cheat on me with famous writers, like Martin Amis or […]
...moreWhy is it that I find better political links when I read through literary sites than when I go to political blogs? “If I want to be remembered for anything it’s for introducing a different way of thinking about the world, whether it’s about war, about human rights, about equality…And that the power ultimately rests […]
...moreWith so many shopping days left until whenever, there is no end to the amount of printed matter out there that is riveting, ravishing and ultimately rewarding. The book blogs are overwhelming to someone like me who wants to read everything. I’ll try to control myself as we venture through them. At The Book Bench, […]
...more“Felicino: I thought writers were the least reliable guys when it comes to define what they’re writing. And most of them don’t really care. Gio: Well, as a reader and a writer, I care. Let’s see what they say out there. You know the famous definition: ‘Science Fiction makes the improbable possible while Fantasy makes […]
...moreBecause I have way too much time on my hands, and because it’s oddly fitting this week, the book blog roundup is in the form of a dialogue between a hopeless writer and his roommate, who is stoned and watching CSI. Writer: “Fiction is dead.” (via) Roommate: “Oh, everything’ll be fine. Dude, look! They just […]
...moreAmericans think the most annoying expression ever is “whatever,” especially midwestern, Latino, non-college graduates under the age of 45 who make less than a hundred thousand a year. Yes, they really poll this stuff. (via) “Maybe one day we could make a bestseller without ever selling a book in a store. I think that’s our […]
...more“I think there’s a lot of thoughtful engagement with books on blogs—a lot of quick-hit riffing and expressions of enthusiasm, and I participate in some of that myself. That has its place—I wouldn’t do it if I think it didn’t—but it isn’t a replacement for the kind of considered reviewing that appears in newspapers, magazines, […]
...moreI’m hoping to God that it’s just temporary, but for whatever reason, the book blogs are suddenly all worried about ethics, whether it’s what to do about reading writers with objectionable opinions or whether writers should base characters on people they know. Some of their thoughts below: Over at TOR, a discussion on what to […]
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