publishing industry
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Publishing Industry Still Overwhelmingly White
Publisher’s Weekly has released data from its annual survey of the publishing workforce. Despite all the talk about diversity in literature, the publishing workforce remains overwhelmingly white. Of those who responded to PW’s survey, 89% are white, while only 1%…
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Ursula Le Guin Eschews Amazon in Favor of Healthy Diet
Amazon uses the BS Machine to sell us sweetened fat to live on, so we begin to think that’s what literature is. I believe that reading only packaged microwavable fiction ruins the taste, destabilizes the moral blood pressure, and makes…
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Growing Up: The Rumpus Interview with Michelle Tea
Michelle Tea discusses life in recovery, the meaning of family, motherhood, and her new memoir How to Grow Up.
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Guildtalk #1: The Rumpus Interview with Eddie Joyce
Guildtalk, brought to you by The Rumpus and the Authors Guild, brings attention to exciting new voices in American literature. The first installment features Richard Russo and Eddie Joyce.
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Word of the Day: Excogitate
(v.); to think out, devise or invent; to study intently in order to fully comprehend; from the Latin ex (“out of”) + co (“together”) + agitare (“to turn over”) “Many authors dream of a happy ending in which, having delivered…
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Branding Books
Even after spending so much time, effort and money on getting the dust jacket just right, most publishers go back to the drawing board to design the paperback version. That always seems to me like a waste of hard-won brand…
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Your E-Reader is Watching You
I wonder if readers of Fifty Shades of Grey will now feel uneasy knowing that someone knows exactly which scenes they return to, and reread over and over? As Francine Prose writes over at the New York Review of Books,…
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In Defense of “Elitism”
Rejection is an essential part of editing and publishing, but also a source of criticism of the industry. Over at Slate, Daniel Menaker comes to the defense of the publishing industry’s gatekeepers, explaining the importance of professionals in guiding the production…
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Traditional vs. Self-Publishing
If your manuscript is ready but you’re unsure how to get it out into the world, Electric Literature’s latest infographic might help—just follow the path to discover if you’re looking for a traditional publisher or whether you’re a DIY kind…
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Mirrors and Windows
Jacqueline Woodson responds to Daniel Handler’s racist watermelon joke at the National Book Awards with a moving and direct piece in the New York Times. She neither condemns nor forgives Handler, but instead focuses on her personal history with the…
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Plot Isn’t Everything
At Guernica, Rebecca Saleton, the editorial director of Riverhead Books who has worked with the likes of Hillary Clinton and Peter Matthiessen, talks about her experience in publishing over the last 30 years and how she still believes that readers…
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Publishers Are Rich
Writers have been getting poorer, and it turns out publishers are partly to blame. The Guardian reports that while authors are expected to do more when it comes to marketing and promotion, and though electronic books have lowered costs for publishers,…