Publishing
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Nash and the “Shitiffication of the Book”
Matt Runkle interviews Richard Nash for the Boston Review, who ran Soft Skull Press for eight years. Now he’s heading two other publishing ventures, Cursor (an online literary community where writers can post/discuss manuscripts) and their first imprint, Red Lemonade.…
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The (Optimisitic) State of the Book Review
Book reviews sections in newspapers and magazines began shrinking a couple years ago, or being folded into other sections, even disappearing altogether. In 2007, a band of culturally dedicated authors started the National Book Critics Circle’s Campaign to Save Book…
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Publishing Vocab
Editors, publishers and critics have their own industry-specific lexicon. People in the industry are used to hearing words like “acclaimed” or saying that a book “brilliantly defies categorization,” but apparently this is only the surface level of description. Beyond the…
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Longshot Strikes Again
Longshot Magazine, the annual made-in-48 hrs publishing, internet-based whirlwind, just wrapped up their second issue and the theme is Debt, which proved limitless, submission-wise. It’s got personal essays, both fiction and nonfiction, some photo-journalism—all compiled by around 100 people equipped…
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Almost Published
There’s a lot of writing-themed rejection stories around, or at least ones about fleeting publishing fortune. In the spirit of trying and giving up, publishing house frustrations and then reflecting on the whole emotional whirlwind of the publishing experience, there…
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“The Year of Wonders”
The Millions just published a personal essay on fleeting fame in the publishing industry. Alex Shakar writes on his novel that once reached six figures. His experience breathes insight into the world of editors, agents and ephemeral success.
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Spotlighting the Editor
An enlightening Paris Review interview with Robert Gottlieb, a veteran editor/publisher whose editorial touch you have undoubtedly experienced. The editorial process is after all, its own art form that is not wholly visible to readers. Esteemed authors (Toni Morrison, Joseph…
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Nobody Knows the Way to BEA
I was on my way to Book Expo America on Tuesday when the C train, still in Brooklyn, experienced a preposterously long delay–even for the C train. At first we were told simply that a “situation” was being “investigated” at…
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Keillor Talk
There is an excellent, and at times heated, conversation about publishing, writing, and nostalgia going on in the comments section of our response piece concerning Garrison Keillor’s recent NY Times op-ed. Join the debate here.
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Oh, Garrison
I came across this piece in the NY Times by Garrison Keillor bemoaning the new world of self-publishing via the twitter feed of Austin Kleon, who suggested Keillor should “just put a gun in your mouth & spare us yr…
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The Fearless Book Vending Machine
“Lane’s other invention, alongside the cheap, quality paperback, was the Penguincubator, first installed outside Henderson’s (the ‘Bomb Shop’) at 66 Charing Cross Road, which signaled his intention to take the book beyond the library and the traditional bookstore, into railway…
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The Hurdles Of Rejection
“When a writer tells me they give up, or when they fatalistically declare they will never be published, I begin to understand how little people know about how publishing often works. One of the reasons I started the Q & A…