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Via 9to5Mac, some good news for ebook authors: Apple modifies EULA for iBooks: Lays no claim to content, allows authors to distribute elsewhere. So far iBooks Author seems aimed at the post-secondary textbook market, but it seems likely that it...
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Via The New York Times, an article every aspiring novelist should read: Barnes & Noble, Taking On Amazon in the Fight of Its Life. Here's the conclusion: “For all publishers, it’s really important that brick-and-mortar retailers survive,” said David Shanks,...
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I was as agog as anyone about the new app, and downloaded it right away. Tried importing an old novel ms. into it, and was surprised at how easy it was (though formatting could be more of a problem). It...
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If you're a real writer (and reader), Bookshelf Porn will cause hyperventilation and steam your glasses.
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Happy new year. I have long argued that if writers wanted to publish themselves, they should go into business as publishers...assuming they have the business skills to succeed. Well, even publishers no longer seem to have those skills, and those...
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A great piece from BBC News: Charles Dickens: Six things he gave the modern world. Every fiction writer should read this, and then get to work reading and learning from Dickens himself. One of the six things: Modern cinema. While...
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I've just learned about an amazing opportunity for writers. Next year is the centenary of the birth of Northrop Frye, and the University of Toronto is celebrating by putting online Northrop Frye on the Bible and Literature: videotaped lectures he...
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Via The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik writes about “The Lord of the Rings,” “Twilight,” and Young-Adult Fantasy Books. Excerpt: At Oxford in the nineteen-forties, Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was generally considered the most boring lecturer around, teaching the most...
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One of the pleasures of reading and writing science fiction is to find ourselves on a very different world from our own. The real purpose of such worlds is to give us a new perspective on our own, so I...
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For most of us, mercifully, our experience of war is second-hand. We see movies and videos with most of the gore removed, or read carefully censored news reports. This is to keep old civilians from getting depressed, and to keep...
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Via The Globe and Mail, a column by Russell Smith: Why would a novelist stop reading? Excerpt: Philip Roth caused a minor Net storm last week after he was quoted in the Financial Times as saying he didn’t read fiction...
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Via the blog BookEnds, LLC - A Literary Agency: Ellery Adams Bares All. I wish more novelists were as frank about their incomes and expenses. Excerpt: I’ve received enough emails lately to make me realize that folks are fascinated by...
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Via The Observer: Pratchett starts process to end his life | Books | The Observer. Sir Terry Pratchett, the fantasy writer who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2008, said yesterday he had started the formal process that could lead to...
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Via The Independent, a long, thought-provoking article: Being Ernest: John Walsh unravels the mystery behind Hemingway's suicide. I remember the news vividly; Hemingway was very much a literary colossus even in decline. This article makes a good case for serious...
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The Tyee has published my article Mark Twain on an E-Reader. When his autobiography is over 700 pages long, a Kobo or Kindle is a wise way to read it. (And on the Kobo, I got Huckleberry Finn and Tom...
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