Category: News and Editorials
-
Major Publishing Merger, NaNoWriMo, and more!
Star Wars author appeals to Disney in fight over royalties (The Guardian) Foster was approached by George Lucas to write a novelisation of Star Wars: A New Hope, which was published at the end of 1976, shortly before the film was released. Foster alleges that when Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, it bought the rights…
-
Native and Indigenous SciFi, Crime Novels, and more!
Crime novelists dish on writing about cops in a moment of reckoning (Los Angeles Times) Hall and Queally were joined by other L.A.-based crime fiction writers Attica Locke and Ivy Pochoda for a wide-ranging conversation about character voice, avoiding tropes, what they’re reading, the writing process — before and during a pandemic — and more. For Locke, the answer…
-
Pandemic Lit, Central Park Birder Releases New Graphic Novel…
Reckoning with climate change in fiction (Fulton Sun) Climate fiction is literature, short stories, prose and poetry that take a serious look at climate change. “If you’re a big book nerd like me, you can look as far back as the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh to see narratives about people who are wrestling with large…
-
Pandemic Publishing, Graphic Novel Celebrations Next Month, and more..
What’s it like publishing your first book in a pandemic? (Marketplace) For all the strangeness, there are some upsides to publishing during a pandemic. People are largely staying home, and looking for ways to escape. Book sales are up about 5% over this time last year according to NPD Books. And with everything virtual, book…
-
COVID-19 Novels, New Fall Titles, and more…
The Covid novels are arriving. And they’ll be a warning to future generations (The Guardian) A happy ending is harder to come by in a real pandemic, and verisimilitude is important to writers of literary fiction. That may be why so many are keeping plague diaries right now. Take the Portuguese novelist Gonçalo Tavares, whose…
-
Pandemic Novels, JK Rowling’s Sales Plunge, and more…
Naomi Alderman Was Writing a Pandemic Novel Before the Pandemic Hit (New York Times) For two years, Naomi Alderman, the author of the 2017 dystopian novel “The Power,” had been working on her next book. Then in February, with 40,000 words already written, she decided she had to stop. The story she had devised, about…
-
Black Authors, Queer Nigerian Fiction, and more…
Publishers want more black authors. Why have they silenced us for so long? (The Guardian) It is taken for granted that would-be writers will know what a literary agent is. But most have no idea how to structure a book proposal, or where to send it. This information is possessed by those in the know,…
-
#PublishingPaidMe, Black Lives Matter, and more!
Black British authors top UK book charts in wake of BLM protests (The Guardian) As Black Lives Matter protests continue around the world, several bestselling authors have spoken out against the predominantly white publishing world. On Wednesday morning, bestselling novelist Dorothy Koomson, who was supported by writers including Nii Ayikwei Parkes and Courttia Newland, slammed UK publishing as…
-
Indie Bookstores in the Age of Corona…
Indie booksellers turn virtual in response to pandemic (MPR News) Dobrow said Zenith closed the store to browsers in mid-March, long before the governor’s first stay-at-home order went into effect on March 25. Sensing people would want books, but little contact, they began offering curbside pickup in the parking spaces beside their building. They also…
Waking Writer 