News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Book News
- The International Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist is up for 2016
- Audible Celebrates April Fool’s Day with the Encyclopedia (GalleyCat, with Soundcloud clips; download at Audible.com)
- It’s a tough time to be a librarian in the UK, as closures and budget cuts have resulted in the loss of 8,000 jobs in six years. (BBC News)
- Harper Lee letter blasting Trump casino brings $4K at auction (NBC News; also Time)
Literary Losses
- Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall (both the original collection of novellas and the screenplay of the 1994 movie) died March 26, 2016, at the age of 78. Obituaries: Washington Post, New York Times.
Worth Reading & Watching
Beverly Cleary, “Discovering Beverly Cleary.” Credit Oregon Public Broadcasting
- Beverly Clear Turns 100 – and talks with The Today Show. The entire interview is available at the link. Cleary will also be celebrated at New York’s Symphony Space.
- I Went to a Bibliotherapist And This Is What Happened (Bronwyn Averett, for BookRiot)
- The Subfield That Is Changing the Landscape of Literary Studies (hint: it’s called cli-fi) (Rio Fernandes, for The Chronicle of Higher Education)
- Write How You Like Write: Representing Hawai’i Creole English as a Literary Participant (Rachel Kondo, Electric Literature)
For Writers & Bloggers
- 15 Pieces of Writing Advice From C. S. Lewis (The Gospel Coalition) (only the 15th relates to religion in any way)
- If Strangers Talked to Everybody Like They Talk to Writers (Lincoln Michel, for Electric Literature)
Great Blog Posts
- Save Our Cozies. Escape with Dollycas talks about the coming “market correction” Penguin Random House and other publishers are making in the cozy mystery subgenre, where you can connect with other cozy lovers, and where you can find more information on which series are on the chopping block.
- Save Our Cozies: The Movement and How We’re Helping. The Cozy Mystery Journal has more suggestions about what you can do to help. Plus, they’re planning a series of daily giveaways of books from endangered series, and a review linkup which also enters you for prizes. So if you read cozy mysteries, you should really check this out!
Book & Movie Announcements
- The Alice Through the Looking Glass trailer looks good. Notice the cameo by Andrew Scott, the actor who played Moriarty on Sherlock… and the voice of Alan Rickman as the Butterfly (or Moth, it’s hard to tell which.)
- Fantastic Beasts movie tie-in rights go to Scholastic and HarperCollins. Scholastic will publish children’s tie-ins, while HC got the rights to adult tie-ins — books about the making of the film. (The Bookseller)
- Here’s a peek at Jim Kay’s illustrations for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, courtesy of Pottermore and Bloomsbury Publishing. There are a few more on the Pottermore website.
Awesome Lists
- 8 Great Non-Bookstore Places to Get Books (BookRiot)
Bookish Quote
Rita @ View From My Home
Good post, lots of news!
I enjoyed the article about C.S. Lewis– spot-on advice!
Also was dismayed to hear about the end to many cozy series, and authors being fired. Ouch, are they crazy? From what I see in my little corner of the blogosphere, cozy mysteries are doing just fine and being enjoyed by so many readers! What’s the game plan here? Do they think cozies appeal to an older audience so they want to bring in more young readers with YA/NA/PN/UF/erotica romance titles? I’m going to guess here that this is their plan. They want to grab younger readers and get them hooked on authors in their publishing “stable” to make more money over the years. Sad news! I’ve read some of the series that are being ended too soon.
Rita @ View From My Home recently posted…Month in Review: March 2016
Lark_Bookwyrm
I suspect they are basing the cutback in cozies on their sales. Paperback sales are down generally, and cozy mystery readers (at least according to stats I’ve seen over the last few years) haven’t been quite as eager to jump on the ebook bandwagon as romance readers… although some cozy e-book-only or ebook-first series are doing well. I also think there may have been an over-proliferation of series as book packagers and even publishers picked up on the cozy trend, coming up with concepts and hiring authors to write them. The royalties on those work-for-hire series are tiny compared to the normal royalties, and the packager owns the copyright on the series concept and characters, so those authors can’t even continue the series on their own — yet the author has been responsible for most of the publicity for the series. I don’t know; I really hate to see series disappear, especially if it’s one I enjoy reading. OTOH, it might be that cutting back some of the less-profitable series will lead to better sales for the remaining ones. Or some of the other publishing companies may step up and save some series (though as I said, only if the author owns the copyrights.) Nonetheless, it’s certainly worthwhile to let the publishers, especially PRH, know that these series have a loyal following.
Rita @ View From My Home
You are much more knowledgeable about this matter, so thanks for sharing these thoughts. I get your point. Whenever you weed out the weaker, or less profitable, of anything you are hopefully left with the best. That being said, I read at least 3 cozy series that are getting the axe so I feel badly for all of them who are involved in this dilemma. Sad to hear.
I didn’t realize that those who read cozies prefer paperbacks and of course e-books are surging in popularity.
Off topic: my elder daughter sold her Fire to a co-worker last year, and she and her small kids are growing up with print only books. A backlash against the technology– they prefer to hold books and collect them on their individual bookshelves.
Rita @ View From My Home recently posted…Month in Review: March 2016
Lark_Bookwyrm
I’m sad for the authors and series being cancelled, too. And it’s not always a question of “better” or “worse” as much as it is of popularity and sales, which is hard on authors whose books received less promotional support from the publisher… especially if the author isn’t terribly comfortable promoting the book themselves, or lacks the time or resources.
I think print and ebooks are going to coexist for a long time. There are plenty of people who prefer print to digital. There are certainly books I prefer to have real, physical copies of — anything with pictures, definitely, and also my favorite authors. I’m OK with just ebook for some mysteries and most romances. And I’m actually working on having duplicates of some of my favorite books — print for reading at home (and for the pleasure of seeing on my shelves; I find a shelf full of favorite books very companionable) and digital for when I’m traveling or reading at night. And of course, the writing is on the wall (so to speak) — my eyesight is getting worse and I’m finding very small print (common in some older paperbacks) increasingly hard to read. I didn’t think that would happen so young; I’m still in my early 50s. It makes me nervous for the future, which is another reason I’m sort of stockpiling old favorites in ebook format.