News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, giveaways on this and other blogs, and other cool stuff.
I had to skip News & Notes last week because I was out of town with very limited Internet, so this is a compilation of two weeks’ worth of (hopefully) interesting stuff.
Books & Ebooks in the News:
- Sherlock Holmes & Watson characters are in the public domain, says the appeals judge in the case of Leslie S. Kinger v. Conan Doyle Estate, LTD. The ruling is worth reading, and it’s not full of legal jargon, so it’s easy to understand the background and the judge’s decision.
- Apple settles in class-action ebook price fixing case. (Daisuke Wakabayashi, The Wall Street Journal)
- B&N will separate Nook from brick-and-mortar business, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The Nook division has been losing money, while the physical stores (and, presumably, online sales of physical books) are showing a profit.
- Hachette will buy Perseus Group. The purchase would give Hachette additional leverage in its dispute with Amazon. (Lesley Kaufman, New York Times)
- “Open Road Fires Back at HarperCollins in Copyright Case” over OR’s publication of Jean Craighead George’s Julie of The Wolves. George refused to grant HC the right to publish an ebook due to a disagreement over royalty rates, and chose OR instead. (Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly)
- ‘Wimpy Kid’ author Jeff Kinney to open a bookstore. (Interview by Sona Charaipotra for The Atlantic)
- “Industry Sales Flat in 2013; Trade Dropped 2.3%”. Ebook sales were also down, particularly in YA. (Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly)
- Simon & Schuster expands its library ebook lending program nationwide (press release) and the ALA responds. The news means that libraries will be able to offer S&S ebooks to their patrons.
- Amazon launched the Fire smartphone. It will be available on the the AT&T network, or you can purchase it unlocked for a whopping $649.
- The NY Public Library is exhibiting a rare Declaration of Independence in Jefferson’s own hand. The exhibit ends July 3, and it’s free. (GalleyCat)
Worth Reading/Listening to:
- “This is Your Brain on Writing” looks at a recent study of writer’s brains while they were engaged in creative writing. (Carl Zimmer, New York Times)
- What Makes a Word Real?: A TED Talk by English professor Anne Curzan, on slang, language change, and what dictionaries are and aren’t. Fascinating and fun, if you love words.
- “Amazon-Hachette Battle: Another Turning Point?” looks at two historical industry turning points: Barnes & Noble’s attempt to purchase powerhouse book distributor Ingram in 1998, and Waldenbooks’ domination of mass-market genre fiction sales in the 1980s. (For the record, I worked as a bookseller, assistant manager, and manager for WB in the ’80s.) (Jack W. Perry, Digital Book World)
- “5 New Bookish Words for the Age of Angst“ (Rachel Cordasco, BookRiot.) Humor with an edge. Read the comments, too.
- 5 alternative Penguin Random House logos, and the readers’ favorite, from Digital Book World. (Alas, these are just fantasy, and the boring new logo remains.)
Literary Losses:
- Daniel Keyes, Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of Flowers For Algernon and other works, died June 15, 2014. I remember reading Flowers for Algernon for a middle-school English class, and being devastated by it. I badly wanted a happy ending for Charlie, but the book would have had far less impact if it had ended well. Tor.com probably says it best: “Flowers for Algernon was an key example of science fiction that tackled problems of depth and emotional consequence; Keyes made a giant contribution to the discussion of science fiction as a serious art form. He will be greatly missed.” (Obituary: Tor.com)
For Writers & Bloggers:
- 25 Secrets of Publishing, Revealed! (Or, Inside the Bookish Shatterdome) is a well-written piece on what writers should know about publishing, both traditional and self/author. (Guest post by author and Angry Robot sales director Mike R. Underwood, for Chuck Wendig’s blog, TerribleMinds.)
- What you need to know about copyright and copyright protection (Allison Schiff, Publishers Weekly)
- “Plot, Originality, and the Value of Ideas” (blog post by writer Jennifer Lynn Barnes, on Tumblr)
- Thrillwriting: Helping Writers Write It Right is a blog by thriller writer Fiona Quinn, aimed at helping writers get the details right. She has covered topics such as guns (choosing, using, and problems you wouldn’t think of), human trafficking, and survival techniques.
- Cover design for self-published authors (Paige Crutcher, Publishers Weekly)
Free & Bargain books:
- SYNC audiobooks for 6/26-7/02:
- Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, by Matthew Quick (narrated by Noah Galvin. Hachette Audio)
- October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard, by Leslea Newman (read by Emily Beresford, Luke Daniels, Tom Parks, Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd & Christina Traister. Brilliance Audio.)
- SYNC audiobooks for 7/03-7/09:
- Torn from Troy, by Patrick Bowman (narrated by Gerard Doyle. Post Hypnotic Press)
- Peter and the Starcatchers, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (narrated by Jim Dale. Brilliance Audio)
Awesome lists:
- 13 Things an Adult Should Actually Be Embarrassed to Read (BookRiot)
- Book Your Trip: Because Reading Is About The Journey. NPR Books has compiled lists of books involving travel, broken into the following 12 categories: “train, plane, car, bike, boat, foot, city transit, horse, balloon, rocket ship, time, and a miscellaneous category that includes drugs, dragons, and giant peaches.” The lists are fun and eclectic — ‘trains’ includes both Anna Karenina and The Little Engine That Could — and the comments on each list are full of readers’ suggestions.
Bookish Quotes:
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| (by Kaleido Books, www.facebook.com/KaleidoBooks ) |
That’s it for this week!
I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles, lists, and links for News & Notes, so please let me know if you see (or write!) anything that might be good for this feature. You can leave me a comment or send me an email — my address is on the About/Review Policy/Contact page.
Bea
I’ll have to check out that TED talk, it sounds right up my alley.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
It was really interesting!
Katherine P
I’m especially interested in the Simon&Schuster news. I wonder how that will affect what my library has to offer in ebook form. The 13 things you should be embarrassed to read made me laugh and is so true! Great links this week!
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
It may take a little while for some of the S&S books to show up at your library, depending on their budget and which download service(s) they subscribe to, but hopefully some will start to show up. I think it’s backlist titles only, though.
Rita_h
I just love your Saturday News feature and missed it last week! I read the article about the Wimpy Kid author opening a book store. It’s a great idea to make it a community destination, not just books but a cafe, gifts and a yoga studio. Everyone deserves good access to books.
I also love that chalkboard quote photo: great idea to reach out to people to understand how enjoyable books are. I know what that quote means because of my grandson 🙂
Enjoy your week and thanks as always for a great post.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
I’m so glad you enjoy these! They’re fun to put together, but sometimes a time sink, because I can wander down the internet rabbit hole for hours looking for great links.
The bookstore that did the Tardis blackboard does a new blackboard almost every day (or week?) — I see a lot of them on Facebook and on Pinterest. They’re always good, and often funny.
kimbacaffeinate
Thanks for all the news updates. I am anxious to see what direction Nook takes when it is a separate entity.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
It will be interesting to see whether Nook survives or disappears, and whether the division continues to sell ebooks or just focuses on devices. I’d rather it didn’t disappear altogether, but maybe without being tied to B&N, it will be a more open platform in terms of ePUB – more like Kobo?
Brandi Kosiner
Torn from Troy sounds good. Hope you enjoy
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
It’s not downloadable until Thursday, and heaven alone knows when or even if I’ll get around to it… but it does sound interesting!
Finley Jayne
Wow, great list this week, going to check out several of the links now-thanks!
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Thanks! And thanks for stopping by!
Jan @ Notes from a Readerholic
I love the quote, Lark! And my husband was just telling me about the TED talk. I missed it so I appreciate the link. Flowers for Algernon…such a good book and such a sad ending, but you’re right–not as powerful without that. Great links, Lark.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
It’s a fascinating talk; I’m glad I could give you the link! Keyes was an amazing author; I always wondered why he wrote so few books.
Anna (herding cats-burning soup)
Very neat about S&S!
The fan logos are SO much better that the non-logo. You just wonder what they were thinking with that. smh
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
I know – you’d think PRH could come up with something better than that boring thing! Perhaps they couldn’t agree on one, and this was the compromise?
Marianne @ Boricuan Bookworms
So glad to hear about Simon & Shuster! I love their books so knowing I’ll be able to access them easier from the library is great news.