Smith Criticizes Literary Awards
Zadie Smith “launched a blistering attack on literary prizes,” according to The Telegraph. This article quotes the author as saying literary awards are “only nominally” about the literature and instead are “really about brand consolidation for beer companies, phone companies, coffee companies and even frozen food companies.” Smith is the recipient of several major literary awards…
continue readingForged Biographies
Galleycat points to an intriguing articleabout author Robert Fisk learning of a Saddam Hussein biography that was published under his name. But he didn’t write it. “No, this wasn’t plagiarism,” Fisk writes. “This was forgery. And it was clearly the moment for Detective Inspector Fisk to hunt down ‘The Mystery of the Cairo Forger’.”
continue readingSuper Books
So, with the New York Giants’s Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots, how long before the football books start trickling out? Eli Manning is probably a shoe-in for an “as told to” book. Winning coach Tom Coughlin who was almost fired last season will probably get one of those coach-as-business-mentor books. And I’m…
continue readingBig League Advances
Bookninja points to an article about Canadian author winning the literary lottery. Perhaps more interesting than this tale of a first-time novelist getting a $1.25 million advance is the rundown of bigtime advanaces at the end of the article.
continue readingNice Article, Wrong Crucial Fact
Here’s an interesting article on self-publishingby the San Jose Mercury News. Unfortunately, they got the fact about John Grisham and A Time to Kill wrong. As Grisham explained to me in 2006, A Time to Kill was published by Wynwood Press. The company went out of business and he purchased the remaining copies. He then sold…
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