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In our lifetime, we have seen many changes to copyright law (as Mickey Mouse ages, the laws continue to evolve to protect him). We are of two minds on this. Not the same as being wishy washy, though we’ve been accused of that as well. First, of course, is that an artist has the right […]

We suppose a text message novel has some antecedents in sonnets or haiku or something. And we hear that writing to a very tight formula really frees the mind (yes, we’re not entirely comfortable with this level of rigidity, but we usually a take a while to get rolling). So we applaud the author’s creativity […]

We start a morning a bit bleary eyed and puzzled. Actually, we start every morning this way, but we are still trying to understand the two desserts we were served last night (we ordered one and were given one with a little burning candle on it — dessert two arrived sufficiently after dessert one and […]

Our world is place where artists are afraid to offend because it affects the bottom line. Of course, there are exceptions to this statement (though we do love a sweeping generalization — it gets the blood going!). Yet (and this is a favorite rant of ours) more often than not interviews and commentary is safe. […]

We thought perhaps Sarah Weinman was playing an early Bastille Day joke (sort of like April Fool’s, but less well known). But, no, it’s true: The New York Times has discovered…wait for it…Amazon’s used book sales. Perhaps we should have warned you in advance or suggested you sit down first. We’re sorry. Anyway, we’d like […]

We like to view novel writing much in the way we view mountain ranges — things change in such a way that you don’t necessarily realize it happens. Then there’s the occasional strip mining — where the landscape changes dramatically and sometimes forever. There is something in the artist’s mind that latches onto ideas and […]

By now, news about the decline in literary reading in the United States has trickled through the media (though, we’ve noticed, it hasn’t received the sort of prominence we feel this should). Reading at Risk, the report prepared by the National Endowment for the Arts, contained a lot of disturbing data, not the least of […]

Marc Aronson, formerly of Henry Holt and Carus Publishing, will acquire young-adult novels for Candlewick Press. In unrelated news, Aronson wins Booksquare’s first-ever The Dude Has A Website Award. Because we were caught unprepared for such an event, we don’t have a plaque or anything handy. In this case, the honor must be enough — […]

Hmm. It appears we had more to update this week than we thought. We really should scroll down a screen or so before making sweeping pronouncements. Just Us Books is looking for chapter books for middle readers and young adult books. Just Us focuses on black-interest books for children. Review guidelines posted on the Just […]

Three Rivers Press welcomes Katie McHugh as associate editor. Publisher’s Lunch tells us she will be acquiring practical nonfiction (we eagerly await the day someone less lazy than us publishes a cheat sheet of publisher terminology). Though we would argue some titles in her repetoire could verge into the realm of impractical nonfiction, she’ll be […]