One of the hazards of shyness is a fear of approaching strangers and asking questions. It’s the stuttering, the red face, the inability to form coherent sentences (though they always sound good in one’s mind). Sometimes, however, desire thwarts shyness, and we (the terminally shy) walk right up and ask for what we want*. Sometimes that’s all you have to do in the book world as well. Well, ask and then build a campaign, but why quibble over details? In an innovative effort to raise the visibility of literature in translation, two nonprofit literary presses and a small indie house […]

Today we had a long lunch with frequent commenter and author Karen Palmer, and the subject of upperbacks (yes, stealing Publisher’s Lunch terminology) popped into the conversation. We were thinking specifically about hardbacks and less expensive alternatives. It didn’t surprise us that we were in agreement on one point: hardback prices are off-putting to readers considering taking a chance on new-to-them authors. We also thought that ten dollars was a comfortable price point — it’s a little more than a movie, but you spend more time with a book (and, from the Booksquare perspective, with a book, you have a

The Happy Booker is entertaining again, and this time she’s using the good china. What else can a girl do when she learns that one her literary loves has discovered a new blog and is telling the world? Well, yes, corraling him for an interview does seem like a logical next step, and she’s done just that with Richard McCann. Though we haven’t read McCann, this alone is enough to make us shower, blow dry, brush teeth, find matching shoes, find clothes, and stand outside Vroman’s until it opens: And then there is this: Although I’m by nature a slow