Those who found themselves concerned when we published the pretty-much-founded rumor about the New York Times Book Review reaching out to mass market fiction in the future can breathe easy once again (though we will note that the Washington Post has already scrambled down the slippery genre slope). The Los Angeles Times continues to ignore popular fiction (though, in all fairness, they do appear to have regular column for mystery novels — which, as we noted, have been discovered to contain some sort of literary value). Our exhaustive research reveals little to no connection between the books reviewed by the […]

We try to run a clean blog, but this week’s news is tilted toward the titillating. Must be Spring — makes us all a little frisky. Plus The Guardian always manages to bring something interesting to our attention. As it turns out, men and women write porn differently. Now, we don’t think this is news to the many men and women who write porn. We think it’s been well-established (or should be) that men are visual creatures whereas women use whatever sense pleases them at the moment. We like to call it freedom of choice. Porn and the novel

Perhaps it’s the thought of all those publishing people…laughing that makes us nervous. The Book is back (though, we confess, due the piles of bound and printed material lying around, we missed the news it was gone). The 2004 BA Conference in Brighton (perhaps something special was slipped into the water?) was a virtual lovefest for The Book. It all sounds very exciting even if our brain continues to see the word “Punch” whenever we encounter Richard and Judy. Brighton 2004: the good news Conference

Or maybe it’s that we find self-help books comforting. It’s hard to say. Either way, this article was just a little too interesting to let pass without comment. Plus we’re sure we know someone who’s writing on this very subject. My brain is so cool: Welcome to the world of neuroscience self-help books

Conventional wisdom (which we never trust) says why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? In the publishing biz, this translates to: never, ever, no matter what put your work online for free. Because that’s bad. Or not, as several authors have learned. We recall the trend beginning with Doug Clegg, but are willing to be corrected if we’re wrong. And, of course, Cory Doctorow offers his books for free (but, like all good authors, doesn’t shun the idea of being paid for his work). Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig offers his writing for free — with