Publishing Is Like John Cusack -- The Older It Gets, The Less Charming It Becomes

Then:


Now:

This vs. That: Bloodless Book Battles

Book buying habits on both sides of the pond: U.S. vs. U.K.



Fantastic feudalism: Karl Schroeder talks about Futurism vs. Science Fiction



Okay, so this one will surely shed a li'l blood. (Namely, ours.) The Price Wars: Wal-Mart vs. Amazon.



Author Joe Konrath dares to share his sales figures, comparing his Kindle Numbers: Traditional Publishing vs. Self Publishing.

Cool Covers from Recent Releases

A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution by Dennis Baron
Children and the Internet by Sonja Livingstone














My New Mac, Snow Leopard Edition by Wallace Wang
iPhone SDK Development by Bill Dudney

Adaptation News(cuz books is fer nerdz!)

IO9 has 6 clips from Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox.



It's funny because it's true: Movieline's When Werewolves Go Wrong: 9 Awkward Images From the First New Moon Clip.


'Mumblecore' actor Joshua Leonard will make his directing debut with The Lie, based on a T.C. Boyle short story that originally ran in the New Yorker.


The BBC is developing a TV comedy-drama (what industry folks retardedly refer to as a "dramedy") based on Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently detective novels. Chortle.co has more.


Remember when I said that I was through posting Where The Wild Things Are links? I lied. Click here to see storyboard art from the film and to read an interview with the artist. (Oh, and as an added bonus, the same guy is doing storyboard art for Kenneth Branagh's upcoming adaptation of Thor, and he's got a couple tid-bits on that, too.)


Updated! More Thor news. Unsubstantiated rumor has it that Jude Law and Robert DeNiro have joined the cast. Yeah, I couldn't care less, either.


Doubly updated! Yet another WTWTA link. Trust me, though -- this one's a great one. Vanity Fair visited Jim Henson's Creature Workshop, where they got a guided tour of how the Wild Things were made. Hmn...I wonder if the Creature Shop is looking for a blogger...

12 Creepy Photos of Kids' Lit Authors

I'll give you Shel Silverstein and Lewis Carroll for free. But if you wanna see the other ten, you're gonna have to click here.

Scandalous Book News, In Brief

Wow, I bet no one saw this coming: Christian groups complain about R. Crumb's Genesis.


I wonder what those same moral guardians would think of this bookstore's unintentionally obscene name?


In other self-righteous reading news, the Dragon Ball manga series has been removed from all Wicomico County school libraries because of its über-cartoony depictions of nudity and violence, and because it doesn't meet the county's vague "graphic novels with appropriate content can be a useful tool in encouraging reluctant readers to pick up a book and read" criteria. Don't worry, though -- they still carry all four Twilight books!


The CBC has a must-read article about an odd Ottawa art exhibition. The exhibit's theme? 'The Martyrdom of Famous Canadian Icons.' For a hint at how Green Gables' Anne Shirley fares, allow me to quote from the above photo's original caption: "The Martyrdom of St. Anne by Diana Thorneycraft features an Anne doll carrying plasticine representations of her breasts on a platter." To read the rest, click here.

Writers on Writing

"Writing is the flip side of sex -- it's good only when it's over."
Hunter S. Thompson

Recommended Viewing:Elmore Leonard @ Montgomery College

Part 2, 3

Tuesday's Tips for Flailing Writers

Lose contacts and contracts with The Writers' Digest's 3 Sure-Fire Ways to Insult Someone in Publishing.


Indulge your pride and paranoia with The Self-Publisher's 5-Minute Guide to Copyright.


Virgin CEO Richard Branson recently anchored his hot air balloon full of supermodels long enough to share his 7 Book Marketing Lessons.


We all know that sacrifice is the cornerstone to nearly every organized religion and FDA approved diet plan. Turns out, it's needed in writing, too.


Once you've given up everything you ever held dear, it's time to give the ol' heave-ho to the intangibles like love and loyalty. Or, as Lionel Shriver put it, "I sold my family for a novel."

Anarchists & Teabaggers Will Want to Put Down Their Pens Tonight at Midnight...

...as Congress has decreed Tuesday, October 20th to be The National Day of Writing.
(Via: Helaine Becker)

Book News, In Brief

Entertainment Weekly takes a nation of overly-protective parents to task, reminding them to remember what they read as kids.


Publishers, nervous about allowing too much of their intellectual property to be offered free, dread the spread of e-book usage in libraries. The NYTimes examines these fears in a refreshingly Cory Doctorow-free article.


John Orstead was a Vanity Fair writer preparing to expand his 'History of The Simpsons' article into a full-length book when the bigwigs behind the hit show said no. Click here to read the behind-the-scenes story of the recently released behind-the-scenes book.


David Carradine is the next 70's superstar to have an alleged incestuous affair made public via a memoir. Marina Anderson, ex-wife and manager of the late Kung Fu & Kill Bill star, plans to publish a tell-all book about their relationship and what she politely refers to as Carradine's "deviant behaviour."


The Chicago Tribune hypothesizes on The Future of Book Signings in the e-Book Age. The ideas range from horrible ("the screen-and-stylus method used by package-delivery drivers") to the hopeful ("To refocus author events would mean they'd would become less like getting a passport stamped and more like a community-building discussion").