The Essentials: 5 Literary/Publishing/Fiction Articles (Mar. 18)
Friday, 18 March 2011
I read about fifty articles on literature a day. I figure, since I’ve got this handy blog that people are reading, I might as well share the wealth. That way, you can do even less work for the same amount of knowledge.
The sources will be a mix of regular, big names, and smalltime journals. I’ve got google alerts out there on “poetry” “fiction” “literature” and “books”. Otherwise, I’ve got Poets and Writers, The New Yorker, Paris Review, The Atlantic, and The New York Times bookmarked. Why go anywhere else?
#1 January Sees Jump in E-book Sales
E-books, surprisingly, are proving to be an incredible force; sales are skyrocketing. In this article, Red Orbit discusses the numbers of climbing E-book sales and profits.
“Electronic book sales, continuing to show strong popularity, increased by more than 115 percent in January compared to the same month in 2010, according to a report released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP).
Figures show that e-book net sales totalled $32.4 million in January 2010, and jumped to $69.9 million in the same time period this year, continuing a rising demand for electronic books while conventional hardcover and paperback books continue to decline.”
#2 E-books Not Yet a Mass Market Product
On the other hand, America seems to be ahead on the e-book curve. This article, from the Financial
explains that e-books in countries like Germany remain a niché product.
“According to calculations carried out by GfK Panel Ser-vices, eBooks only achieved a 0.5% share of overall book sales in Germany in 2010, registering a total sales volume of EUR 21 million. At present, only 35% of German publishers offer eBooks, although many intend to follow suit before long.”
#3 Publisher’s Weekly Best Seller List
From Publisher’s Weekly. Somewhere, people are buying actual hardcovers–even if millions less.
“HARDCOVER FICTION
1. “Sing You Home: A Novel” by Jodi Picoult (Atria)
2. “The Jungle” by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul (Putnam Adult)
3. “The Wise Man’s Fear” by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW)…”
#4 Fiction: Going for a Beer by Robert Coover
From the New Yorker. Coover, though a quiet author, produces some very striking prose. A sort of Raymond Carver type normalcy makes his structure quiet attractive to the modern reader.
“He finds himself sitting in the neighborhood bar drinking a beer at about the same time that he began to think about going there for one. In fact, he has finished it. Perhaps he’ll have a second one, he thinks, as he downs it and asks for a third. There is a young woman sitting not far from him who is not exactly good-looking but good-looking enough, and probably good in bed, as indeed she is.”
#5 Poetry: Four Poems by Travis Nichols
This, from Narrative Magazine. A lot of great poets out there, certainly. Here, Nichols, a midwestern poet, gives us a few powerful, intimate images.
“BEHIND MY HAND is another hand.
Behind my head, another head.
Iron filings fill the hand,
sway with the movements of the head.
A mouth made of aluminum moths
moves in the mouth of the head.”
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