Canada’s Giller Prize announced their longlist of twelve books: Arjun Basu, Waiting for the Man (ECW Press) David Bezmogzis, The Betrayers (Little, Brown/Harper Canada) Rivka Galchen, American Innovations (FSG/Harper Canada) Frances Itani, Tell (Black Cat (forthcoming)/Harper Canada) Jennifer Lovegrove, Watch How We Walk (ECW Press) Sean Michaels, Us Conductors (Tin House/RH Canada) Shani Mootoo, Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab (Doubleday Canada) Heather O’Neill, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night (FSG/Harper Canada) Kathy Page, Paradise and Elsewhere (Biblioasis) Claire Holden Rothman, My October (Penguin Canada) Miriam Toews, All My Puny Sorrows (McSweeney’s/Knopf Canada) Padma Viswanathan, The Ever After of Ashwin […]
People, Etc.
Douglas Preston’s Authors United is taking their complaints over Amazon’s negotiation tactics with Hachette to the etailer’s board of directors, which accomplishes the primary goal of putting authors’ objections back in the headlines. The new letter notes: “Russell Grandinetti of Amazon has stated that the company was ‘forced to take this step because Hachette refused to come to the table.’ He has also claimed that ‘authors are the only leverage we have.’ …Amazon was not ‘forced’ to do anything. This is an obvious fact. We all have choices. Amazon chose to involve 2,500 Hachette authors and their books. It could […]
National Book Awards Young People’s Lit Longlist
The National Book Awards began rolling out their longlists one at a time Monday via the New York Times, which posted the Young People’s Literature list of 10 candidates, including Carl Hiaasen’s SKINK – NO SURRENDER, which you can start reading an excerpt from right now in our Buzz Books Fall/Winter 2014: Young Adult ebook. The shortlist of five will be announced next month, with the winner to be named November 19. The full longlist: Laurie Halse Anderson, The Impossible Knife of Memory (Viking Children’s) Gail Giles, Girls Like Us (Candlewick) Carl Hiaasen, Skink—No Surrender (Knopf Children’s) Kate Milford, Greenglass […]
People, Etc.
Simon & Schuster Australia managing director Lou Johnson has resigned from the company in order to “seek challenges in her career outside of Simon & Schuster, and potentially beyond the traditional publishing environment,” the company said in the announcement, though she will stay “for the foreseeable future” to ensure a smooth transition as a search for her successor begins. Johnson joined S&S Australia in 2008 and has been managing director for the past four years, during which time responsibility for Australia shifted from the US to Simon & Schuster UK. CEO of S&S UK and International Ian Chapman said: “Lou and her […]
Stein’s A Sudden Light Tops October Library Reads List
Garth Stein’s new novel A SUDDEN LIGHT leads the October Library Reads list, which also includes #1 Indie Next pick LEAVING TIME by Jodi Picoult. The rest of the list: As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden Not My Father’s Son: A Memoir by Alan Cumming Some Luck: A Novel by Jane Smiley The Boy Who Drew Monsters: A Novel by Keith Donohue The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens Reunion: A Novel by Hannah Pittard Malice: A Mystery by Keigo Higashino Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver
Slaughter Squares Off with IRS Over Self-Employment Tax On Royalties
Last week Forbes uncovered two previously unreported lawsuits in US tax court which saw thriller writer Karin Slaughter square off against the Internal Revenue Service. While the suits themselves are interesting on their own, they are particularly relevant for authors with respect to the classification of book royalties as self-employment income, something the IRS has held for more than six decades. The first suit, which Slaughter settled with the IRS in July, covered the 2008 tax year, for which the IRS “had been demanding $146,155 in tax and a $29,231 penalty on top of the $1.14 million [Slaughter] originally paid.” […]