When Penguin Press announced their acquisition of Marja Mills‘s THE MOCKINGBIRD NEXT DOOR: LIFE WITH HARPER LEE in 2011, saying it was written with “direct access to Harper and Alice Lee,” Harper Lee’s attorneys released a letter in which the renowned author said, ” I have not willingly participated in any book written or to be written by Marja Mills. Neither have I authorized such a book. Any claims otherwise are false.” Just prior to publication on July 15, Harper Lee has provided another broader letter, via attorney Tonja Carter (sent to Mary McDonagh Murphy, who directed “Hey Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a […]
Authors
Wattpad Acquires Red Room and Takes It Offline With Five Days Notice
On July 3, founder of online writers community Red Room Ivy Madison posted a chipper note with “big news,” writing, “Red Room is becoming part of Wattpad!” Apparently Wattpad acquired Red Room, and wasted no time in killing it: “Red Room will go offline on Tuesday, July 8, 2014. You won’t be able to log in after that. If you ever need to view or copy your content, you can do so, thanks to our friends at the Internet Archive.” Madison’s note offered, “please let me know what I can do to make this move a big success for you,” […]
Howey and Konrath Drive Petition Supporting Amazon; Amazon Author Wendig Responds
Following Douglas Preston’s open letter to which hundreds of well-known traditionally-published authors signed on, on Thursday a group of almost 30 self-published authors posted a petition of their own at Change.org in response (from online accounts, the letter was written by Hugh Howey and Joe Konrath). It’s offered “To Thank Our Readers,” but after the first 120 words, the balance of the 2,400-word-petition is a defense of, and appreciation of, Amazon. Many of the “supporters” who signed on — now at more than 5,000 people — are also self-published authors offering their own thanks to Amazon. The petition asserts a variety of “truths” […]
People, Etc.
Following the February announcement that Penguin Random House would close two Penguin warehouse/operations centers by 2015 and consolidate all US fulfillment operations into the Westminster, MD and Crawfordsville, IN facilities, there is a now a report on an expansion of that warehouse in Indiana. PRH is adding 350,00 square feet (growing by about 50 percent) and plans to add “up to 313 new jobs by 2016.” The first of the hiring will begin this August. Walter Dean Myers, 76, author of numerous children’s novels that chronicled struggles of urban youths, died July 1 at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan […]
Open Letter From Authors to Readers About Amazon, Organized by Douglas Preston, Has “Gone Viral”
As we were first to report mid-day Wednesday, bestselling author Douglas Preston has been circulating by email an open letter from authors to their readers, objecting to how Amazon has “directly targeted Hachette’s authors in an effort to force their publisher to agree to its terms,” enlisting signatories. (Preston’s forthcoming book THE LOST ISLAND, co-authored by Lincoln Child and due August 5, has been directly affected by Amazon’s removal of pre-orders for HBG titles.) On Wednesday morning, when we obtained the email, that effort “seems to have gone viral,” Preston told us, after a few weeks of his “quietly working on […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Barbara Kline Pope has been appointed director of the Association of American University Presses, succeeding Philip Cercone. Pope is director of the National Academies Press and will serve a one-year term as AAUP director. Costco’s July Pennie’s Pick is THE GIVER by Lois Lowry. Donna Tartt’s THE GOLDFINCH and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s THE BULLY PULPIT won the Carnegie Medals for fiction and nonfiction, respectively. Start Publishing is in the process of acquiring Whiskey Creek Press, as covered in two posts at Writer Beware. Poet and novelist Dermot Healy, 66, died over the weekend in County Sligo, Ireland. He was the author […]