More than 100 members of International Thriller Writers are calling for the resignation of the organization’s board in a new petition, “per the ITW bylaws,” following charges that the board failed to take members’ sexual assault complaints seriously. The petition says that, ” If needed, we will submit a quorum of 10 percent of ITW member signatures” to call for election of a new board among active members. ITW debut author chair Laurie Chandlar had resigned her post in protest last week, after she and author Penni Jones “brought serious concerns to the ITW board regarding a male author’s behavior […]
Events
Kobo CEO Tamblyn’s Tips for Raising eBook Revenues
It’s only appropriate that a Book Industry Study Group (BISG) annual meeting Friday that opened with predictions of continuing tight markets for book paper and manufacturing concluded with Kobo (“often thought of as ‘Kobo-Who-We-Wish-Were-Bigger-In-the-US'”) ceo Michael Tamblyn running down six ways to sell more digital product — and retain readers’ attention — with better metadata. His biggest and most important suggestion/ask — which has been a staple of some of my own speeches for years — was, “Add series data. Every damn time.” As Tamblyn noted, series represent a whopping 52 percent of their ebook sales. Yet it is “one […]
PEN Panel on Call-Outs, Correctness, and Culture Wars
PEN America hosted a timely panel on March 5, “Writing Wrongs: Call-Outs, Correctness, and Culture Wars,” falling just days after queer black author Kosoko Jackson responded to Twitter criticism of his YA novel by canceling its publication. Readers faulted the book for using genocide as the backdrop to a love story, among other sensitivity issues—and Jackson, who has himself served as a sensitivity reader for other titles, agreed. On the PEN panel: authors Ayad Akhtar, Francine Prose, and Meredith Talusan; former NY Review of Books editor Ian Buruma; Slate writer Inkoo Kang; and New York Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris. Suzanne […]
Penguin Random House US CEO Talks Author Earnings at NYPL
The New York Public Library and the Authors Guild co-hosted a panel discussion as part of their “Who Owns the Word?” series on December 10, moderated by novelist and Authors Guild vp Richard Russo. Authors Kurt Andersen, Alexander Chee, and TJ Stiles, along with Madeline McIntosh, the CEO of Penguin Random House US, joined Russo onstage. Much of the conversation focused on the continuing importance of physical stores to book discovery, narrowing in on online buying as a major contributor to the challenging environment faced by emerging novelists today, and by fiction authors more broadly. McIntosh kicked off that part of […]
A Leading Agent Takes Center Stage with Hello Sunshine + Together Live
William Morris Endeavor’s head of Worldwide Literary, Lectures, and Conferences, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, has another lesser-known, yet in some respects, higher-profile, role. She is the co-founder, along with client and author Glennon Doyle, of Together Live, an annual big-venue touring storytelling event/would-be movement that recently began its third year. Walsh is also its chief curator, moderator and MC, inaugural podcast host, and force majeure. “When we are brave enough to tell our own stories, and present enough to really listen to others as they share theirs,” Walsh wrote on Instagram on the eve of the first stop, in Boston, “real […]
HarperCollins Launches Anniversary Exhibit at Columbia
HarperCollins and the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library have announced an exhibition celebrating the publisher’s 200th anniversary. Open now through July 21 in the library’s Kempner Gallery, “Harper & Brothers to HarperCollins Publishers: A Bicentennial Exhibition” highlights continuity and change in the publishing industry. The exhibit includes, among other things, the contract for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Thomas Nast’s political cartoons for Harper’s Weekly, and correspondence with historical figures like John F. Kennedy and Richard Wright. As a part of the launch, they will hold a panel discussion on Wednesday, April 12, moderated by Columbia Publishing Course director Shaye Areheart […]