Google’s Squidoo knockoff product Knol is now open to public use after a less-than-spectacular introductory phase, so they’re making a particular appeal to authors to take advantage of the service: “Knols are articles about specific topics written by authoritative sources, so if you’re an author, writing a knol is a great way to raise the profile of a topic you care about. “Let’s say you’re an author who’s a gardening expert. You could write a knol on how to tend roses, which could introduce a few general principles of gardening and then explain how to care for a rose bush. […]
Corporate Report Cards Due
It’s time for a run of earnings reports from publicly-held companies again. Scholastic leads this wave with their earnings release, set for tomorrow morning. They are followed quickly by: Pearson/Penguin Group, on July 28 (pre-market opening) CBS/Simon & Schuster, on July 31 (pre-market opening) News Corp./HarperCollins, on August 5 (after the close) More follow toward the end of the August, including: Barnes & Noble, on August 18 (after the close) Books-a-Million, on August 18 (after the close) Borders, on Aug 26 (after the close) Bertelsmann, on August 28 (report on the first 6 months) Lagardere, on August 28 (report on […]
More Readings
* China is launching an American Idol-style literary competition, called The Next – A Search for the New Face of Chinese Literature. A judging panel of authors and critics will select the shortlist of 36 works from open submissions, and “Chinese netizens will be invited to comment on and vote for the works under consideration, until a final winner is chosen from four finalists in April 2009.” The winner gets a publishing contract, an advance worth about $14,600, “payment of outstanding college fees, with a guarantee of national media exposure and major marketing,” and other prizes. Established by Changjiang Art […]
Robert Downey Jr. Cancels Memoir
Robert Downey Jr. can’t handle the truth written on paper–or at least he prefers not do so at 2006 prices now that Iron Man was hit. The AP reports that the actor has returned his advance to Harper after having signed to provide a “candid look at the highs and lows of his life and career.” The wire notes that spokeseperson Britney Ross of Rogers & Cowan “declined to say why Downey wouldn’t be writing the book.”AP
Google Book Search, en Francais
Google has now officially confirmed the enrollment of the the Municipal Library of Lyon as the first French institution to join the Google Book Search Library Project. Together they will digitize “close to 500,000 public domain books.” You may recall that in the early days of GBS there were two primary schools of griping: the we’re going to be included and we don’t want to be branch, and the we’re not going to be included (and horrible English works will smother the world) branch. Needless to say, the French were among the leaders of the latter camp, advocating for government-backed […]
Candidates as Comics?
IDW Publishing has announced they will issue two comic-book biographies of the major presidential candidates in early October, along with a trade paperback “flip-book” with both comics in one edition.