Gender Bias: Are You Aware Of Yours?

Just When You Think You’re Enlightened Now backpedaling in an almost comic retreat, officials of South By Southwest (SXSW) triggered a storm of controversy when they canceled two panels relative to online harassment such as the GamerGate community is infamous for. Amid searing criticism and cancellations by would-be SXSW-goers, SXSW Interactive chief Hugh Forrest issued an… Read More

Nielsen's #KidsBookSummit: Nobody Said YA Books Aren’t For Teens

When The Medium’s Message Gets Rough It was an odd turnabout in the annual Nielsen Children’s Conference. Led by Kristen McLean—among the most respected people in the business of quantifying and evaluating the young person’s reading scene—the conference was a crackling success. Smartly produced at New York’s pristine Convene Center in Lower Manhattan on a… Read More

Two New Efforts In Publishing Diversity: ‘Learning From Each Other’s Narratives’

‘There Are So Many Reasons To Write’  We’ve joined the global conversation on the intersection of race and writing. But is it enough?   These viewpoints echo that of Zed Books’ Crystal Mahey-Morgan, who told me in an interview for The Bookseller less than a year ago: “We need to move beyond rhetoric and good… Read More

China’s Feng Tang: Translating the ‘Beijing, Beijing’ Of His Peers

‘Sexuality Is Almost My Trademark’ “Why didn’t you take your stupid Three Gun briefs home?” she asked. “They were clearly dry already, dry as they would ever get, but you didn’t take them back. Why? After looking at them all day, I would go out and dance all night.” What the author Feng Tang does… Read More

Is Online Life Real Life? #AskELJames – No, Ask Chuck Wendig

One Big Gray (Not Grey) Area Of Rage  Online is IRL. It’s all real. This is all really happening… It’s not a show, no matter how much we want it to be. That’s the author Chuck Wendig, wrapping up what he seems to have thought would be his one post on the PR hair-tearer #AskELJames. But a funny… Read More

Get Porter Alerts: Publishing Coverage On The Fly

Know When The Tweets Take Off Publishing’s conference and trade-show events stack up like the cities of Troy, one atop the other, right? It’s always springtime for publishing somewhere, and who can keep up? Now, you can: Let my boarding passes be your guide. Sign up at my site for my free newsletter, Porter Alerts!  By having these notices… Read More

Why Are Boys Not Reading More?

‘We Are Not Creating Male Readers’ I would suggest to you that we have shared responsibility here — teachers, parents, authors, and publishers. Literacy is the kingpin skill of school success. Unless we get all kids reading, they’re not going to be successful. That’s Peg Tyre, author of The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons,… Read More

At BEA's IDPF Digital Book Conference: Youth Reading – Or Not

“How many of you think of your customers sitting in a chair reading a book?” Bookigee founder and CEO Kristen McLean got a goodly show of hands with that question as she opened her session on youth reading in the States at BookExpo America (BEA) on Wednesday (27th May). McLean focused on trends in young readers’ and teens’… Read More

Josh Malerman's ‘Bird Box’ Named Horror Novel Of The Year

Also: Finalist For A Bram Stoker Award You write because you love reading, and you write horror because you believe in the monsters, you believe in the imagination, you believe in the dark. I BELIEVE IN THE DARK. Josh Malerman Josh Malerman has won This Is Horror’s Novel of the Year award blindfolded. Don’t take it… Read More