Nadia Sirota: New Music's Most Articulate Ambassador

Contemporary classical music’s best friend, violist Nadia Sirota has a residency at Symphony Space and a new album on the way. Porter Anderson in ThoughtCatalog.com’s #MusicForWriters. Read More

At ALA’s Midwinter Meeting: BiblioBoard Pivots As ‘Libraries Transform’

Libraries: From Info Vaults To Creative Hubs The American Library Association’s (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in Boston, has just closed with some impressive numbers to report. Gary Price at Library Journal reports that a total 11,716 people attended the five-day event—librarians, library workers and supporters including 3,622 exhibitors. This makes the 2016 event some 1,000 people larger… Read More

Trajectory Compares 225 years of the State of the Union

Sentiment Curves And Axises Of Evil We have deconstructed every sentence in every State of the Union address to analyze and summarize their common and unique themes. Who else but Trajectory? That’s Jim Bryant talking, CEO of the Boston-based “intelligent network” that’s working with publishers on their distribution challenges. It’s also the home of an… Read More

Starting 2016's Journey: Are Author-Editor Relationships Endangered?

One of the things that makes the 2015-2016 transition interesting in the creative corps is a subdued, reflective, sometimes exhausted, and often pensive mood. A lot of it revolves around marketplace fatigue. And it might not be helping that a one time-honored relationship—that of writer and editor—seems to be changing, for both parties, to what is… Read More

In 2016, Adult Coloring Books: Only Half-Good For Publishing

Color Us Skeptical One of the things the book publishing industry produces best is confusion. Its gray areas (not unlike its Grey areas) are fogs of speculation, partial truths, gossip, and misty-eyed hindsight. Among the most beloved notions this year has been the idea that print books entered a renaissance in 2015. In bookseller’s dreams, consumers… Read More

It’s Fat Season For Diet Books

Larding On The Advice According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 38 percent of American adults are technically obese (with a body mass index over 30), up from 35 percent in 2011-2012 and 32 percent in 2003-2004. That’s Robert Paarlberg at The Washington Post in a new commentary, Why Can’t America Get Its… Read More

SELF-e And The World’s Authors: Is English Our Lingua Franca?

‘Keep Calm And Study English’ “Since the smashing success of the first Harry Potter novel—which was a No. 1 bestseller in Germany in its English version at one point—we have evidence of English, as a reading language, to be a global phenomenon.” Rüdiger Wischenbart is the Vienna-based publishing consultant who produces the Global eBook Report and directs… Read More

Publishers And Authors: Inviting Them To The Same Party

Every Job In Publishing Depends On Authors How is book publishing divided today? Let’s not count the ways. Outsiders looking into this beleaguered industry, however, might be surprised at the reticence many authors and publishers can have about each other. Maybe about being around each other. Meeting each other. Talking more than friendly chitchat or… Read More

FutureBook's chairs, warming up with questions

Conference update: Bookings close this weekend for FutureBook 2015, hurry to get one of the remaining seats at Mermaid London for the event, which is a week from today, 4th December. Our hashtag for that one: #FutureBook15 And on Monday (30th November), follow speakers and delegates at Author Day on hashtag #AuthorDay, the kickoff to The FutureBook 2015… Read More

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