Science: Breathing Down Your Narrative One reason that writers might want to be sure to credit each other for their work — in tweets, on Facebook, in their own posts and stories — is that there are alternatives not just in the pipeline but on the pages and Web sites of some news outlets near… Read More
The Best Thing About Zuckerberg’s Reading Program: He’s A Guy
Never Say ‘Men Don’t Read’ It may be the publishing world’s most irrational lie. I mean, would you leave half the population’s money on the table? Me, either. But you’ve heard it, of course: “Men don’t read. Doesn’t matter what book you give them. They just don’t read.” Mark Zuckerberg And every time that meme is… Read More
Author Publicists Who Don’t Tweet? And Under Their Own Names? Fire Them.
Two Things Prompted This Irritating Column A clearly lame bid for authors’ hard-earned money for so-called “reader engagement” and book sales. The arrival on Twitter of a brand-new user who is also one of the highest-visibility literary agents in the country. Old scams and new social mediators. I knew it was time to get at… Read More
Music For Writers: Playful Andrew Norman
‘Every Now And Then, I Just Want To Throw A Wrench In’ Imagine the orchestra as this sort of complicated 19th-century futurist machine, all moving parts and cogs and gears, and little people. I find that sort of fascinating. But every now and then, I just want to throw a wrench in and see what… Read More
Music For Writers: John Luther Adams – ‘To Become An Aeolian Harp Myself’
‘The Sheer Sensuous Pleasure Of Sound’ Having heard and re-heard the three movements of John Luther Adams’ The Wind in High Places many times in its new recording from Cold Blue Music, I knew exactly what I wanted to ask the composer about it. John Luther Adams His speed. These ineffable tempi. Like Robert Wilson’s… Read More
A New Architecture Of Algorithms: Could Trajectory Make Books ‘Discoverable’ At Last?
‘To Read More Books In A Similar Vein’ As the book publishing industry heads into its first major conference of the year this week — Digital Book World (hash it #DBW15 with us) in New York City — we learn now that we won’t be seeing one late-breaking major development on the program. And that’s not the… Read More
Music For Writers: Martin Bresnick And The Terrible Beauty Of Sorrow
‘We Will Always Sing Such Songs Of Longing’ Each time I visited, my grandmother wept bitterly about the murder of her parents, her brother, her two sisters, and all their children. Can a child comfort a grandmother, a grandfather? I became a witness, a musician, and a composer. Martin Bresnick is a native New Yorker.… Read More
In 2015, What’s Cooler Than Saying ‘Cool’? Saying Something Specific
This Year, Please Do Not ‘Take It To The Next Level’ They banished absolutely! in 1993. They banished BFF three years ago. Ginormous has been out since 2012. Metrosexual has been gone since 2004. Don’t talk to me about ginormous metrosexuals or I’ll know you didn’t get the memo. Speaking of memos, they’ve even banished words that aren’t words, such… Read More
‘Murder, She Read!’ Taking A Deep Dive Into Mystery With Nielsen
Do We Have A Clue What’s Happening In Mystery/Crime Reading? Their safe and secure lives rocked by a shocking revelation! Their routines turned upside down! Their world wracked by fear of the unknown now stalking them all! No, not the characters in a Dorothy Sayers mystery. I’m talking about the publishers. As I wrote in… Read More
Music For Writers: When Florent Ghys Watches ‘Télévision’
Forget Your Writing Prompts This is the album of the future, and it’s fast becoming a hit. So says a pert, authoritative voice in the opening of the second track on composer-performer Florent Ghys’ new album Télévision from Cantaloupe Music. It’s called a CD. That’s short for compact disc. The music on one of these is… Read More