[contextly_auto_sidebar id="qUIajYbX9hto2gQVHqpXSXAzUoXDE0A8"] WHAT does it mean to be a digital bestseller? We continue to hear that removing the middleman and getting rid of the expenses of print will be good for readers and writers. The experience of Tony Horwitz, a first-rate writer of narrative nonfiction like Confederates in the Attic, shows it doesn't always work out that way. He calls … [Read more...]
What if Music Streaming Collapses?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="0C90MFj4yUbo92uYGLlqaqHIa9YPI4AC"] MOST critical coverage of Spotify, Pandora and the like has concentrated on the frustration of musicians. But a tough, provocative new piece asks, What if these streaming companies simply fail to make profits, and disappear? Here is Michael St. James -- extending the recent David Carr story -- on RebelMouse: Not one of the music … [Read more...]
The Amazon Fight: David Carr and Malcolm Gladwell Weigh In
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="YGdDfwFUtQGZuwNoz6622v9UXTfsCNmw"] THIS fight between Amazon and the Hachette publishers doesn't seem to be going away. And it may be damaging the online booksellers' "brand," says David Carr in the New York Times. As the uproar grows, Amazon is learning that while it may own the publishing industry with a 40 percent market share of all new books sold, according … [Read more...]
Amazon vs. Hachette Fatal to Non-Superstar Authors
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="8GbWVEDH47AifqGz31d8Z6pNMkmzPLRY"] SO far most of the coverage of the battle between Amazon and the Hachette publishers has looked at the impact on bestselling authors like James Patterson and J.K. Rowling, whose work becomes harder to get or impossible to pre-order during the current feud. But a new story argues that the writers really hurt by this are lesser known … [Read more...]
The Savage Brilliance of Jo Nesbo
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="862z7etB0M2rQ0o5trkD8bwrkhOQ67rT"] THE Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo is being read and discussed on our shores these days, with a new novel, The Son, out earlier this month. (The book, set in Oslo, is not one of those built around troubled detective Harry Hole. I spoke to Nesbo when he and his publisher were making a big push into the U.S. market in the wake of … [Read more...]
Amazon’s Fight With Publisher Heats Up
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="KtshLQL3I8V52FO3GDD8ottfgo4Dzh5b"] THE battle between the online bookselling giant and the Hachette publishers has taken a nasty turn: Amazon has removed the pre-order button for some books, has removed the discount it usually offers for others, and is fighting with publishers over profits on ebooks. Bestselling writers like James Patterson, J.K. Rowling (pictured) … [Read more...]
Just How Bad is Amazon? A New Backlash
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="9ZV3e0kcKq8CTDdht2tTpvL5mUJdBAL3"] LAURA Miller is one of our day's most lively and credible writers on books and authors. In her latest Salon piece, she says goodbye to Amazon, and documents her frustration over the Hachette mess, in which the online service deliberately slows delivery of some publishers' books. The company's predatory, near monopolistic style … [Read more...]
Artist-Activist Daniel Beaty, and Dismantling Libraries
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="fWCZOlqlcOkp84opgNwzY9TpfVFLSu9B"] CAN an artist -- in this case an actor and playwright -- be a healer at the same time? Do the two roles reinforce each other, or do they pull in opposite directions? These were questions I got into in a new story on Daniel Beaty, a remarkable guy who is closing out the LA run of The Tallest Tree in the Forest, a play about the … [Read more...]
Art, Work and Money
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="iZv7JeHqc41WMIllgv7eQnjxMkFtGil8"] IF art and culture produce something besides money, what, exactly, is it? Who are the people who devote their lives to this stuff? And how have technological and economic shifts changed things over recent years? Those are questions I ponder often, and A.O. Scott addresses them in a perceptive and wide-ranging New York Times essay … [Read more...]
How Do Visual Artists Survive? A Conversation
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="bf0FrQh0qNpnPUaXjMY1eGrcVaOQV5gc"] IT’S never been easy to make a living as a creative being, and recent years have made it even more difficult for anyone without a trust fund. So I’m quite cheered by the recent appearance of a handsome, useful book, Living and Sustaining a Creative Life. Edited by the Brooklyn-based, Yale-educated artist Sharon Louden, it's … [Read more...]