June 26, 2015

The vanishing mass market: Penguin merges two mass market publishing houses to create new mass market publishing house

Earlier this week, Penguin announced it would be merging two of its mass market divisions, Berkley and New American Library, into one division, Berkley Publishing Group. According to Publishers Weekly, “Leslie Gelbman,… Read more »

Big publishing

Is Bill Gates the new Oprah? (No, of course not.) — Ena Brdjanovic
20th anniversary edition of Infinite Jest features fan-designed cover — Kait Howard
Castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga denies eating his companion — Taylor Sperry
Crowdsourced Taylor Swift book announced, latest in a grand publishing tradition — Liam O'Brien

Charleston Library renamed for Cynthia Graham Hurd

Kirsten Reach

Yesterday the Charleston City Council voted to rename the St. Andrews Library for librarian Cynthia Hurd. Hurd was the longest-serving part-time librarian in the county. “People will look up and… Read more »

Twitter goes bananas on novelist; no one is surprised but novelist in question

Simon Reichley

Twitter is a terrifying place. It is all the worst parts of the playground, with none of the smooching behind the music annex and way more nuns smacking you in… Read more »

Spiegel & Grau moves up publication date of new Ta-Nehisi Coates book

Mark Krotov

Whenever a book proves timely, we tend to think of that timeliness as accidental—a matter of circumstance. Earlier this month, when the nation first learned Rachel Dolezal’s name, a number… Read more »

Melville House Books