"I don’t know for certain what big publishers are doing to make their prices so high, or what they think they’ll get out of it. I only know that I made a deliberate pricing decision to discourage Amazon and Kindle sales because I needed Amazon’s visibility but I didn’t want to lose my shirt, bra, AND panties." [some language may be NSFW] [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese on Feb 3, 2009 - 36 comments

Despite sagging paperback sales in the publishing industry, romance novels -- and particularly hen lit -- fiction featuring older female heroines -- are thriving. In 2006, according to Romance Writers of America, 26.4% of all books sold were romances, generating $1.37 billion in sales. In hen lit aka Matron literature, heroines typically are over-40, widowed grandmothers whose romance yearnings are secondary to family, work, and hobbies.
posted by terranova on Nov 21, 2008 - 29 comments

Ladies, have you ever dreamt of being whisked away kidnapped by a dashing young Prince? Or being swept off your feet and losing your virginity to a dark and mysterious stranger, who happens to be a Sheikh? Or how about being sold to an Arab aristocracy and living off the rest of your days in married bliss. No? Then how about considering a Royal who is so down-to-earth you won't meet anyone else quite like him? Much better than the alternative of marrying his polar opposite, don't you think? Of course, you can always try and keep it platonic if you wanted to. Welcome to the wonderful world of Sheikhs and Desert Love, where all of your fantasies can come true! (via)
posted by hadjiboy on Mar 15, 2008 - 44 comments

The Page 69 Test --inspired by Marshall McLuhan's suggestion to readers for choosing a novel, a new blog, inviting authors to describe what's on page 69. One says: Not the best, but not the worst. If my pages were presidents, I’d put page 69 somewhere in the James K. Polk range.
posted by amberglow on Dec 11, 2007 - 28 comments

Looking for something to read this summer? Well, if you like crime fiction The Rap Sheet has some recommendations for you.
posted by otio on Jul 8, 2007 - 4 comments

Booktribes is a new site from the creators of writing site Abctales where bibliophiles can compile lists of every book they've ever read. Replete with a simple, intuitive interface, compiling your life's reading list becomes strangely addictive, and for the whole of March, the best comment of the day on this as-yet underpopulated site wins a copy of David Mitchell's Black Swan Green, with the best comment of the month winning the entire 21 volume Sceptre Collection. And if you're worried your reading list isn't up to scratch, don't panic - you can always cheat.
posted by RokkitNite on Mar 3, 2007 - 20 comments

Should a politician's "artistic endeavors" come into play when voters go to the polls? George Allen thinks that parts of his opponent, Jim Webb's, novels are demeaning to women and contain depictions of incest. Also, Republican candidate for Texas Comptroller, Susan Combs, is being accused of writing porngraphy because of excerpts like these from a romance novel she wrote 15 years ago. And they're not the only politicians who've written naughty things.
posted by eunoia on Nov 4, 2006 - 40 comments

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is not just a novel, it's an experience. Danielewski's sister, the recording artist Poe, wrote the soundtrack to the book. If a novel with its own soundtrack isn't a complete enough experience for you, the book has spawned its own web forum, to discuss any and all related minutiae.
posted by grapefruitmoon on Feb 12, 2005 - 41 comments

Have you heard of Will Christopher Baer? He writes twisty, noir fiction. His trilogy of Phineas Poe books (Kiss Me, Judas, Penny Dreadful, and Hell's Half Acre) have just been re-released, and Kiss Me, Judas was optioned for a movie. (more inside)
posted by braun_richard on Jan 26, 2005 - 7 comments

While others are busy writing fan fiction about Dune, it’s nice to see that someone has discovered the TRUTH.
posted by Pockets on Jun 28, 2004 - 24 comments

"First Wives Club" author Olivia Goldsmith dies. How? Plastic surgery.
posted by adrober on Jan 17, 2004 - 20 comments

Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls.
posted by hama7 on Dec 6, 2003 - 7 comments

Inspector Maigret And The Strange Case Of The Immortals: The immensely prolific Georges Simenon, most well known for his Maigret mysteries, has just been published in 2 volumes by France's most prestigious collection, the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. Crime fiction looks like it's slowly becoming respectable. What popular crime novelists would you like to see elevated to literature's highest pantheon? Or does it somehow ruin the fun a bit? For comparison purposes, I'd say The Library of America is the nearest English language equivalent. [First, second and fourth links in English; others in French.]
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jul 7, 2003 - 32 comments

Is It Fiction If It Says "Fiction" On The Cover? Jorge Luis Borges brilliantly obscured fact and fiction presenting fiction as fact. Things seem to have swung round 180º and fact is now increasingly being sold as fiction. This certainly seems to be the case with Siri Hustvedt's What I Loved. She's Paul Auster's second wife and... Well... now even critics, like The New York Observer's Joe Hagan have joined the fun, as Slate's Katie Roiphe duly noted. Fact is now presented as fiction, without the traditional disguise of the roman à clef. I think it's sad. In fact, it's an attempt on the life of imagination itself. Perhaps these authors who write memoirs masquerading as novels could be sued under the Trade Description Act? [With thanks to the always excellent Literary Salon weblog. Thanks to ColdChef for pointing it out to me.]
posted by MiguelCardoso on Apr 23, 2003 - 28 comments

Devoted to late nineteenth century adventure novels? Irredeemably neurotic? For you, there is Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton universe, in which such extraordinary gentlemen as Dracula and Sherlock Holmes are related through complex genealogies dating back to a peculiar meteorological event in the British countryside. This is meta-nerdiness.
posted by Hildago on Nov 24, 2002 - 7 comments

Cervantes no not THAT Cervantes silly, THIS Cervantes wrote the first half of Don Quixote in 1605. The popularity of the world's first novel was so great that an impostor book was published chronicling the continued misadventures of the Don Quixote and Sancho, so scandalously in fact that Cervantes himself had to write a second half ten years later which ends (SPOILER) with the death of Alonso Quixano and the end of all further tales. Now it seems some 400 years later its happening to our young Harry Potter!
posted by Pollomacho on Nov 13, 2002 - 27 comments

Book Magazine's 100 Best Characters in Fiction since 1900 (Book Magazine via NPR). Jay Gatsby is #1. Harry Potter is #85. No Gandalf, Bilbo or Frodo. And yet some claim LotR is the book of the century (First post for me)
posted by rshah21 on Mar 20, 2002 - 74 comments

"That's it. I'm done. Done writing books." After Stephen King publishes his next five new books, he's ending his career in publishing. Viewing his latest work as mere recycles of older novels that he has written, he's choosing to stop while he's at the top of his game rather than meet a grim end to his career. Are any fans of his work disappointed or do you feel satisfied with the body of work that he has created over his career?
posted by crog on Jan 30, 2002 - 68 comments

Monday is the last day to declare your intention to write a 50,000-word novel during National Novel Writing Month (Nov. 1-30). "Dubious fiction writers from all nations are invited to participate," says organizer Chris Baty. So far, around 3,000 writers have pledged to bring 150 million new words into the world.
posted by rcade on Oct 28, 2001 - 103 comments

Color me surprised. My annoyance at Tom Clancy for the shoddy quality of Rainbow Six is well known. I had expected to give up on him entirely; I didn't even plan to buy the new one in hardcover without reading it first...
posted by baylink on Aug 27, 2000 - 2 comments