"Burning Down My Masters' House" Indeed!
Jayson Blair, noted fraud and liar, is about to be liquidated along with all of the other titles in New Millenium's catalog. The publisher of such quality books as "Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted" by Faye Resnick and "Burning Down My Master's House" by Jayson "Truth? We Don't Need No Stinking Truth" Blair.
Its not known if Blair's memoir had a specific hand in the demise of the publishing house but it couldn't have helped. Selling a whopping 1,386 copies through March 18th.
Is there such a thing as the Anti-Midas Touch? Wherein, everything you touch turns from gold to lead or dust?
Continuing these threads to their karmic conclusion.
posted on May 13, 2004 - View this thread

Snark. In the newest issue of Bookforum, critic Sven Birkerts ruminates on what he considers to be the regrettable rise of the snarky book review, taking as his starting example Dale Peck's hatchet job on Rick Moody, written in 2002. "Psychologically [the literary] landscape [is one that is] subtly demoralized by the slash-and-burn of bottom-line economics; the modernist/humanist assumption of art and social criticism marching forward, leading the way, has not recovered from the wholesale flight of academia into theory; the publishing world remains tyrannized in acquisition, marketing, and sales by the mentality of the blockbuster; the confident authority of print journalism has been challenged by the proliferation of online alternatives. [...] All of this leads, and not all that circuitously, to the question of snark, the spirit of negativity, the personal animus pushing ahead of the intellectual or critical agenda. Snark is, I believe, prompted by the terrible vacuum feeling of not mattering, not connecting, not being heard; it is fueled by rage at the same."
posted on Apr 4, 2004 - View this thread

‘We can say “God”, “God” is fine, but we have to be very careful about anything that involves the name of the Lord and Saviour.’ Tory MP and Spectator editor Boris Johnson reflects on the process of getting a breezy op-ed past the editorial process of the Gray Lady. Jokes at the expense of the President of Guinea just aren't done.
posted on Mar 21, 2003 - View this thread

The magazine industry's oddest moments this past year include a very "Bird Talk" September 11 and Detroit (among other cities) being named Maxim's "The Greatest City on Earth".
posted on Dec 31, 2002 - View this thread

Has the Filthy Critic been reading been reading the NYTimes.com film forums? Probably a coincidence, but both notice a rather annoying trend. Present participle film titles. (referring to the "Kissing Jessica Stein" review by the Filthy Critic.)
posted on Mar 28, 2002 - View this thread

projet MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE projet is a collection of independently-produced books and zines traveling and exhibiting across North America in a vintage Airstream trailer. The project is accepting submissions for the 2002 tour.
posted on Jan 16, 2002 - View this thread

Conde Nast to shutter Mademoiselle. The "deteriorating advertising environment" is blamed for the closing of the 66-year-old title, where Sylvia Plath first cut her teeth on the journalistic life. While Mlle's recent content has devolved into Cosmo-like treatises on how to please your man in bed and where to buy the clothing that will lure him in that general direction, it is more than a bit upsetting (particularly to someone who's trying to eke out a living as a writer) to see yet another Conde Nast-owned title (Details and Women's Sports & Fitness; Fairchild bought Details out and launched a revamped version) fall victim to the great advertising contraction of the past 12 months.
posted on Oct 1, 2001 - View this thread

Fictionline sounds like a scam but isn't: pay a small reading fee and win a thousand bucks if they publish your story. The plain design seems aimed more at writers than readers, but it's an exciting new concept in the glut of online lit mags.
posted on Aug 30, 2001 - View this thread

"When I first saw it, I knew it would be as important as Gutenberg." Hyperbole aside, PerfectBook -- a machine that spits out a complete book from a digital file within minutes -- sounds intriguing. What's more, "a distracted teenager could run it."
posted on Jul 9, 2001 - View this thread

Only one navel left to gaze at? Rumors are flying—Brill's Content and Powerful Media may just be announcing a merger soon ...
posted on Mar 29, 2001 - View this thread

Here's an idea for struggling web-based publishing tools
Jump-start the reflective process by prompting webloggers on what to write about.
posted on Jan 9, 2001 - View this thread