Buying a Spot on the Bestseller List, Gender Disparity in Books Coverage, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
2.22.13

Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories:

The Wall Street Journal shines a light on a company called ResultSource, which purchases vast amounts of an author's books to game the bestseller lists. (Amazon announced it stopped conducting business with ResultSource.)

Sarah Jaffe calls out the New York Times for gender disparity in its coverage of books and culture. (Columbia Journalism Review)

Graywolf press has launched three-city poetry tours for its authors. (Shelf Awareness)

Emily Witt discovered a peculiar connection between Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. (n+1)

Martín Espada recently discussed the powerful significance of poetry with Bill Moyers on PBS.

Was the editor just being nice? Should you submit to them again? Seth Fried explains how to interpret your rejection letters. (Tin House)

The Times Literary Supplement looks at the three-volume Selected Letters of Siegfried Sassoon and Edmund Blunden, 1919–1967, and how despite long careers the two men are remembered as War Poets.

If you're in the United Kingdom, now you can send a letter home with Jane Austen stamps. (Huffington Post UK)

Flavorwire lists the ten sexiest books of all time.

Meanwhile, the Daily Beast uncovered a shirtless Mark Twain, among others.

Comments

Literary Rejection Letters.

Thank you for sharing the piece on the literary rejection letters. I definitely had a good laugh or two. I think as writers, we've all been there (and if not, we will be if we intend to publish).