Scott Turow on the Death of the American Author, Return of Nazi-Looted Books, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
4.8.13

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 New York Times interviews Jason Merkoski, the leader of the team who built Amazon's first Kindle: “These are major retailers, not your quirky corner bookstores. They’re manned by former management consultants in clean shirts and pressed Dockers, not eccentric book-lovers with beards and cats.”

Digital Book World reports on the partnership between the American Booksellers Association (ABA) and Kobo. Sales, although modest, have steadily grown.

Chilean authorities have exhumed Pablo Neruda to test his remains for signs that he was poisoned by the Pinochet regime. (BBC News)

Scott Turow, bestselling author and president of the Authors Guild, explains how the “global electronic marketplace is rapidly depleting authors’ income streams.” (New York Times)

With one hundred and fifty publishers currently releasing e-singles, a new website called Thin Reads has launched to cover this burgeoning market. (paidContent)

Nazi-looted art makes headlines because of the art's high monetary value, yet there is an initiative to return stolen books as well, although finding lost libraries poses a unique challenge. (Bloomberg)

Scholar Anne Margaret Daniel details how F. Scott Fitzgerald reacted to the first film version of The Great Gatsby, after he and Zelda arrived in Hollywood in 1927. (Huffington Post)