The Lost Art of Book Editing, England's Most Borrowed Books, and More

by Staff
2.18.11

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:

As Publishers Weekly reported yesterday, publishers are more than a little reluctant to resume normal buying terms with Borders despite the company's plans to reorganize and continue operations. "They owed us a lot of money and refused to pay,” one publishing executive told the trade publication. “It will take a lot of convincing to work with them again. We are waiting to hear what they have to say.”

SmartCompany has ten lessons we can learn from the downfall of Borders and Angus & Robertson in Australia.

Australian actress Poppy Montgomery is slated to play J. K. Rowling in a forthcoming unofficial made-for-TV biopic of the author called Strange Magic. (Sydney Morning Herald)

As readers in the U.K. fight to save their libraries, what books do they borrow the most? The Guardian has a list of the most borrowed books of 2010.

Don't like the iPad? You're not the only one. (Slate)

Using the hometown example of Powell's Books, which recently announced the layoffs of thirty-one employees, the Oregonian explored the realities for indie bookstores as they seek a lasting place in the new digital landscape.

A family maid who shares the same name as the principal character in The Help is suing the book's author, Kathryn Stockett, whose brother and sister-in-law have employed her for the last dozen years, for "an unauthorized appropriation of her name and image." (New York Times)

Has the fine art of line-by-line book editing become a casualty of the demand for publicity and sales? (Guardian)