Early in my career I decided it was my duty to write at least twice as many blurbs as I received. I’ve now written about 20 times as many, and I’ve been happy to do it. But recently three things broke me. - The New York Times
“In 2024, Barnes & Noble opened more new bookstores in a single year than it had in the whole decade from 2009 to 2019 . . . is enjoying a period of tremendous growth as the strategy to hand control of each bookstore to its local booksellers has proven so successful.” - Fast Company
Translators deal with the “especially strong constraint” of the tight relationship between the original text and the new one, but the latter is still, well, new. At the end of the day, the translator’s job, the essential aspect of moving a text from one language to another, is to write a new book—and write it well. - The Nation
"Sales of science fiction and fantasy books rocketed last year, with their value increasing by 41.3% between 2023 and 2024. The booming popularity of romantasy – the subgenre blending elements of fantasy and romance that is a favourite of TikTok’s BookTok community – helped drive the rise." - The Guardian
It hasn’t been so hard for Irish writer Colin Barrett. “It was very rewarding in the end. And, immediately, another idea that definitely is a novel and not a short story suggested itself” - set in County Mayo, of course, which Barrett says “is still juicy.” - The Guardian (UK)
"How horrifying will this monster turn out to be? And how can the characters defend themselves against it unless they accept it’s there? The stubborn rationalists never fare well.” - LitHub
“The whole subversion of the epic form is very important to me. Because I don’t think people think of their lives in terms of a continuous or coherent narrative. I think we experience life in a very fragmented way.” - The Guardian (UK)
“I did worry I’d lose friends. But, well, there’s no revelations of mass drug taking or orgies or anything. Because I haven’t been to any, really.” - The New York Times
Ali Smith, on her new book Gliff, and needing libraries: “The difference between information and knowledge is the difference between an ice covering across a really deep loch and the depth of that loch. That's the difference between knowing information and having knowledge. It is dimensional.” - NPR
“Han was not prepared for her new status as national hero. ‘Too much attention is not very good for writers,” she says. … ‘You need anonymity, to be able to take a stroll in the street. You really need your calm inside.’” - The Guardian (UK)
Much to the owners' surprise, business has soared at Philly Typewriter since the pandemic. Now they sell machines, train repairers, and host a Type-In. And at Philly Tech Week, there's "AI on one side of us, robotics on the other side, and yet our table is still flooded." - Broad Street Review (Philadelphia)
"The initiative, called 'Human Authored,' will allow authors to log on to the portal and register their book. They will then be able to use a specially designed logo on book covers and promotional materials to show that their work has been created without AI." - The Guardian
Our mixed feelings about machine-made signatures make plain our broader relationship to handwriting: it offers a glimpse of individuality. Any time spent doing archival research is a humbling lesson in the challenges and rewards of deciphering the handwritten word. - The Guardian
How often does a blurb from a filmmaker appear on another filmmaker’s movie poster? A blurb from a musician on another musician’s album cover? A blurb from a game designer on another designer’s game box? The argument has always been that this is what makes the book business so special. - Publishers Weekly
Writers and agents have been finding profile pages on Facebook and Instagram which appear to be those of authors but which those authors themselves never created or posted. The forged profiles use copied photos and AI-generated text; some even have chatbots posing as the authors to converse with visitors. - The Bookseller (UK)
