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27 Jan 2011 12:24

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Politics: Ex-McCain staffer Mark Salter behind anonymous Obama book “O”

Step One: Write an anonymous novel about your ex-boss’ former opponent. Name it “O” Step Two: ??? Step Three: Profit! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Dec 2010 08:24

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World: Julian Assange is writing a book. Here’s how much he’s gonna make

  • So, in case you couldn’t guess otherwise, Julian Assange is broke. Running a site like Wikileaks does not make one rich, and now that banks are clamping down on the organization, he’s forced to take desperate measures. Which means that the inevitable book is coming down the pipe a little sooner than anyone might have guessed. Which means, within a year, we’re going to see a movie, with Neil Patrick Harris playing our boy Julian. Probably. Anyway, here’s how much this autobiography thang is going to make him:
  • $502k coming from British publisher Canongate Books Ltd.
  • $800k more coming from American publisher Alfred A. Knopf
  • $1.7M total, which will go towards his legal defense source
  • » Our question: Will Bank of America, PayPal, Mastercard and Visa block payments to Knopf or Canongate Books? Because they’re directly helping Wikileaks.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Oct 2010 10:21

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World: Show-off: Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Prize for literature

This Peruvian dude is the first Latin American Nobel Prize winner in literature since 1990. What you’re witnessing now is this guy’s head getting big. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2010 20:04

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Culture: Five books the nanny state didn’t want you to read in 2009

  • one The popular “ttyl” book series, which was the most-challenged book series of 2009.
  • two “And Tango Makes Three,” where two sinner male penguins raise an egg unnaturally.
  • three A perennial favorite, the edgy ’90s teen novel “The Perks
    of Being a Wallflower.”
  • four Harper Lee’s classic “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which was nicked on charges of racism.
  • five Some book you’ve never heard of about vampires. What’s it called? Oh, “Twilight.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Feb 2010 16:01

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Tech: Authors all scared eBooks about to ruin the book economic model

  • I’ve got news: It takes about a year to write a book, you have to travel extensively, you have to do a lot of fact-checking. What Amazon and Apple are trying to do is significantly decrease the amount of money that publishers, and specifically authors, can make.
  • The Register writer Dan Goodin • Regarding the possibility of making profits off of eBooks via Kindle or iPad. We think the point he’s trying to make is pretty weak. Why’s that? Well, it completely discounts the things that eBooks make obsolete: The high costs of printing and distribution, which are no longer an issue. We’re not geniuses, but we’re guessing that if you take those two things out of the equation, it more than makes up for the $5 less that an eBook version of your average novel costs. Not convinced. Blame publishers for damaging the model by taking more than their fair share of the pie, not e-readers. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Apr 2009 20:42

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Biz, Politics: Amazon apparently doesn’t like gay people anymore

  • Author Mark R. Probst noticed recently that the sales rankings for his gay-themed novel plummeted on Amazon. source
  • He inquired with Amazon’s staff, and learned from a rep that they had deemed his book (and books like it) “adult material.” source
  • He wasn’t alone; other “adult” books include “Brokeback Mountain,” which became an Oscar-winning flick. source
  • So now the Internet is in an uproar/frenzy, and the mainstream press seems slow to respond. WTF, guys? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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