ICYMI: After Hachette writers banded together behind their publisher (piles of tweets, an author petition (pdf), a perplexing Malcolm Gladwell YouTube clip, and of course our own Edan Lepucki in Stephen Colbert’s pre-order campaign), Amazon proposed giving authors “100% of proceeds” from ebooks — that’s including Hachette’s share — while they hashed things out. You gotta admire that gumption. Halfway around the world, a French court order just banned free delivery for discounted book orders–so Amazon now charges one cent. Also: they’ve got drones. The Times concludes that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
Amazon or perish?
Appearing Elsewhere
The spiffy new Los Angeles Review of Books website has posted my review of Ben Fountain’s new novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.
Let’s Get a Move On, Scientists
David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years (which was brilliantly reviewed by Benjamin Kunkel in the LRB recently), wonders why the world doesn’t yet have any flying cars. It’s 2012, people!
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Bring Me That Book, STAT
See you later, creepy Amazon drones — delivery dudes on mopeds are the future! There is a new service called NearSt. which is offering book delivery within the hour. So far the service is only available in London, but with over forty London bookshops already utilizing the service, it seems poised to take over at least a small corner of the market.
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Urban Homesteaders
Better late than never, here are eight great new books for Urban Homesteaders.
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Gay Talese Has His Own Lapel Shape
Put This On is a “web series about dressing like a grown up.” In their seventh episode, they drop by the Corduroy Appreciation Club’s annual meeting, and they also check out Gay Talese‘s closet.
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“Fresh” Perspective
“Just because I’m a woman, don’t assume that I automatically empathize with a brooding 20-something Elizabeth-Bennett-type protagonist. (Trust me, I don’t.) This doesn’t mean I can’t design … a biography on Susan Sontag—or, for that matter, a spy novel, a political satire, or a memoir about a Japanese game show host set in outer space. I can do all of these things. Because it’s my job to design book covers.” Over at The Literary Hub, a cover designer wonders why she’s always offered a particular type of book.
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