There are far more fools in the publishing industry than GalleyCat ever imagined. Here’s a round-up of the literary news breaking around the Internets on April 1st, 2009…
Jeff VanderMeer sold his newest book, Bookdeath, including chapters like: “How to Use Personal Information About Your Enemies in Your Fiction.” Meanwhile, Publishers Weekly raved about a new reality TV show for writers.
The Kenyon Review has purchased conglomerate publisher Random House for a low six-figure deal. The FBI has deputized the entire team at Writer Beware for a special publishing scam task force: “Rich, Victoria and I will be reporting to Quantico for special training next Monday. At the end of our training, we’ll be issued our badges and guns, and begin our tour of the country.”
HarperStudio announced a Twitter review policy, granting readers who tweet fifty times about a HarperStudio book lunch with Seth Godin or Chris Anderson.
Digital book publisher Smashwords inked a deal with J.K. Rowling.
Amazon announced advances in cloud-computing technology.
The Millions scored an advance copy of Granta’s celebrity edition, just as the literary site (no joke) revamps. Here’s one contributor: “Joaquin Phoenix, an obscure itinerant musician, scribbled this, his first published story, on the back of a New Jersey Turnpike exit ticket.”
Tor.com discovered Anne Rice’s Jesus fan fiction.
Finally, Edward Champion has an annual burst of literary reporting on every April 1st. This year he reports on the formation of Literary Twitter Co-Op: “But more troubling than this petty skirmish is the side effect of LTC members being flooded with tweets while attempting to draw attention to overlooked titles in a flooded marketplace.”
Add your favorites in the comments section…