⇒Bloomsbury published a ridiculously overpriced children’s fantasy, and apparently hardly any of the big bookselling chains actually made a profit on the massive sales it generated, because they all had to apply massive discounts just to make it economically palatable. Still, as The Onion put it, “Nation In Frenzy About Little Wizard Boy And All His Little Wizard Friends.”
⇒Then, when people started panicking about whether they’d ever be able to sell another book again, pundits reassured us of the publishing industry’s stability.
⇒Two romance novelist wore short skirts to the annual Romance Writers of America convention, and all hell broke loose.
⇒Every now and then, some cleverboots sends a literary classic to agents and editors with the real author’s name removed, then gets all excited when nobody writes back saying they simply must publish it straight away. This time, they tried it with Jane Austen.
⇒A year after Oprah Winfrey was mean to her on national TV, Nan Talese attacked Oprah’s bad manners. Though some observers were glad to see her take the talk show host down a peg (or try, anyway), Andrew Sullivan was less than impressed.
⇒Sven Birkerts hates blogs, as if you couldn’t have guessed.
⇒Taking product placement to new heights, Marvel doused a comic book in Old Spice; meanwhile, DC introduced Bizarro World sarcasm, and a weary world rejoiced.
⇒Almost everybody’s forgotten the whole Robert Olen Butler/Elizabeth Dewberry/Ted Turner love triangle by now, but even people who remember it don’t necessarily recall that the whole media circus spiraled out of a GalleyCat blind item.