Friday Morning LitLinks
AC Grayling declares the Oxford poetry professor election void after the “witch-hunt of Derek Walcott” and calls for the two remaining candidates to withdraw.
Amazon launches a new publishing program with an eye on self-published titles with promise and potentially out-of-print titles from major houses.
Turkey’s only Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk, is “back in the dock” after the country’s top appeal court rules that a lower court’s dismissal of charges of “insulting Turkinshness” should be reassessed.
The Literary Saloon links up the latest news on contests and finalists, including Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Caine Prize for African Writing, BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction and James Tait Memorial Prizes.
English-language poetry in the spotlight at Book World Prague.
Is Dan Brown an ignorant Catholic basher?
R.I.P. Cordelia Brown
Today in Literature: On this day in 1855, Walt Whitman registered the title Leaves of Grass with the clerk of the U.S. District Court in New York, paving the way for the publication of the first edition seven weeks later.
AuthorScoop
May 15th, 2009 at 9:41 am
I am surprised that Amazon has waited so long to get into the publishing side of the business. Why haven’t they launched their own A-list imprint venture with a completely over the top rights purchase in order to let the world know they have arrived?
For this outing, the name AmazonEncore is a turn-off for me.
First, they should have moved away from the Amazon brand, coming up with something brand new for the line. I buy books and movies from Amazon, shipped from a warehouse, and I need some separation between that and the idea of writers and editors putting out quality titles.
Second, while I like the Encore designation for a line that is strictly designated bringing back out-of-print books (although I would have gone with Revival), it gives me a negative connotation when connected to relatively current titles being republished. Encore just screams “second hand” and “not quite ready”.
On a final note, I like that Amazon is out there keeping an eye on self-published titles.
Might we soon be seeing an AmazonEncore release titles “Sixty-Six plus Six” (for the extra poems added for the new edition)?
May 15th, 2009 at 10:38 am
it’s an interesting business model (though i agree that the imprint name leaves something to be desired). they certainly have the reach to revolutionize publishing/fulfillment.
they haven’t called about my poems yet, but i’m sure they’re just busy getting everything off the ground.