Readers Respond
At BEA, We Need Diverse Books organized a panel called “Love and Loss in Children’s Literature.” After reading our coverage of the event, author and media personality Jeff Rivera shared his thoughts on the topic in a comment on publishersweekly.com:
We need to focus on going directly to diverse consumers and converting nonreaders into readers. We need to focus on providing diverse avid readers the stories that they want to buy.
You do not need to stand in line and ask for permission to have your stories published by publishers in order to do that.
Even armed with their hundreds of millions of dollars, publishers are clueless about how to attract, create, or reach diverse audiences and have as good of a shot at it as any indie author with a little creativity.
Going directly to bookstores, libraries, online retailers, and schools is one way, but the real battlefield is prying eyeballs away from video games, social media, fantastic television, and movie theaters, or working in unison with these digital culprits to turn frenemies into friends, telling stories that can be told using all of these windows of opportunity, from paper to screen.
From the Newsletters
Joanna Ebenstein, author of The Anatomical Venus (DAP) and founder of the Morbid Anatomy Museum, takes us through a photo-based history of the Anatomical Venus, a bizarre wax figure that was meant to teach anatomy.
Matthew Quick, the author of The Silver Linings Playbook and the forthcoming YA novel Every Exquisite Thing (Little, Brown), discusses the differences between writing for teens and adults.
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The story behind The Pop-Up Art Book, a Kickstarter-funded pop-up book featuring work from six artists.
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Blogs
Why local partnerships are very important to independent bookstores.
Podcasts
PW senior writer Andrew Albanese recaps BookExpo and BookCon and discusses Amazon’s plan to open more physical bookstores.
This week the More to Come crew discusses the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and remembers the life and art of comics artist Darwyne Cooke, who died last weekend.
Jewell Parker Rhodes talks about her novel Towers Falling (Little, Brown), which follows a group of Brooklyn fifth graders learning about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, an event that took place before they were born.
English professor Matthew G. Kirschenbaum discusses his new book, Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing (Harvard/Belknap).
PW Star Watch 2016 Is Open for Nominations
We’re looking for the next generation of publishing-industry leaders. Do you work with someone who is going to make a big impact on the business? Nominate that person for PW Star Watch, or you can nominate yourself. A panel of judges including PW staff, the Frankfurt Book Fair, and noted industry leaders will pick 50 up-and-coming stars and select five top honorees and a Superstar who will get an all-expense-paid trip to the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair. Find out more.
The most-read review on publishersweekly.com last week was The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley (HMH).
