Amazon’s Twitter Scheme Draws Fire, “E-galley” System Unveiled, and More

by
Adrian Versteegh
11.5.09

Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today's stories:

Amazon made a controversial marketing move on Tuesday evening when it began encouraging its affiliates to post product links on Twitter (ReadWriteWeb).

This year’s inkSlam Los Angeles Poetry Festival—which runs until Saturday at the Greenway Court Theatre—boasts a roster of over fifty spoken-word artists, including seven National Poetry Slam champions (Los Angeles Times).

Coffee mugs, branded notebooks, towels, and deck chairs emblazoned with classic book covers: Is Penguin “flogging its illustrious history”? (Guardian)

Galley Grab, an “e-galley” platform unveiled yesterday by Simon & Schuster, will let editors, reviewers, and other industry insiders access upcoming titles through portable reading devices (Publishers Weekly).

Citing the economic threats posed by piracy, major publishers in the U.K. are asking politicians to push through stiffer penalties for illegal file-sharing (Bookseller).

A new report suggests that Apple’s iPhone is becoming increasingly popular as an e-book reader (Bookseller).

Quirk Books, the publisher that released Pride and Prejudice and Zombies last spring and quickly followed up with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, has announced its next project: the prequel Dawn of the Dreadfuls (Los Angeles Times).

In other undead news, small publisher Ravenous has just released what it calls the first zombie romance anthology, Hungry for Your Love, and the title has reportedly been picked up for reprint next year by St. Martin’s (Guardian).