Simon & Schuster's Six-Figure Wattpad Deal, Granta Israel, and More

by
Staff
6.4.14

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:

In a six-figure deal, Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books imprint has acquired the rights to After, a three-volume work of fan fiction concerning members of the pop music group One Direction, written by Anna Todd and originally posted to the online writing platform Wattpad. (Publishers Weekly)

At the recent International Writers Festival in Jerusalem, the literary magazine Granta announced the launch of its Israeli edition. Published out of the independent bookstore Sipur Pashut in Tel Aviv, Granta Israel features work written or translated into Hebrew. (Jewish Daily Forward)

The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at the University of Texas in Austin, has introduced its McSweeney’s archive after acquiring the magazine's full catalog of articles published from 2000­ to 2012. (GalleyCat)

Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Walmart, and New York–based start-up Zola Books are among the booksellers taking advantage of Amazon’s battle with Hachette by offering steep discounts on Hachette titles. (Time)

Officials at the New York Public Library have admitted that the recently scrapped plans to renovate its main branch at forty-second street would have cost more than $500 million. New plans to renovate the library's Mid-Manhattan branch will cost $300 million. (New York Times)

A newly published history of James Joyce’s Ulysses suggests that the Irish author suffered from syphilis, which led to his deteriorating eyesight. (Los Angeles Times)

Alan Skinner of the Guardian argues that rather than widening publishing opportunities, self-publishing instead contracts the market and fosters the darker side of individualism.

A Detroit Anthology, a new compendium published by Rust Belt Chic Press, collects a variety of prose concerning the hidden life of the struggling city—with very little mention of the automobile industry. (Millions)