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:
Titles by Joseph Heller, Iris Murdoch, and William Styron are in the offing from Open Road, a new e-book publisher founded by former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman that will focus on reviving the backlists of major authors (New York Times [2]).
Described in Frankfurt today by a company spokesperson as a “buy anywhere, read anywhere” e-book venture, Google Editions is expected to launch worldwide next year (Bookseller [3]).
Anti-plagiarism software normally used to nab cheating students has suggested that a play about Edward III—published anonymously in 1596—may have been coauthored by William Shakespeare (Times [4]).
In other Bard-related news, a physicist has donated his $2 million Shakespeare collection—which includes books likely read by the playwright himself—to UCLA’s Clark Library (Los Angeles Times [5]).
Last weekend’s D is for Digitize conference in New York City was marked by disagreements over the “public trust responsibilities” raised by the Google Book Search settlement (Library Journal [6]). Also at issue: the possibility that institutional subscriptions to Google’s massive database could come with advertising (Library Journal [7]).
Penguin announced the launch today of a new Hong Kong-based English-language list that will focus on works from and about China (Press Release [8]).
The international debut of Amazon’s Kindle has some experts worried about the fate of territorial publishing rights and the effects of pricing disparities (Publishers Weekly [9]).
While digital sales still account for only a fraction of publishing revenues, industry professionals surveyed by the Frankfurt Book Fair have suggested that the tide will turn by 2018 (Bookseller [10]).
The online edition of Vanity Fair [11] has excerpted a short story from the late Kurt Vonnegut’s upcoming collection Look at the Birdie (Random House), due out October 20.
South Korean electronics giant LG has unveiled a solar-powered e-book reader (Guardian [12]).