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:
After months of deliberation, federal judge Denny Chin has rejected the Google Books Settlement, which would have sent $125 million of the online search giant's money into the hands of publishers and authors in exchange for the rights to digitize and make available millions of titles, including orphaned and long out-of-print books. While saying that the current settlement agreement is simply too far-reaching in its implications, Judge Chin left open the possibility that a "substantially revised agreement could pass legal muster," according to the New York Times.
Jacket Copy took a closer look at what the rejected Google settlement means for publishers and authors, and what the next step might be in the ongoing efforts to digitize the world's books.
Despite strong gains from Amazon, Barnes & Noble remains the largest retailer of print trade books, posting a 23 percent market share in 2010, according to Publishers Weekly.
The fifty-one members of the Fiction Writers Co-op have banded together to leverage their collective social-networking powers in support of one another's books, and so far it's working. “The Co-op is like a power shot of caffeine, practically, but even more so emotionally,” said author Sandra Gulland. (Publishing Perspectives)
Remember that Kindle e-book lending service, Lendl, which was recently shut down by Amazon? After a media kerfuffle panning the move, Amazon reinstated Lendl's API access and the site is back up. (Business Insider)
Research In Motion's tablet computer, the Blackberry Playbook, will go on sale at the same price as its direct competition, the iPad 2, on April 19. (New York Times)
After a tour of American charter schools, the British education secretary has proposed that every British child should read fifty books a year, starting as early as age eleven. Puzzled, several prominent British authors wondered aloud how Michael Gove's plan fits into the larger scheme of wide-spread library closures throughout the country. British children's laureate Anthony Browne, was downright "surprised" by the comments "given that the government is cutting library budgets, and that programmes giving free books to children, such as Bookstart, are also being cut." (Guardian)
Looking for an alternative to the MFA? The Bruce High Quality Foundation's Teach 4 Amerika Tour: A Rally for Anarchy in Arts Education is hosting a discussion event on just that topic at Cooper Union in New York City on March 29. (Village Voice)
