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:
Megaretailer Target has announced a partnership with e-book subscription service Librify in order to boost online interactivity among customers and make the company's Club Picks titles available electronically. (USA Today)
Meanwhile, in an effort to help publishers better focus their resources, Macmillan has joined forces with online analytics platform Next Big Sound to create Next Big Book, an online data service that will provide information on a book’s sales figures, social media activity, author events, and more. (Forbes)
Hachette has responded to Amazon’s comments about the ongoing dispute between the two companies, saying they “will spare no effort to resume normal business relations with Amazon,” but adding that the publisher expects authors’ livelihoods to be respected in negotiations. (GalleyCat)
Comedian Amy Poehler has unveiled the cover of her memoir, Yes Please, forthcoming in October from Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. (Today)
This week, Dutton releases Joseph Finder’s Suspicion, the Boston-based novelist’s first book since breaking with his previous publisher, St. Martin’s Press, over disagreements concerning branding. (Boston Globe)
While struggling to find a publisher or positive reviews from critics in his native Iraq, short story writer Hassan Blasim has found success abroad through a British literary award for foreign writers. (Al Jazeera)
PEN American Center reports that Thailand’s writers and scholars are being subjected to restrictions and in certain cases are being asked to turn themselves into the custody of authorities in the midst of the country’s ongoing military junta.
Actor and former Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton has launched a funding campaign on Kickstarter to create an interactive website to encourage childrens’ reading modeled on the television program. (NPR)
Writers nationwide who make less than fifty thousand dollars annually are eligible for a new apartment lottery, which will provide housing in New York City; $494-per-month studios and $1,022-per-month two-bedroom apartments will be made available to winning entrants. (Brokelyn)
