I devoured @lbmcgrath.bsky.social’s Middlemen over the weekend! This is such a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the marketplace of contemporary literature (and reminded me of all the lunches I heard about but never attended as a summer intern at Carlisle and Company (now Inkwell)

Murphy’s Law, but for moms*: uour child WILL get sick and need to be picked up from daycare in the day if an important event you’re coordinating. *parent who has a “more flexible” work schedule

Hi publishing folk: I've got an amazing student graduating in December who's looking for an internship! She'd love to work in editorial, focusing on children's, but she's open to anything that'll get her Philadelphia-foot in an NYC-door. Any of you fine folks looking for an assistant?

Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).

When your dad finds out that your book is available for preorder…

You heard it here, folks. You won't find higher praise.

If you are an agent or want to be an agent or an editor who deals with agents or an author who has an agent or is trying to get one, you need to read this book.

Excited to reveal the cover of my book, MIDDLEMEN: LITERARY AGENTS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN FICTION, which is available for pre-order now!

I cannot effing wait to read this, @lbmcgrath.bsky.social

AAAAAH BABY’S FIRST GALLEYBRAG!!!!!

This Halloween, I'm dressing as my middle school self's idea of A Cool Adult. (Or: wearing the exact clothes I would've worn in middle school, as a very uncool kid, but now trendy.)

Here's a Very Good Thing in Very Bad Times: my local mom fb group is working to connect members who are losing SNAP benefits with members who can "sponsor" them through the coming weeks. It's really beautiful to see everyone working together to make sure kids in our community aren't going hungry.

I would love to see more rigorous, popular criticism of contemporary children’s media. Love this, on Miss Rachel, from Sophie Pinkham. thebaffler.com/salvos/speak...

Thrilled to announce my new book (electronic version out now, print next month) — it proposes a new value theory grounded in the longue durée of literary institutions, 1800–present.

Today at my (bougie) gym, I was told “A third baby is the new Birkin“ and I just need to get this quote to whoever is currently covering the parenting/economics beat because there’s, um, a lot to unpack here.

Tracking sales figures, it’s very interesting to me that the topics that are doing very poorly in nonfiction are doing very well in fiction. We undersell at our peril.

So ready for the Barthelme renaissance.

Would like someone to curate a “what she’s wearing on tv” website dedicated to Jennifer Aniston in Season 1 of FRIENDS, so it can become my whole personality.

Long overdue, "Criticism LTD" has a stand-alone webpage with working links to every episode bibliography, etc.

DEAR GRAD STUDENTS, This March @post45data.bsky.social will be holding a free, online mini-workshop for grads working in the fields of contemporary literature and culture. More info / abstract submission here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... 1/4

I love this brilliant, consequential essay on Eclectic Readers by my friends/neighbors/colleagues @jdporter.bsky.social and Jim English so much. It was such a delight to talk about on @bookriotpod.bsky.social and write about for my newsletter: laurabmcgrath.substack.com/p/the-omnivo...

I’ve mostly stayed out of AI discourse because the field I study (publishers) and my field of study (DH/computational lit) have very different points of view. But hoooo boy, are both groups just missing this lack of demand from their constituencies.

If it’s possible, there’s even less demand for AI than there was for “civic discourse”. Unless you are building war tools for a U.S. government program, new programs better have tremendous unmet student demand. I haven’t seen any evidence of that.

5yo’s first protest sign! (I helped)

In Philadelphia, #nokings goes back a long way.

For those local to Philly: next Wed., 10/22, our faculty director @whitneytrettien.bsky.social will join @mattseybold.bsky.social and Christopher Newfield to tape an episode of The American Vandal podcast. Join the live audience! 5-7pm in UPenn's Fisher Bennett Hall, room 135.

Have it on good authority (Gen Z Abby, my fab research assistant) that my book jacket is "iconic." 💅

Honestly, yes, one of the most personally embarrassing things is how a field so committed to parsing imaginary status distinctions suddenly cannot see that they’re pitching themselves as The University of Phoenix.

I have it on good authority that galleys are making their way to mailboxes! If you’re interested, let me know!

If it's a Tuesday, some great books are being published. Buy or borrow a good book today.

All fiction is “commercial fiction.”

Teaching a session on audiobooks this week. Anyone have any favourite/interesting/quirky examples? Or interesting reading about the audiobooks industry?

Feels like days until Philly is subject to the same fate as Chicago/Portland, and my students are diving headlong into big questions with enthusiasm and curiosity and compassion. I have never had a more engaged group.

My editing & publishing class at Temple will be opening soon for submissions for a special online issue of Barrelhouse, with the theme "The Dirty Issue." Fiction & nonfiction up to 2,500 words, and up to 5 poems. Usual @barrelhouse.bsky.social contract & payment.

Teaching this banger, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to remind you that @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I always welcome pitches for the Culture Industries section of Public Books! Bring us your wonkiest, your galaxy-brainest, your in-the-weeds-iest! www.publicbooks.org/how-the-new-...

Could not be more excited for this book to come out! If you’re interested in the history of American literature, or why the current literary scene looks the way it does, or how publishing actually works, MIDDLEMEN should be top of your list for next year!

Baby’s got a pub date! And some juicy catalog copy. MIDDLEMEN coming your way on April 26! (Cover reveal soon!)

Baby’s got a pub date! And some juicy catalog copy. MIDDLEMEN coming your way on April 26! (Cover reveal soon!)

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye sold just 2,000 copies in its first year. Today, it’s a number many authors can’t recover from. Writer @tajjaisen.bsky.social examines how the publishing industry’s sales track can make or break careers before they even begin: thewalrus.ca/the-publishing-i...

“Publishers, as McGrath says, have always been risk averse. But with higher pressure to find a sure thing, more writers who may have been able to sell a book five or ten years ago, whether to a corporate or an independent press, are being left out in the cold.” @tajjaisen.bsky.social @thewalrus.ca

I’m always game to follow the data in publishing, and so grateful when the smartest folks (like @tajjaisen.bsky.social) want to hop in the weeds with me. A brilliant piece of reporting.

If my book were about, say, literary agents and the making of NONfiction, Barnett would be the main character. Will be fascinating to watch this vacuum fill, to see how the field rearranges to fill it.

Hivemind: there is a new nonfiction book, either just or about to be released, about libraries. I can picture the cover in my mind, but the title has entirely escaped me. Googling failed. Anyone have any leads?

Still buzzing after the fantastic workshop on Transnational Perspectives on Literary Agents and Agencies organised by @cecilecottenet.bsky.social, @corinnanorue.bsky.social and Anna Ferrando at @univ-amu.fr. So many ideas and brilliant scholars, and just the perfect location. Thank you everyone!

18-19 September. Very much looking forward to hosting a workshop on Literary agents and circulation of texts: research perspectives, organized with @corinnanorue.bsky.social and Anna Ferrando (U. of Pavia) in Aix-en-Provence. @lerma.bsky.social @univ-amu.fr #BookHistory @sharpnews.bsky.social

It says a lot about who I am, as a person, that yesterday I asked a clerk at Sephora if she could point me to the Philip Roth eye patches.

This is such a wonderful resource from Long Le-Khac and the @post45data.bsky.social: The Canon of Asian American Literature.

I wept! I got my covid jab in the same mall where I bought my prom dress, inside a repurposed JC Penney.

“American Academy of Arts&Sciences reports 96.3% of humanities grads age 23-32 fully employed. Earnings in humanitiess comparable to social/life sciences, job satisfaction levels too. A serious mismatch bw actual employment for hum grads +general perception." www.mellon.org/voices/human...

Hi everyone, As part of my dissertation, I am researching audiobook narration. If you have listened to an audiobook within the last two years, or have previously been a frequent audiobook user, I would really appreciate your thoughts! You can find the survey here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...