Efficiency is the enemy of art.

Thinking that to me, literature is much more akin to prayer than it is to the NYT best-seller list.

People who make fun of "lit bros" are really only talking about like 25 people. Also, you're making fun of anyone who decides to read literary fiction? Of whatever gender?

This is a great post. I like to think that I ticked all these boxes during my time at Coffee House Press: substack.com/@blakebutler...

From a review of Murderland: "Her fury blazes beyond balance sheets and into curated spaces of elites. She singles out Roger W. Straus Jr., tony Manhattan publisher, patron of the arts and grandson of Daniel Guggenheim, whose Tacoma smelter may have scrambled Bundy’s brain. 1/4

People complaining that literary criticism and serious book reviews are dying and then . . .do absolutely nothing about it.

It can happen to you: I just found my airpods, which I lost TWO YEARS AGO.

I'd love to know who the actual people are who own the Big Five publishers. Not the corporate entities, but the actual people in charge, the hidden people, the majority shareholders who call the shots. They have names. Can someone please write this article?

James Daunt of B&N says: "it is more likely that the Big Five and other publishers of comparative size will have “better books” than their smaller competitors." This is such a terrible and untrue thing to say! It's laughable, if it weren't such a terrible thing for every indie publisher to read.

Why not ask the Big 5 Publishers to replace the lost NEA literature money?

God I love the Minneapolis Mayday parade.

I wish I were seeing more people from corporate publishing also decrying the defunding of the NEA.

For those on here and elsewhere who say that empathy in the context of art is bad, you have some great company! apple.news/AUVIOa6ujQrK...

“American publishing is not in a healthy state; the more directly its judgments are determined by the market and the mass media—the more sources of funding, like the NEA, disappear—the sicker it will become: homogenous, inert, inexpert, cheap.” —Merve Emre, re the Pulitzer in Fiction this year.

Why aren't there more U.S. publishers like this Swedish one?: chrisfischbach.substack.com/p/why-arent-...

I didn't realize that Joan Didion had such sketchy politics. That explains some things.

I would like to read a piece about Jon Fosse's fiction and quantum mechanics. Especially for Septology, but for a few others as well. Throw mysticism in there and I'll be all over it.

Please tell me what you think fiction should be doing now. Please tell me what you think poetry should be doing now. Please tell me what you think publishing should be doing right now (And please please tell me what you think publishing should NOT being doing right now).

Little Free Libraries as samizdat distribution vehicles.

I just signed up for a $ subscription to Patrick Nathan's Substack after having been a regular reader for a while now. He has very smart posts re books & lit mostly, but never just that. He's writing about how to be a human, or how not to be a human? patricknathan.substack.com/p/april-hate...

@joshthelibromancer.bsky.social Love the new Lithub piece!

Instead of learning about what kind of fancy suit a publisher wears, I'd like to hear more about how they will use their role to combat tyranny.

Thrilled to share that my novel DAD HAD A BAD DAY will be published by Astra House! I’m excited to work with Emily Bell & the team at Astra House. Thank you to my wonderful agent Chris Fischbach @fishmpls.bsky.social for making this happen!

I wonder, what will corporate publishing do?

I wish I remembered the person who wrote this but I don’t: Did you all know that sometimes it depends

"The repressive effect of political correctness may spring from ideological soil, but it requires other elements to grow and spread. And the political atmosphere that fostered the conditions of 2014–2024 has grown chilly," Jonathan Chait writes:

“What an astonishing thing a book is,” said Carl Sagan. “It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years.

Why does it bother some people so much if a reader finds literature helpful or useful? A reader can think and "use" lit for whatever they want! Lit doesn't automatically make someone a "good person," whatever that means, but if some good comes from reading something, why poo poo it?

What if there were no more hot takes

Re art/fiction having a possible purpose: Sure, it doesn’t have to have a purpose. But I work with prison writing org & the artistic director once said to me, “I’m absolutely not going to tell you that reading or writing can change a person, or turn their life around, but I’ve seen it happen.”

Will someone explain to me why empathy is bad?

There is a direct path from “These fragments I have shored against my ruin” to AI.

Bob Dylan, "Brownsville Girl" You always said people don’t do what they believe in, they just do what’s most convenient, then they repent And I always said, “Hang on to me, baby, and let’s hope that the roof stays on”

Reverse the commodification of literature.

I've noticed that some publishers are giving away free e-books since the election. Does anyone know if the authors are getting any royalties on these giveaways?

Over the weekend I read the incredible BRIGHTLY SHINING by Norwegian author Ingvild Rishøi published by @peterblackstock @groveatlantic and wow, an instant Christmas classic? You tell me. Trigger Warning: It's a gut-wrencher. In the best way. groveatlantic.com/book/brightl...

Employees/labor should have 50% of the spots on any board of directors. Profit or nonprofit.

I have a very inactive Substack, but I'm thinking about increasing my output, but I'd like to know: what would you like me to write about? Or answer questions, or what?

There is a lot here for the book industry to reckon with. @maris.bsky.social, seems like a month's worth of columns? www.currentaffairs.org/news/new-yor...

Literary fiction is for future generations. Publishers need to think about the world they want to see in seven generations and publish accordingly.

I love this

The answer has to be unions, right? The tension currently between management and labor is way out of whack weighted toward management and ownership.

It’s a good day to read Paul Metcalf’s classic WILLIE’S THROW.

SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN is such great movie experience. The surprise (I won't give away), the experience, sorta like the movie, of not knowing about Rodríguez before, now having him in your ears, now, as if he were always there

Enough kicking DFW around. He's dead, he was very sad. Some of us are also very sad, and we'll all be dead someday. He was imperfect but guess what . . .

letting go of the past's shrapnel

"Meantime, publishers keep putting resources in books by personalities, only to see them backfire. Kristi Noem’s “No Way Back,” is already well below number 10,000 on amazon. . . ."

Call me when they start publishing people with NO platform.

Firing all these editors at the big publishers will of course lead to panic and pressure to sell sell sell. That’s not a formula for good literature at all.