Category: words

The COVID-19 lockdown, which has caused overall unit sales to drop by 27 percent, places Canadian publishers under huge financial pressure. Indigo’s continued delays in payment could push them to the brink. At the moment, their revenue is largely dependent on shuttered independent bookstores, which are limping by on online orders, Indigo-style diversification into gift sales, and home delivery. Indigo, by contrast, can’t afford to limp by; its shareholders demand a profit. – The Walrus

“PW reached out to dozens of literary agents, authors, and editors to ask. While all the editors contacted declined to respond, many agents and authors were willing to speak on the condition of anonymity and had differing views on whether there’s a problem and how dire it is.” – Publishers Weekly

“Whitehead, 50, is the youngest winner of the lifetime achievement prize, which the library has previously given to Toni Morrison, Philip Roth and Denis Johnson, among others. He is the first author to win Pulitzers for consecutive works of fiction — The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, for which he won in April.” – Yahoo! (AP)

As so many of us have been doing, the store redecorated – or rather, some of the chain took what it calls first steps in redecorating. (Might it be useful to hire back some of those content experts who can hand-sell books when it’s safe to open back up, B&N? Oh, smaller front tables instead? OK.) – The New York Times

The 2020 version of the ceremony, scheduled for November 18, will now be online. The executive director: “As a country, and within the literary community, we have all experienced a shift in reality.” – Los Angeles Times

“Co-owners Rebecca Fitting and Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo acknowledged that Black customers and employees have felt unwelcome and disrespected, that poor training had led to racial profiling in their stores, and that the company had not succeeded in creating an anti-racist space.” They say they’ll do better, including talking with the neighbors about gentrification without getting defensive. – LitHub

“[It] wasn’t the funniest issue they ever did, but it would turn out to be incredibly successful because it reflected so many of the emotions that people were feeling after the attacks. The sorrow, the anger, the utter helplessness — all of this was captured by one headline or another, giving most everyone in the audience something to identify with. … Now, nearly 20 years later, the issue is widely considered to be an important part of comedy history — even an important part of the broader cultural history surrounding 9/11.” – Mel

“Government-required public notices have been published in newspapers since colonial times. … But the advent of websites operated by federal, state and local governments gave politicians a money-saving opening to redirect public notices to their own sites. Overwhelmingly, that simply hasn’t happened: … newspapers have managed to retain nearly all their public notice business. And for many, it has become indispensable to survival.” – Poynter

Librarians understand that patrons are nervous about catching or spreading the coronavirus. But not only will paper catch fire when it gets really hot, the scannable security tags on library books contain metal, and we all know what happens when metal gets microwaved, right? (Don’t worry: these days returned library books are being quarantined.) – Tampa Bay Times