New Fiction Blog » Uncategorized http://blog.newfiction.com Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:09:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 February 5th is Deadline for World Book Night Volunteers http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-28/ http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-28/#comments Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:09:55 +0000 Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks http://blog.newfiction.com/?p=9709 World Book Night, April 23, 2012,  is a community service event that puts books in the hands of those who have limited access to them – veteran hospitals, nursing homes, women’s shelters, food pantries, military bases, and prisons.  Volunteers will collect books donated by publishers for distribution, select  one and hand another a book that they love.

The campaign, modeled on a British book night last March, features 30 titles chosen by booksellers and librarians. It’s a wide range of titles, including Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany. Special paperback editions of the 30 titles are being printed.  Costs are being underwritten by publishers, printers and paper companies.  All 30 authors have waived their royalties

For info, go to www.worldbooknight.org or your local bookstore.  Read more…..

USAToday

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]]> http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-28/feed/ 0 The start of an e-publishing bubble http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-27/ http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-27/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:12:25 +0000 Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks http://blog.newfiction.com/?p=9690 Ewan Morrison tracks the self e-publishing euphoria of the last five months and argues that we are at the start of an e-publishing bubble.

Reports show that paper book sales are down 54.3% while e-book sales are up by 138%.   Morrison writes, “The revolution will be e-published, and we’re all going to be part of it.”

Money is being made out of thin air: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere. Television and radio programs are being made about self e-publishing.

But all of this gives Morrison an alarming sense of deja vu. There’s another name for what happens when people start to make money out of speculation and hype: it’s called a bubble.

How do we know if we’re in a bubble?  Read more……

Guardian

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]]> http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-27/feed/ 0 Shirley Holmes and Jane Watson http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-book-8/ http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-book-8/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:03:55 +0000 Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks http://blog.newfiction.com/?p=9674 Journalist Kate Harrad of the UK newspaper, The Guardian, has a lot of fun imagining classical fictional male roles as females.

Can’t you just see Shirley Holmes chatting with her friend, Jane Watson over tea and opium?

Or how about Prejudice and Pride?  “The women ride around on horseback, go where they like, own houses, lead households. The men – or, as they’re more often described, the boys – stay at home, play the piano, and know that marriage is the only realistic aim of their adult lives.”

Miss Scrooge?  ” The cold within her froze her old features, nipped her pointed nose, shriveled her cheek, stiffened her gait; made her eyes red, her thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in her grating voice.”  Read more……

Guardian

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]]> http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-book-8/feed/ 0 The Bookstore’s Last Stand http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-28/ http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-28/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:33:14 +0000 Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks http://blog.newfiction.com/?p=9680 These are trying times for almost everyone in the book business. Since 2002, the United States has lost roughly 500 independent bookstores — nearly one out of five. About 650 bookstores vanished when Borders went out of business last year.

No wonder that some New York publishers have gone so far as to sketch out what the industry might look like without Barnes & Noble. It’s not a happy thought for them.  Without Barnes & Noble, the publishers’ marketing proposition crumbles.

What publishers count on from bookstores is the browsing effect. Surveys indicate that only a third of the people who step into a bookstore and walk out with a book actually arrived with the specific desire to buy one.

What are Barnes and Noble’s plans?  Read more…

NYTimes

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]]> http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-28/feed/ 0 It’s never too late to start a writing career http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-27/ http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-27/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:58:43 +0000 Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks http://blog.newfiction.com/?p=9641 Think you’re too old to start a writing career? In many industries, there’s an emphasis on youth, on what’s new, cutting-edge, and hip. But many beloved creative writers didn’t find success until their later years.

Raymond Chandler, best known for his mystery novels about hard-boiled detective Philip Marlowe, published his first novel, “The Big Sleep, when he was 51.

James A. Michener wrote over forty books during his career, writing until he died at age ninety.

Which other authors started writing late in life?  Read more.

HuffingtonPost

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]]> http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-27/feed/ 0 Literary Gender War……continued http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-26/ http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-26/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:02:52 +0000 Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks http://blog.newfiction.com/?p=9618 The literary gender war started with best selling writer Jennifer Weiner’s statement that the New York Times does not do a very good job covering women writers.

After a tsunami of indignation swelled across the Internet, Slate.com confirmed the problem: of the 545 books reviewed between July 2008 and August, 2010, 62 percent were by men, 38 percent were by women…and of the 101 books that were reviewed twice in that time period, 71 percent were by men.

Author Teddy Wayne added to the furor with his argument that women writers have it easier than men because of women’s book clubs.

Now Roxane Gay says that Wayne is “very, very wrong to suggest that women have it better in publishing.”  Why?

Read more….

Salon

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]]> http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-26/feed/ 0 Is there gender bias against male novelists? http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-25/ http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-25/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:10:22 +0000 Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks http://blog.newfiction.com/?p=9610

Novelist Teddy Wayne takes issue with bestselling authors Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult’s complaint that the “literary” media machine ignores women writers while heaping praise on male writers like Jonathan Franzen.  Weiner calculates, that of the 254 novels reviewed by the New York Times in 2011 — both in the daily pages and the Sunday book review — only 41 percent were written by women.

Wayne believes that, except for the upper echelon of male literary authors like Franzen, Jeffrey Eugenides, Don DeLillo and their ilk, plus a few younger writers like Chad Harbach who have scored much-ballyhooed advances — it’s actually harder for men than it is for women to carve out a financially stable writing career.

Why?  Read more….

Salon

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]]> http://blog.newfiction.com/free-online-books-25/feed/ 0 Shakespeare saved his life http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-26/ http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-26/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:46:57 +0000 Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks http://blog.newfiction.com/?p=9387 At one of the lowest moments of his life, DG Strong started doing something he never thought he’d do.  He joined a Nashville Shakespeare Festival program called “Shakespeare Allowed.”

It could also be called “Shakespeare Aloud” because each member of the group reads one speech or line at a time…..aloud.

DG joined the group when he was in the midst of under-employment and depression.  He was amazed to see people jammed into a small room at the local library eager to read Shakespeare.  A whole world opened up to him.

DG’s unemployment dragged on for a year but the very idea of having another play to read kept him going from month to month. Sure, he might not be able to pay the mortgage or eat anything but spaghetti for weeks, but once a month he could lament the loss of Juliet and drink a vial of poison.  His depression began to lift, and, miraculously, after a few freelance jobs, a client offered him a job, the one he still has today.  But DG will never take a job that keeps him from his Saturday noon dates.  Shakespeare saved his life.  Read more……

Salon

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]]> http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-26/feed/ 0 NY Times versus LA Times best selling crime fiction picks http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-25/ http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-25/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:33:48 +0000 Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks http://blog.newfiction.com/?p=9601 The highest combined position on this East vs. West crime fiction comparison goes to Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James. This is the second week on both lists for James’ historical novel that transplants Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice characters into a world of suspense and mystery. Death Comes to Pemberley is in the #1 spot on the LA Times list and #5 in the New York Times.

The Litigators, by John Grisham takes the second highest combined spot; it’s #7 in the LA Times and #3 in New York. Grisham’s latest novel about a young brilliant, yet burned-out, attorney who joins a shady law firm has been on both lists for eight weeks.

What other crime fiction novels are on both lists?  Read more…..

Examiner

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]]> http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-books-25/feed/ 0 Dating tips from Dickens, Austen & Tolstoy http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-book-7/ http://blog.newfiction.com/free-audio-book-7/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:33:47 +0000 Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks http://blog.newfiction.com/?p=9591 Maura Kelly and Jack Murnighan got to know each other after Maura  wrote a profile of Jack for the Daily Beast, pegged to the release of his previous book.

They became friends, in part because Maura would ask Jack for advice about her dating conundrums and Jack would tell Maura that she should take a lesson from a novel.

Eventually, Maura began to think, “I should bottle Jack and begin selling him to all my friends.” Then she thought, “Hey, we should write a book!” Read more….

Salon

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