Posted by: Keir
Your Friday grab-bag:
Bernard Henri Levy and Michel Houellebecq are tired of being pushed around, darn it. And, like the public men of letters they are, they’re . . . taking it public. The headline to Angelique Chrisafis’ Guardian story says it all: “The cultural whipping boys’ manifesto: France has vomited on us for too long.”
In Forbes, Lacey Rose and Lauren Streib round up “The World’s Best Paid Authors.” You’ll be surprised to learn that J. K. Rowling tops the list. James Patterson, who publishes about 100 books per year, places a distant second. (Update: I missed this the first time around, but Rowling’s riches accrue at the rate of five quid every second.)
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, children’s librarian Regina Powers insists that “Reading shouldn’t be a numbers game.”
Poets & Writers reports on a case of a publisher’s bookkeeper playing editor (”The Bookkeeper Bungle: Indie Publisher Recalls Errant Rejection Letters“). (Via Galleycat.)
And, lastly, the British publisher of The Jewel of Medina has responded to being firebombed by announcing that the book will be published even sooner than planned (”Publisher speeds up release of Muhammad book,” AP).
