Tag: Oprah Book Club

Franzen Hates E-books and Oprah, Yet Still Uses Both to Sell Books

Deutsch: Ortsende von Franzen in Niederösterreich
Image via Wikipedia

Speaking of saying stupid things in public, it seems that Jonathan Franzen recently jumped on the anti-eBook bandwagon during a recent speaking engagement:

“The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it’s pretty good technology. And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now… I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change…” Continue reading “Franzen Hates E-books and Oprah, Yet Still Uses Both to Sell Books”

James Frey Cashes In Again

Sweatshop project
Image by marissaorton via Flickr

I won’t bother paraphrasing the entire Guardian article linked below, as I urge you to read the full piece. James Frey has come under fire for starting up his own author-mill publishing company featuring young adult novel series collaborated on by young adult writers. The main argument against Frey’s new company, Full Fathom Five, is that he is basically exploiting young writers, desperate to break into the field and quite possibly too inexperienced to realize how much they are being used by him. Other authors and publishers have pointed to his contracts with the young writers, calling them draconian and (I love this, considering Frey is an author himself) Dickensian, with Frey retaining creative control and full copyright over all work produced by his young, eager staff of writers. Continue reading “James Frey Cashes In Again”