Monday, January 25, 2016

Academics Beware!

Journals and publishers setting sights on the unwary

This graph shows an explosion in the number of so-called predatory publishers and journals in the past five years

full story here

Friday, January 8, 2016

Though Pullman writes of England, what he says is true all over

Philip Pullman: professional writers set to become 'an endangered species'

His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman is heading a new charge from writers demanding to be rewarded fairly for their work, as the Society of Authors warns that unless “serious” changes are made by publishers, the professional author “will become an endangered species”. . . .

Read it all here. 

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Michael Dirda on the Evolution of Reading

This is quite a fine piece by Michael Dirda:

The Future of the Humanities: Reading
As technology advances, doomsaying remains constant.   
HUMANITIES, November/December 2015 | Volume 36, Number 6


 Reading always seems to be in crisis. Two and half millennia ago, Socrates inveighed against the written word because it undermined memory and confused data with wisdom. When the codex—the bound book—appeared, some conservative Romans almost certainly went around complaining, ‘What was wrong with scrolls? They were good enough for Horace and Cicero.’ Gutenberg’s press gradually undercut the market for illuminated manuscripts. Aldus Manutius, inventor of the pocket-sized book, rendered huge folios a specialty item.

Read it all here.  

Peter Beagle Vs. Connor Cochran

Back in 2005 (or before), Connor Cochran starting collecting money for new Peter Beagle books that he never produced.  I paid for one, and never succeeded in getting it or a refund.  Little did I know how many people, including Beagle himself, that Cochran has befrauded.  Finally he's facing the consequences.  Read more than you might ever have wanted to know about it:

Fans manipulated by Connor Cochran: he's calling them to oppose this fraud expose--but they're supporting it instead.