Bookish news and publishing tidbits 10 May 2012

RIASS stuff:

A review of How to Marry a Murderer by Amanda Matetsky, a 50s-era cozy mystery starring Paige Turner.

A review of The Last Days of the Incas'by Kim Macquarrie, a riveting narrative non-fiction account of the fall of the Incan empire

Other bookish stuff:

Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) Director and CEO'Steve Grimwade'to step down

An interview with author Marcia Clarke:'I think what got me the confidence to finally try to write a book is having the experience of writing in Hollywood, writing scripts. That got me doing it, and so I thought, 'you know, I really want to try to write a book.' I had, thank God, no clue how hard it would be! Scripts are short, they're like haiku, and you bang them out in a week.

How Madame Bovary'came to haunt Eleanor Marx's life and mirror her death: While she was translating Flaubert's novel, Eleanor was herself tortured by her feelings for a man. Her common-law husband Edward Aveling, like Emma Bovary, was spendthrift and unfaithful, and in 1885 Eleanor struggled to 'get through the long miserable days, and longer, more miserable nights', she told a friend. In 1887, after a joint lecture tour of America on which Aveling was accused of swindling their hosts, she was said to have made an unsuccessful attempt to kill herself.

Editing: when is enough enough?'Books can be hamstrung by serious length issues even as they're going to press. Final print-run approval rests with steely publishing directors and not your passionately committed book editor. When the director sees the financial paperwork for the last time, he or she decides the print run is extravagant and slashes it. If, at the same time, the production and print spending has blown out because the book is 25% longer than planned, what's the result? I can only see one: the price of the book goes up. Unless the extra content you wrote genuinely has pushed the material into unassailable greatness, you'll feel the effect of that price hike.

What will become of the paper book? asks Slate Magazine:'Now, as we move into the digital age, the well-made copy has come to occupy a familiar, almost nostalgic middle ground between the aura of an original and the ghostly quality of a computer file. A mass-produced paper book, though bulkier and more expensive, may continue to be more desirable because it carries with it this material presence. And presence means something'or it can, at least, in the hands of a good book designer.

Books with matching bookmarks

A book castle!

Audio:

Author and co-founder of Spinifex Press, Susan Hawthorne speaks with 3CRs Clemmy Wetherall about the challenges and rewards of feminist publishing (link to .mp3)

Drusilla Modjeska chat about her novel'The Mountain'(our review forthcoming)'on ABC radio (link to .mp3)

Events:

Scholastic is hosting a live chat with Judy Blume 8pm EST (US) today

Jobs and opps:

Job applications for the position of editor of The Emerging Writer'close today

Harlequins Carina Press is open to submissions

The M Literary Residency programme is open to applications

Love Instagram? Love Books?'Enter the SNAPP SHOTS Contest'to win a Lomo camera and library of photo books.

Book trailer: Year of the Gadfly