Friday Finds for Writers

Treasure Chest
Writing-related resources, news, and reflections to enjoy over the weekend.

  • “What Is Asian-American Literature, Anyway?” An interview with Celeste Ng via The Oyster Review.
  • Scratch magazine will close on July 31, 2015. The current issue, ‘Q4 2015 – The End,’ is its final quarterly subscription issue.” I’ll be reading that issue this weekend. (Or, at any rate, before July 31.)
  • “The open secret is that literary fiction does not pay big dividends. At least not to most of its writers and publishers. Even with excellent reviews, there’s no guarantee that your book will sell. Little Known Facts had a mid-five-figure advance and it has earned about three-fifths of it back so far. It was reviewed in several major-market newspapers and won a couple of awards. I did readings in cities all over the country to promote it, wrote many guest blog posts, and all told, it has probably sold about 23,000 copies. That figure includes paperback, hardcover, and e-books. Not bad, but by the publishing world’s yardstick, not a standout, not at all.” These and other realities in Christine Sneed’s excellent essay on The Billfold.
  • In the latest “Reviewers & Critics” column for Poets & Writers magazine, Michael Taeckens interviews the Chicago Tribune‘s Jennifer Day.
  • Of all the summer reading lists I’ve encountered so far, I must confess that this one—featuring three titles from Fig Tree Books, is quite likely my favorite!
  • Have a great weekend, everyone, and warm wishes for a wonderful Independence Day holiday to my fellow Americans!