The last few months in books 4/19/15

Photo by me. I’m on Instagram here.

Remind me not to announce job changes on April Fool’s Day.

But to circle back, yes, it’s real that I’m now working for a hedge fund. I know! I’m hoping that blogging will pick up as I get used to my routine, but my new job will prevent me from being very active on social media during working hours. I’ll still pre-schedule posts to appear midday, but I probably won’t be tweeting until night. Even more than before, the best way to keep up with new posts is to subscribe via email.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a link roundup, and I have quite a few to share! Let’s get to it.

First and most importantly, a belated congrats to JSC for winning the Blog Bracket Challenge! One of these years I’m going to win this thing, but lord knows it’s not going to be a year where Duke wins it all.

Big news on the fake review front as Amazon is taking legal action against three companies it accuses of selling fake reviews.

Julie Strauss-Gabel is a powerhouse editor who edits a slew of bestselling authors, including a guy named John Green, and her very honest edits make the whole thing work. The New York Times has a great profile of her.

I’m on the record urging everyone to stick mainly to said/asked dialogue tags because deviating is really distracting. Can you get away with varying it up? Yes, but sparingly, says Charlie Jane Anders in io9.

Further proof that writers are the best insulters, especially when they’re insulting other writers.

Advice for young writers by Andrew Solomon, building off of Rainer Maria Rilke’s classic Letters to a Young Poet (which if you haven’t read, well, it’s time).

Can you judge a book by a cover? Um. These Kindle cover disasters had better hope not.

Why do some books become remembered as classics? There were two interesting articles about this phenomenon, one that looks at The Great Gatsby, and another that looks at posthumous fame more generally.

Steven Spielberg is going to direct a film adaptation of Ready Player One, which I’m extremely psyched about.

New York City literary pub crawl!

Superagent Jane Dystel writes about a way of thinking about nonfiction book proposals.

And finally, I love me some San Francisco, even better when it’s edited to look like Batman’s Gotham City. (via io9)

Have a great week!