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This Week in Books

Drew Barrymore finds a resolve for her scab controversy (This week in books)

September 22, 2023 by Nathan Bransford Leave a Comment

This week! Books! After first releasing a now-deleted defense of bringing her eponymous show back despite an ongoing writers strike, Drew Barrymore summoned every bit of astute humility she possessed and found the hoped for resolve by pausing her talk show until the strike is over. And about that strike: WGA and the studios have […]

Filed Under: This Week in Books Tagged With: Alex Ross, Amazon, Anne R. Allen, Ashley Fetters Maloy, Authors Guild, Bookshop.org, Censorship, Drew Barrymore, Franz Liszt, Gay Talese, Katy Hershberg, KKR, OpenAI, Simon & Schuster, WGA

Drew Barrymore disinvited from National Book Awards (This week in books)

September 15, 2023 by Nathan Bransford 3 Comments

This week! Books! Actress and (as I only learned this week) talk show host Drew Barrymore sparked an immense amount of controversy this week as she announced the return of her show The Drew Barrymore Show without union writers, who are on an ongoing months-long strike. Writers including Colson Whitehead noted the irony that Barrymore […]

Filed Under: This Week in Books Tagged With: Andrew Park, Carter Dougherty, Colson Whitehead, Drew Barrymore, Jami Gold, Lincoln Michel, Merve Emre, National Book Awards, Pulitzer Prize, Simon & Schuster, Spotifiy, V.M. Braganza

Beware of literary agency fraud (This week in books)

September 8, 2023 by Nathan Bransford 1 Comment

This week! Books! Book scammers continue to prey on unsuspecting authors, and one of the latest versions involves people impersonating real literary agents, sending fraudulent contracts, and then asking for money. These scams have been around for a while, but seem to be reaching new levels of sophistication. Remember: no reputable agent will ask you […]

Filed Under: This Week in Books Tagged With: Abby Aguirre, Ben Thompson, Censorship, ChatGPT, Grace Lin, Indigo, John Green, Ken Whyte, Octavia Butler, Writer Beware

The Blind Side was always bad (This week in books)

August 18, 2023 by Nathan Bransford 2 Comments

This week! Books! The blog is going to take an end-of-summer hiatus over the next few weeks and I’ll be back here after Labor Day. Also…………….. how is summer almost over?? I have very proudly never read/watched one of the paragons of white savior narratives The Blind Side, but some extremely distressing allegations emerged around […]

Filed Under: This Week in Books Tagged With: Brando Skyhorse, Dave Zirin, Internet Archive, Janet Reid, Kathleen Schmidt, Michael Oher, Miranda Miller, Nature, Nir Eyal, Piracy, Pulitzer Prize, We Need Diverse Books

S&S acquired by private equity. What does it mean for the book business? (This week in books)

August 11, 2023 by Nathan Bransford 2 Comments

This week! Books! A big domino in book publishing fell this month as private equity behemoth KKR has acquired Simon & Schuster for $1.62 billion, rather less than the $2.175 billion Penguin Random House agreed to before that deal was quashed by a federal judge, though the blow to Paramount was softened by the $200 […]

Filed Under: This Week in Books

More details on the Smithsonian’s canceled Asian American Book Festival (This week in books)

July 28, 2023 by Nathan Bransford Leave a Comment

This week! We’re getting into the summer publishing doldrums so not a huge amount of news, but I have some links to send your way. I will be taking a hiatus next week but will return later in August. First up, I was negligent last week when I forgot to link to the really upsetting […]

Filed Under: This Week in Books Tagged With: 8th Note Press, Asian American Book Festival, Jennie Nash, Jonathan Galassi, Sinead O'Connor, Smithsonian, Zando Project

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About Nathan

Hi, I’m Nathan. I’m the author of How to Write a Novel and the Jacob Wonderbar series, which was published by Penguin. I used to be a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. and I’m dedicated to helping authors achieve their dreams. Let me help you with your book!

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How to Write A Novel
Cover of How to Publish a Book by Nathan Bransford
Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapo
Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp

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