Penn Group

Let’s be honest here: if you were psychic, wouldn’t you know it? Because, you know, you’re… psychic? And know things? Or maybe the author construes “psychic” to mean “given to irrepressible screaming fits.”
In the words of the author, “prepare for a sense of deja vu. Aaagh!”
Aaagh, indeed.

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What’s your favorite kind of food? If your answer is Chinese, you probably wouldn’t go to a Tex-Mex restaurant and find chow mein and eggs rolls prominently displayed on its menu. Nor would you expect to find New York–style hot dogs if you went into an establishment whose specialty was advertised as English tea and […]

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- A fine German publishing company has perfected the art of Not Getting It. They are printing out the German Wikipedia, binding it, and turning it into a book. Those who miss the “enraged bickering via comment” feature of Wikipedia are encouraged to scribble vigorously in the margins.

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 15-year-old Miley Cyrus - also known as Hannah Montana, also known as Miley Stewart, also known as the inhuman force that keeps your daughter awake at night as she feverishly plots new ways to gain precious, precious tickets - has signed a seven-figure deal with the Disney Book Group for her memoirs.
Let me repeat: 15-year-old Miley has signed a book deal […]

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When you’re writing a book, a play or a movie script, you not only have the power to control the pacing of the plot but also the chronology of events themselves. A mystery, for instance, can start with a murder followed by the investigation or it can begin with the murder but shift to a […]

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It’s been a relatively slow week for the book publishing industry. The only real action seems to be coming from the infamous Harry Potter trial. Here’s the salient news of the week. 
- As the Harry Potter copyright-infringement case wound to a close, J.K. Rowling seemed to repent of her harsh words to and about the […]

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Steven Jan Van Der Ark, whose Harry Potter Lexicon is at the center of J.K. Rowling’s copyright infringement case, testified on his own behalf yesterday. Unlike everything else about this case, Mr. Van Der Ark’s testimony actually made sense.
 
For those not keeping track of the case, here’s the back story: J.K. Rowling is suing […]

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By popular request (or, to be more accurate, by the request of the lovely folks who have e-mailed us about this blog), we will now be running a self-published book cover every Tuesday.
For those who object to this feature, we’ve selected a cover especially for you.

Let’s be honest: yes, it is. Also, when you consider that someone […]

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The words “story” and “plot” are often used interchangeably. So much so, in fact, that new writers often think that they share the same definition. Where this belief can lead them astray is in planning the direction they want their projects and imaginations to go.
Let’s say that your friends ask you what your novel/play/movie […]

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Mark Hilton, a 42-year-old police officer, recently signed a book deal with British publisher Houghton & Stoddard for 800,000 pounds. The deal, which is roughly equivalent to $1,567,000, is for Mr. Hilton’s first novel, “Dead Man’s Dust,” and its four projected sequels. This works out to about $315,200 per book. When taken as a whole, […]

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