From n+1, Carla Blumenkranz on American publishing (and more). Ghostwriters are the invisible force behind the publishing's biggest sensations; Jonathan Campbell reveals the secrets of his shadowy profession. How ghostwriting went from scandal-in-waiting to acceptable political reality. The Free-Appropriation Writer: Copying passages from another author used to be an unforgivable sin — but remix culture is coming to literature. In order for electronic books to live up to their billing, the system in which nonfiction writers get permission to use copyrighted material in new work has to be fixed. From The Futurist, the dawn of the postliterate age: Information technology, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence may render written language “functionally obsolete” by 2050; and Nicholas Carr on the rapid evolution of “text” and a less-literate future. An article on eye-tracking tablets and the promise of Text 2.0. Dennis Baron on the iPad: What is a Gutenberg moment, anyway? From NBCC, adventures in e-reading: An interview with Scott Lindenbaum, co-editor of Electric Literature; a panel; and more by Laurie Gold. Godfather of the E-Reader: Look past Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos to the forgotten Bob Brown and his 1930s reading machine. Don’t rear the e-reader: Books are evolving, not dying. More on The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future by Robert Darnton. What will the bookstore look like in 10 years? In 1999, one writer came up with a vision that is close to our print-on-demand fantasies. Edited out: The sickliest part of the books business is the shops that sell them. Linda Holmes, emphatically and forever, declines to care how books smell. Psychology of the bookplate: Alex Beam on why book owners mark their literary territory with personalized art.
