Industry & Advocacy News
December 1, 2017
Our round-up of articles of interest and key news affecting authors. In this week’s edition: A flowchart to decide which book to buy, Instagram poetry, and more…
The Internet Is Dying. Repealing Net Neutrality Hastens That Death.
The New York Times
Farhad Majoo at The New York Times warns that if we don’t preserve net neutrality, digital giants will continue to weaken the internet as we know it.
Best Independent Bookstores in the U.S.
PopSugar
Popsugar rounds up a list of fifteen best independent bookstores in the United States. Among those mentioned are New York’s famous Strand Bookstore, Portland’s Powell’s City of Books, and Los Angeles’s The Last Bookstore.
Americans Are Reading a Lot of Poetry Right Now, If You Count “Instagram Poetry”
Quartz
Poetry is thriving—on Instagram. Quartz reports that four of the fifteen best-selling books on Amazon U.S. are poetry volumes by Instagram poets such as r.h. Sin and Rupi Kaur. Sin, an Instagram poet, who boasts over 900,000 followers, has sold over 300,000 copies of his book; and Kaur’s volumes have spent 89 weeks on The Times’s bestselling paperback trade-fiction list.
Supreme Court May Overturn Decades of Precedent in Cellphone Privacy Case
Yahoo! Finance
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Carpenter v. U.S., a case that some say could have dramatic consequences for digital privacy. The case revolves around the question of whether private citizens have an expectation of privacy in cell-phone location data. Previous Supreme Court cases have held that information such as phone call records, GPS signals, and bank account information that is voluntarily provided to third parties is not protected by the Fourth Amendment. However, some Court observers and scholars believe that the Court could upend that precedent in Carpenter, and open the door for stronger privacy safeguards.
So, You’d Like to Buy Your Loved One a Book?
Books make great gifts! But maybe you’re not sure which book to buy your loved one. This handy flowchart will help you decide.
Obama in the Backseat: Rally to Save the Internet photo by Stacie Isabella Turk/Ribbonhead under CC 2.0
