Tag Archives: Readers

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Film & Movies, Pleasures, Politics, Television, Times They Are A-Changing

#WGAStrong: Why Readers Should Care About the Writers Strike

#WGAStrong: Why Readers Should Care About the Writers Strike

By Susie Dumond Aug 8, 2023

On Thursday, short of a surprising announcement, the Writers Guild of America’s strike will reach its 100th day. That’s over three months that screenwriters have spent picketing the major studios for fair pay, improved working conditions, regulations on use of artificial intelligence (AI), and more.

The writer’s strike, combined with the SAG-AFTRA actors strike, has brought the vast majority of TV and film projects to a halt. “Who cares?” I hear some of you curmudgeonly readers saying. “I don’t need TV and movies. I’ve got books.” Actually, there’s more at stake in this strike than when fall TV shows will return. Below is a guide to the strike for book lovers, including why it might impact publishing and authors, and information on how to support the striking writers.

The Basics of the WGA Strike

After weeks of unfruitful negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on the Minimum Basic Agreement for writers, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) declared a strike on May 2, 2023. WGA members and non-members are instructed to cease any and all writing projects with member studios of the AMPTP, including powerhouse producers like Sony, Universal, Paramount, Disney, and Warner Bros., as well as any other studios that participate in the Minimum Basic Agreement.

As the strike approaches the 100-day mark, no clear progress has been made on finding agreeable terms. Representatives of the WGA negotiating committee met with AMPTP president Carol Lombardini on Friday, August 4, in a confidential sidebar to discuss resuming negotiations. Before the meeting even occurred, however, the WGA sent a message to its members about the AMPTP’s “calculated misinformation” about the meeting.

Source: https://bookriot.com/why-readers-should-care-about-the-writers-strike/

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Times They Are A-Changing, Web & Technology, Weblogs (Blogs)

Introducing the new EPUB reader for e-books at the Library of Congress | The Signal

Published February 2, 2023 by Carlyn Osborn

Today’s guest post is from Kristy Darby, a Digital Collections Specialist at the Library of Congress.

Bird Species: How They Arise, Modify and Vanish is now available to view in the new EPUB reader.

The Open Access Books Collection on loc.gov includes approximately 6,000 contemporary open access e-books covering a wide range of subjects, including history, music, poetry, technology, and works of fiction.

All books in this collection were published under open access licenses, meaning the e-books are available to use and reuse according to the terms of the licenses. Users can access the e-books in the Open Access Books Collection by reading directly online in a browser or downloading the book as a PDF or EPUB file.

Green book cover for Bird Species: How They Arise, Modify and Vanish, edited by Dieter TietzeBird Species: How They Arise, Modify and Vanish is now available to view in the new EPUB reader.

When we first made open access e-books available on loc.gov, titles were available for download in either PDF or EPUB format, but PDF was the only one available for reading directly on the website; loc.gov did not support viewing EPUBs in the browser, and they were only available for download. As many books were available in both formats or in PDF only, this ensured most titles were viewable directly on the website.

However, we recognized an increase in titles available in EPUB only so we are happy to share the news that an EPUB viewer was launched on loc.gov. The viewer makes EPUBs available for reading on loc.gov and provides a richer interface for users.

Source: Introducing the new EPUB reader for e-books at the Library of Congress | The Signal

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Love & Relationships, Web & Technology

Why Novelists Are Embracing Substack – Can Substack Reinvent the Social Internet?

But the success of their migration depends on whether—or not—the social Internet can function like a writing workshop.

By Adrienne Westenfeld, Mar 9, 2022

Getty Images

When George Saunders went out to his writing shed to start a Substack newsletter last fall, for the first time in a long time, the Booker Prize-winning novelist, famous for such works as Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December, didn’t know what he was doing.

“I’ll just write 80 posts and then take a vacation,” he thought to himself.

But upon hitting publish, something surprised him: the comments section exploded, with thousands of readers chiming in on his inaugural post (that still-growing comment count currently sits at 3091).

Everywhere from Scotland to India to Australia, devoted followers and aspiring writers wrote in with passionate messages, eager to connect with one of their literary heroes.

Suddenly “don’t read the comments,” that old digital age chestnut, felt like the worst advice in the world. There was nowhere else Saunders would rather be than here, chopping it up with commenters young and old, near and far, longtime fans and first-time callers.

Source: Why Novelists Are Embracing Substack – Can Substack Reinvent the Social Internet?