Simon & Schuster launched a site called 250 Words, “a site that aims to become ‘a hub for intelligent business thinking, with a focus on books,'” and why it will bomb. (via Betabeat)

Tavi Gevinson lands a two-book deal with Razorbill! We’re already looking forward to Rookie Yearbook 3 and Rookie Yearbook 4. (via Galleycat)

This one’s great. Benjamin Svetkey, author of Leading Man and a celebrity writer, pens a NYT’s “Modern Love” essay on how Hollywood had warped his brain. (via NYTimes)

A scientific approach to knowing what is funny and the mechanics of successful comedy writing. (via NYTimes)

Jay Baruchel has been cast as the lead in Simon Rich’s pilot The Last Girlfriend on Earth, based on Rich’s book of short stories of the same name. (via Splitsider)

ABC orders a pilot of Fresh Off The Boat, the show based on the memoir of the same name by chef/author/TV guy Eddie Huang. [via Eater] Psst, you can read our Bookmarked on Fresh Off The Boat here.

“What makes a book a classic?” asks Salon. The works of Dumas, du Maurier, Rand, Kerouac, Vonnegut, Wodehouse, Wallace, Calvino, and a handful of others, are all scrutinized. [via Salon]

Very important: 50 Books By Women Authors. That is all. [via Flavorwire]

Emily Books asked several writers including Meghan Daum, Dodie Bellamy, and Eileen Myles to provide their list of “Books That Changed My Life.” Lotsa writers and books at the link! [via n+1]

Yipppeeee! Whit Stillman, filmmaker of important flicks such as Metropolitan and Last Days of Disco, sold a novel titled (deep breath now) Love & Friendship: An Adaptation of Jane Austen’s Unfinished Novella Concerning the Beautiful Lady Susan Vernon, Her Loves and Friendships, and the Strange Antagonism of the DeCourcy Family to Little, Brown. [via Publishers Weekly]

Book the Writer arranges for personal author appearances at book clubs for $750. (Hmm, small book club tours…another way the publishing biz is similar to the music biz I see…) [via NYTimes]

The rights to Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In was bought by Sony Pictures. Lean In is going to be a movie. (This is all real.) Rachel McAdams is going to play Sheryl Sandberg. And there is already a sneak peek of the script. (This may be a joke, but I’m gullible.) [via Slate]

It’s an exciting time right now in the startup scene, especially when it comes to the intersection of technology and the publishing/writing worlds. You’ll find articles all over the net how publishing peeps are experimenting a lot these days; everyone is trying to figure out how webstuff and apps can help an industry that is simply based around, you know, the written word on bound pages. Like, how do you take a really old-school model and infuse some tech into it? As 2013 prepares for the end-of-year retrospective, let’s take a look at some of the new publishing and writing-based startups that have popped up along the digital landscape.

29th Street Publishing
29th Street is an e-magazine publisher and they produce issues that are delivered right to your iPhone or Apple tablet. Content creators work with the 29th editors to publish weekly or monthly releases and titles are accumulating fast! Some of the titles that we have a flirty eye towards are The Awl Weekend Companion, Maura Magazine, One Story, One Teen Story, The Weekly Rumpus, and Recommended Reading.
(29.io)

Editorially
Have you ever submitted an article but the final version was so heavily edited that you didn’t recognize it? (It happens to all of us!) But what if you, the writer, were in on the editing process the whole time, allowing you to collaborate and see your work go from draft to final version? That’s something Editorially is great for. It’s a publishing tool, designed to help editors and writers collaborate on pieces.
(editorially.com)

Hi
Introduced to us by our good friend Cassie, Hi is “realtime storytelling and publishing.” That means you are able to capture and write little stories on your phone, just about wherever you are in the world when the moment moves you. Kind of like an interactive diary or even a travel log of sorts, Hi also introduced the term narrative mapping to our vernacular. It’s fitting!
(sayhi.co)

Oyster
People have been calling Oyster the “Spotify of books,” which I think you can gather what that means. Quite simply, a monthly subscription allows you to access 100,000 titles right on your iPhone or iPad or Apple whatever. It’s a great deal if you’re the type of person who is constantly traveling or on-the-go and have been “meaning to read that book” and you just don’t have the time to visit the bookstore or library.
(oysterbooks.com)

Togather
Togather is a startup that actually helps bring people together! It helps authors looking to conduct their own tour to “book” events to where their audience is. Or vice versa, it helps fans organize events surrounding their favorite writers. Anyone can join and Togather is also perfect for non-profits, readings, meet-ups, and book clubs.
(togather.com)

News round-up for the week ending September 8, 2013:

Calling all fiction writers: We love The Rumpus! Check out their Submission Guidelines and best of luck!

MOVIE ADAPTATION NEWS:

Chad Kultgen’s Men, Women, and Children starring… Adam Sandler! (HAHA)
“The book focuses on a family with junior high school students and deals with the navigation of sexual awakenings in a digital age where the Internet has made pornography, blogs and social networking just a few clicks away.” (via Deadline)

Martin Amis’ London Fields with Amber Heard, Billy Bob Thorton, and Jim Sturgess.
“Heard plays the ultimate eternal sexual femme fatale, possessed of unusual beauty and hypnotic magnetism. Mysterious and clairvoyant, she sets a plan in motion to fulfill the prophecy of her own murder.” (also via Deadline)

Endorsement!

Writers No One Reads
Highlighting forgotten, neglected, abandoned, forsaken, unrecognized, unacknowledged, overshadowed, out-of-fashion, under-translated writers. Has no one read your books? You are in good company. 

News round-up for the week ending August 18, 2013:

Universal Pictures is launching their Emerging Writers Fellowship for aspiring screenwriters! More info can be found on the NBCUniversal website. Applicants can begin submitting for the program starting September 3.

This is not an Onion headline! Ron Burgundy is writing an autobiography already titled Let Me Off at the Top! My Classy Life and Other Musings. Coming soon from Crown Archetypes. But seriously, who is actually penning this book?? Maybe we’ll never know… (via The Atlantic Wire)

Jason Diamond of The Flavorwire asks “Is comedic literature making a comeback?” It’s an interesting question to ask, not only in the bookland, but it’s also relevant in the world of film. (For instance, like how rarely you’ll find comedies taken seriously during Awards season.) Something to think about! (via The Flavorwire)

Choire Sicha, author of the newly-released Very Recent History, discusses how the internet “kills—and saves—book culture.” (via Bookish)

New Simon Rich piece in The New Yorker! This one’s about monkeys! It’s called “Family Business.” (via The New Yorker)

Here is a really great piece on the plight of the “Strong Female Character” and how UK writer Sophia McDougall hates it. And after reading this article, I agree with her. A strong piece indeed. (via the New Statesman)