The blogosphere is still BURSTING with chatter about Stephen King’s recent critique of Stephenie Meyer in his interview with Lorrie Lynch in USA Weekend.

When asked to compare Meyer to J.K. Rowling King said point blank “Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people…The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.” He continues, “People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books.”  OK, there’s a lot to deconstruct here (the best part of the article is the comments section; there are currently 804 comments) but my main question is this:

Can a book be deemed “good” or “bad” based solely of the quality of its writing?

I haven’t read the Twilight books so I can’t weigh in on King’s assessment. But it seems to me that Stephenie Meyer has activated something profound in people- mostly teenage girls – and the ability to do that may be as rare as the literary gifts of a writer like… Stephen King.  Put another way: In terms of literary merit, Twilight may not be “good,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not great.

I am curious to hear what others think. Was Stephen King unnecessarily harsh?

- Julia

You may know Philippe Petit for his remarkable artistry as a tightrope-walker, most famously for his walk between the World Trade Towers. That feat is documented in the Academy Award-nominated film, “Man On Wire,” which Petit discusses here:

Philippe Petit on The Colbert Report on January 27, 2009

Philippe Petit on The Conan O’Brien Show.

Philippe Petit at Sundance 2008

Now Petit is attempting a new challenge: he is building a barn by hand, using only 18th-century tools. And he has signed with HarperStudio for his book about that experience, to be published in Fall, 2010.

In the midst of magazine layoffs and closings (we will miss you, Domino), there’s no better tribute to print media in general than The Atlantic‘s slideshow of their past 151 years in covers.

Yes, it’s online. We see the irony. But we still like it.

I met Praveen Madan, owner of Booksmith in San Francisco, and asked him for his “top three stupid things publishers do.” Here’s his response:

1. Publish too many bad books, get your sales reps to stuff the channel with too many bad books, and then complain that returns are too high
2. Not realize that, like other intermediaries, publishers are heading to extinction unless they learn to add value
3. Suffer from the illusion that after being in the publishing business for decades without a consumer brand, they can suddenly wake up and become meaningful brands in consumers’ minds

Praveen asked for our “top three stupid things independent booksellers do” in exchange; so here’s a list from our senior editor, Julia Cheiffetz:

1. Assume their customers wouldn’t transfer their store loyalty to a store website

2. Underutilize the expertise of their staff to curate selections and develop robust areas of expertise for which they are known locally

3. Fail to stay connected to their customers via a store blog

We’d love to hear from other booksellers (and publishers) with their “top three” lists in response…

We asked. 7th Graders answered.

Jeanette Zwart is the beloved Director of Field Sales at HarperCollins  – and a true Book Nut through and through.  She wrote this blog for us from the ABA conference last weekend:

This past weekend, the American Booksellers Association held their fourth annual Winter Institute.  

The Winter Institute is a weekend of educational programming for booksellers, with panels and seminars on such practical topics as “Electronic Catalogs” to “Increasing Margin” and “Surviving in Tough Times.”

For many veteran booksellers, the true value of the weekend is an opportunity to sit back with peer booksellers and bookstore owners to consider the state of the industry.  As such, the keynote panel provided a thought-provoking opportunity to do just that.  It was a wide-ranging  discussion about the state of the book industry, ably moderated by Roxanne Coady (owner of Madison CT independent R.J. Julia), with panelists Morgan Entrekin (President and Publisher, Grove/Atlantic), Nan Graham (Vice President & Editor-in-Chief, Scribner Books); and Bob Miller (President and Publisher, HarperStudio).

In a climate where, to quote Carla Jiminez of Inkwood Books in Tampa, “not horrible is the new fabulous,” the conversation was surprisingly up-beat and forward-looking.    E-book technology was a major focus of conversation; no one knows the extent to which e-books will replace physical books, or how quickly.  Unlike the music industry where the iPod and audio downloads made CD’s almost obsolete, books are consumed in their entirety, not just in one favorite track or single at a time.  And indie bookstores’ role as a community’s “third place”, along with their ability to be tastemakers in a culture that increasingly values the power of the local, may help moderate the “music store” effect.

Bob Miller also brought up Symtio, a new e-book technology that allows consumers to browse for e-books in bookstores, where they purchase a card that, when activated, allows them to download the book.  While the technology is still in its infancy, its magic is that it keeps the retailer central to the e-book purchasing process, so that the consumer can still have a bookstore experience, complete with recommendations from their favorite bookseller.

And in the end, that ability – to generate the kind of word of mouth that helps break out a book —  is the province of independent retailer, and describes its place in contemporary culture.  If you love TED talks, check out this one from Jennifer 8 Lee – In Search of General Tso’s Chicken.  It’s Chinese food anthropology, exploring the origins and cultural relevance of such things as won ton and fortune cookies.  What does that have to do with publishing, e-readers, and the future of bookselling, you might ask?  Think of this:  In the US alone, there are over 40,000 independently owned Chinese restaurants.  They have taken an item that is not even Chinese (fortune cookies) and made it a cultural pilot light.

Who knows if it is possible to harness the energy of independent bookselling in the same way?  But a retail channel that made cultural phenomenon out of such books as The Glass Castle or Cold Mountain or Story of Edgar Sawtelle will certainly not go gently into that good night.

In his recent post Nonprofit Newspapers Steve Coll suggests newspapers might be better off going nonprofit like NPR. With the Tribune Company filing for court protection from bankruptcy, The New York Times selling part of its building to pay debts and The Washington Post dropping its book section, not to mention dwindling ad revenue, Coll’s suggestion seems worth contemplating. With a nonprofit business model newspapers could solicit online donations (like Barack Obama and Wikipedia).

A subscription model in the vein of Total Music would be another alternative. As an aside, it’s worth noting that The New York Times could send each of their subscribers a Kindle and spend half as much money as they do printing the physical paper.