Pop Fiction Unaffected by Lit Crit Demise

Yesterday’s WSJ article on the slow death of newspaper book sections prompted a letter from novelist Lauren Lipton (right) that underscores what a small segment of the publishing industry’s output that trend genuinely affects. “For most writers, the demise of book-review space in newspapers won’t matter much,” she observes. “Big reviewers tend to focus on the same old names and titles, which leaves out most of the rest of us. As a newspaper journalist (and a Wall Street Journal contributor), I hate to hear about the downsizing of any newspaper section. As a first-time novelist whose book came out in paperback, lacks a thinly disguised evil publishing diva, and does not have ‘Calamity Physics’ in the title? Sadly, I won’t be affected.”

But Lipton’s literary career is far from being in limbo. In fact, that paperback novel, It’s About Your Husband, seems to have done so well for Warner‘s 5 Spot line that they’ve just picked up her next book, Mrs. Weekend, in which, according to the Publishers Marketplace deal lunch, “a New Yorker finds herself hitched to a total stranger after a night in Vegas and enters into a mismatched marriage of convenience.” I’ve read widely enough in the genre to know: Mayhem ensues, perhaps even wacky hijinx!

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.