Fight Club and Choke novelist Chuck Palahniuk answered reader questions on Reddit this week. When one reader wrote “It’s rare for a writer’s first book to be as successful as Fight Club was,” Palahniuk clarified and shared some inspiring insight into his career:

Please let me address a misperception. ‘Fight Club’ was a huge failure. Most of the hardcovers were going to be pulped. They were unsold when the movie opened… and then the movie was a flop. It has taken years ( decades ) for the story to build an audience. What’s amazing is that it still resonates for young readers; it’s never become dated. ( he shakes his head in disbelief )

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Published by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, it features bookstores around the country, including The Strand (New York, NY), Powell`s (Portland, OR) and Porter Square Books (Cambridge, MA). Publishing industry consultant Ronald Rice and “Booksellers Across America” edited the book.

Contributors ranged from John Grisham to Chuck Palahniuk to bookstore owner Ann Patchett. The book also contains illustrations by Leif Parsons, an introduction by Richard Russo and an afterword by Emily St. John Mandel.

You can find all these bookshops and more in our Best Indie Bookstores on Twitter list.

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Throughout Maberry’s career, he has won multiple Stoker Awards for his horror work. Last month, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers released the third installment of the Rot & Ruin series, Flesh & Bone.

He has written for Marvel Comics and published multiple novels for both adults and young-adults. As a nonfiction writer, Maberry has examined topics ranging from martial arts to zombie pop culture. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

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Fight Club

Here’s more from the article: “The semi’s driver took a curve too fast, tipping his trailer. The trailer slid toward Palahniuk’s car and struck the side of it before coming to rest blocking the westbound lanes.”

His car was destroyed, but Palahniuk didn’t go to the hospital. The driver also escaped unharmed, but was ticketed for his negligence. His webmaster tweeted: “Spoke to Chuck last night. He’s fine and is recovering. Thank you all for your well wishes.”

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Browsers can find everything from book trailers to recorded interviews. The site’s most recent videos features Chuck Palahniuk reading from Knock, Knock, Paul Zak discussing the origins of morality and Jeffrey Eugenides talking about his latest title The Marriage Plot.

Here’s more from the site description: “LiveWriters is home to video and audio by and about writers of all types and kinds, as well as news, stories, original writing – in short anything that matters to writers, writing and the future of our shared culture. And we believe in a good healthy dose of fun too. Participate, play, share, enjoy.”

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It sounds like crazy-talk, but Bada** News reports that David Fincher (who directed the popular film adaptation of Palahniuk’s novel) wants to make a musical version. What do you think?

Here are more details: “Tonight The Social Network screened for members of the Screen Actors Guild, and at the Q&A afterwards Fincher mentioned that he’s been recently talking to Trent Reznor about doing the musical … I think it sounds like a stellar idea; it’s completely weird, it’s got the possibility of being excellent and best of all it should inspire a whole new generation to completely and totally miss the point of Fight Club.” (Via Random House)

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The video embedded above mashes up two popular but vastly different literary franchises: Chuck Palahniuk‘s Fight Club and the novels of Jane Austen.

Nevertheless, in this current environment of exclusive deals and eBook spats, maybe a little bit of rough and tumble is exactly what the publishing industry needs. Posted three days ago, the video has already logged more than 200,000 views–perhaps some much needed catharsis for frustrated professionals?

If you haven’t read Palahniuk or seen the movie, this trailer will give you a quick introduction to the violent book and film.

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I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Memoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Today the web-based “I Write Like” game distracted the online literary and publishing set. Created by Coding Robots and the journal-writing software Memoires, the program measures your prose against famous writers.

You just cut and paste a sample piece of text to play the game. According to the program, this GalleyCat editor writes like Dan Brown in blog post and Believer stories. However, when writing in the first person, the program compares our writing to Chuck Palahniuk.

Who do you write like? Share your reactions in the comments section–we’d love to get a cross-section of the literary influences in the audience. (Via Edward Champion)

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Howard will receive his award at the Library’s November 9 annual dinner in New York City. This is the fifth year the award has been given out, and past recipients included Harcourt editor Drenka Willen and Farrar, Straus & Giroux president Jonathan Galassi. To find out more about the winner, check out this GalleyCat interview with Howard.

Here’s an excerpt from the release: “Mr. Howard has been with Doubleday since 1998. In his tenure at Doubleday, he has worked with Kate Christensen, Pat Barker, Walter Kirn, Chuck Palahniuk, Bill Bryson, Muriel Spark, Robert Bingham and Gore Vidal.”

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The bestselling author of “Choke” and “Fight Club” is holding a contest to design a promotional logo for his novel “Pygmy,” which will be released in May. The designers are billing the book as “The Manchurian Candidate meets South Park,” and there is a book trailer for the title.

Here’s more from the contest: “The novel is about a group of adolescent agents from an unspecified country not unlike North Korea who, disguised as foreign exchange students, enter the US with the intent of infiltrating typical American families and eventually unleashing a terrorist act which they have called Operation Havoc. We want to design and print ‘Operation Havoc’ stickers that these agents would recognize and that Palahniuk’s fans can distribute.”

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Paste Magazine has built a thoughtful list of book trailers, including a few videos that GalleyCat missed with celebrity guests or zombies.

Tune into “A Survey of the Imperfect Art of the Book Trailer” to see trailers with actors Kevin Nealon, Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous), and Kat Dennings (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist).

Here’s more from the article: “Want to see Chuck Palahniuk interview his character, porn star Cassie Wright (who, from page to YouTube, has transformed from feminine sex vixen to manly drag queen)? How about a mock commercial for zombie anti-depressants or a scene from a book performed with notable actors? Then check out these beauties that cross media to garner interest for their respective titles.”

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Besides the chance that limited-edition books will appreciate in value, the new spate of expensive books dovetails with the expansion of goods targeted at wealthy consumers. “They’re an expensive luxury item,” says Jonathan Burnham, publisher at HarperCollins, which says it has sold out of its 1,000 copies of Chabon’s $150 limited-edition “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.” “The whole DVD-retailing world has shown that people will pay a premium.”

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No kidding, what with impending releases by Nathan Englander, Haruki Murakami, Michael Chabon, Michael Ondaatje, Susanna Moore, Armistead Maupin, Chuck Palahniuk and Khaled Hosseini. But the craziest publishing day for fiction has to be June 5, as new bestseller staples by Clive Cussler, Robert B.Parker, Jeffery Deaver, Laurell K. Hamilton, Ann Brashares and Nicola Kraus & Emma McLaughlin are released that Tuesday. Calling it a dogfight is probably an understatement…

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