This month, Longreads is celebrating its fifth anniversary. I started this service in April 2009, and it has grown into an incredible global community of readers, writers and publishers. Together, we helped create a thriving ecosystem for longform storytelling and helped reverse the myth that the Internet has shortened attention spans or diminished our appetite […]
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Posted inEditor's Pick
What Does the Book Business Look Like on the Inside?
Memories and bad math from Menaker’s life in the publishing business, excerpted from his memoir My Mistake: “We make about $3 for each hardcover sale, $1 for each paperback.” “So if we sell 10,000 hardcovers, that’s $30,000.” “Right.” “And say 10,000 paperbacks. That’s $40,000.” “Right—so the P-and-L probably won’t work. So we have to adjust […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
How to Spend Your Income Building a Car that Must Travel 100 Miles on a Single Gallon of Gas
The first chapter from Jason Fagone‘s new book, Ingenious, about the X Prize Foundation’s $10 million competition to build a car that can travel 100 miles on a single gallon of gas. Thanks to Fagone and Crown Publishing for sharing it with the Longreads community. You can purchase the full book here.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Andrew Wylie Rules
The renowned literary agent on his hatred of Amazon, commercial fiction, and the future of book publishing: “I didn’t think that [in 2010] the publishing community had properly assessed—particularly in regard to its obligations to writers—what an equitable arrangement would look like. “And I felt that publishers had made a huge mistake, because they were […]
Posted inReading List
What's in a Home? A Reading List
Emily Perper is a word-writing human working at a small publishing company. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker. New York, London, Detroit, Indianapolis: What does it look like to make a home? To build a home? To live in an office building, with a Craiglist roommate, with your best friend, in a […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Bigfoot, Nessie, and the Study of Hidden Animals
Emily Perper is a word-writing human working at a small publishing company. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker. I spent this morning exploring The Museum of Unnatural History in Washington D.C. Fueled by the likes of Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman and Paul Simon, the museum is the storefront for 826DC, which holds workshops and […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Stories About Unlikeable People
Emily Perper is a word-writing human working at a small publishing company. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker. Last Thursday, the NBC series “Community” returned with its creator and original showrunner, Dan Harmon, at the helm. I like “Community.” I do. It’s warm and dark and funny and self-referential. In spite of its absurdity—perhaps […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Reading List: When We Fall In Love
Emily Perper is a word-writing human working at a small publishing company. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker. What does love look like and feel like and sound like to you? What have you read that changed the way you think about love? I’d like to know. Reblog your suggestions or comment […]
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
The Art of Running from the Police
A young man concerned that the police will take him into custody comes to see danger and risk in the mundane doings of everyday life. To survive outside prison, he learns to hesitate when others walk casually forward, to see what others fail to notice, to fear what others trust or take for granted.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
‘I Would Prefer Not To’: The Origins of the White Collar Worker
Before the Civil War, the clerk was “a small but unusual phenomenon.” By the end of the 19th century, clerical workers were a social force to be reckoned with. This is the story of their rise.
