{"word_count": 308, "character_count": 2386}
The Digital Literary Sphere. Reading, Writing, and          Selling Books in the Internet EraSimone MurrayJohn Hopkins University PressISBN: 9781421426099256 p.39,95£PRESENTATIONReports of the book’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Books      are flourishing in the Internet era—widely discussed and reviewed      in online readers’ forums and publicized through book trailers and      author blog tours. But over the past twenty-five years, digital      media platforms have undeniably transformed book culture. Since      Amazon’s founding in 1994, the whole way in which books are      created, marketed, publicized, sold, reviewed, showcased,      consumed, and commented upon has changed dramatically. The digital      literary sphere is no mere appendage to the world of print—it is      where literary reputations are made, movements are born, and      readers passionately engage with their favorite works and authors.In The Digital Literary Sphere, Simone Murray considers      the contemporary book world from multiple viewpoints. By examining      reader engagement with the online personas of Margaret Atwood,      John Green, Gary Shteyngart, David Foster Wallace, Karl Ove      Knausgaard, and even Jonathan Franzen, among others, Murray      reveals the dynamic interrelationship of print and digital      technologies.Drawing on approaches from literary studies, media and cultural      studies, book history, cultural policy, and the digital      humanities, this book asks: What is the significance of authors      communicating directly to readers via social media? How does      digital media reframe the "live" author-reader encounter? And does      the growing army of reader-reviewers signal an overdue      democratizing of literary culture or the atomizing of cultural      authority? In exploring these questions, The Digital Literary        Sphere takes stock of epochal changes in the book industry      while probing books’ and digital media’s complex contemporary      coexistence.Table        of contents      SIMONE MURRAYSimone Murray is an associate professor (reader)      in literary studies and the director of the Centre for the Book at      Monash University. She is the author of Mixed Media: Feminist        Presses and Publishing Politics and The Adaptation        Industry: The Cultural Economy of Contemporary Literary        Adaptation.