The Millions » Announcements

We Appreciate Your Support

C. Max Magee — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:29:11 +0000

Thanks to all The Millions readers who have supported the site over the last several months. If you are heading back to school now, check out our Support page to see how you can support the site without taking any extra dollars from your pockets. Advertisers: We have been seeing some great ads on the site of late. Check out the Blog Ads Book Hive to advertise on The Millions and other great literary sites.

Literature and Commerce The Rumpus points out that both it and HTML Giant...
The FTC and Foggy Disclosure Rules Ed Champion interviews the FTC’s Richard Cleland in an effort...
The Millions Hits Facebook I’ve never been big on social networking sites. In fact,...

Help Wanted: The Millions Needs a Curiosities, Twitter, and Facebook Superstar

Editor — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:15:05 +0000

The Millions back office is looking for some help again. The site continues to grow, and that means we have an opportunity to add another book-loving ~~young~~ person to our team.

We are looking for someone who can help us with a few specific things. The new Millions intern will helm our “Curiosities” link blog and will man (or wo-man) our Twitter feed and Facebook page. Through those avenues, the intern we seek will have an audience of tens of thousands and will be introducing The Millions to new readers every day.

In return for a very modest time commitment, our intern will also join a great group of creative thinkers and have the opportunity to get their work edited by the working writers among us and potentially see their pieces published at The Millions. As is the case with our crew of regulars, our intern will be compensated for the pieces he or she publishes on the site.

The Details:

Responsibilities:

Multiple daily posts to the “Curiosities” link blog
Taking charge of The Millions Twitter account

Taking charge of The Millions Facebook page
Coming up with new ideas for fun ways to utilize the above

Here’s what we’re looking for:

A voracious reader – Our ideal candidate will be well-read and have a solid knowledge of contemporary fiction.
A social media superstar – Again, Twitter, Facebook, (Tumblr, blogging, etc.)
Experience with WordPress is a huge bonus.

More details: This isn’t going to be anything close to a full-time gig. We’re thinking 5-10 hours a week realistically, plus as much time as you want to spend writing for us. We think the internship would be a great fit for a college or grad student, but are certainly open to hearing from non-students whose schedules will allow them to do this. We’re looking for a one-year commitment, though we can be flexible on the duration. The Millions has no dedicated office, so this is a remote position and can be done from anywhere in the world.

The position is unpaid, but any long-form pieces written that you write for the site and are approved for publication will be compensated using the same system we use to compensate our regular writers. And there will most probably be some free books here and there.

Why should you do this? The Millions is read by upwards of 30,000 people every week. Our readership is a laundry list of influential, brilliant folks in the publishing and media industries as well as in academia, not to mention the most engaged, avid readers of literary work that you’ll find anywhere. Aside from learning about how a site like The Millions operates, you’ll have an opportunity to write for all these people, and you’ll get experience running a Twitter account with nearly 30,000 followers.

How to Apply:

Please send the following to jobs@themillions.com

A resume
Three sample Curiosities, using the format we use on the site
If applicable and you are willing to share, we’d be interested in seeing the Twitter account(s) you use and any Facebook fan pages you’ve had the opportunity to run for schools, publications, companies, etc. (Essentially, show us that you have experience using these, even if it’s just your own sparsely followed, but very entertaining Twitter account.)
In addition, show us the other cool stuff you are responsible for online, your Tumblr, your blog, etc.

The deadline is one week from today: 6/27.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The Millions on Twitter Attn Twitterers: Some folks have been following me @cmaxmagee, but...
The Millions Hits Facebook I’ve never been big on social networking sites. In fact,...
Help Wanted! The Millions Seeks an Intern CLOSED Our intern will join a great group of creative thinkers...

A Belated Welcome

Editor — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:15:20 +0000

A belated welcome to the newest Millions staff writer Janet Potter. Janet is a Chicago writer and indie bookstore vet who’s already written several pieces for us on a number of books, most notably her controversial takedown of Stieg Larsson.

A Belated and Brief BEA Debriefing Buzz Poole, the managing editor of Mark Batty Publisher, has...
Stieg Larsson-mania Proof of a publishing feeding frenzy: It’s big news that...
Happy Belated Birthday James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – November 30, 1987) Buzz Poole, the managing editor of Mark Batty Publisher, has...

Introducing ‘The Staff Recommends’

C. Max Magee — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:15:31 +0000

The Millions is excited to be a founding member of a new ad venture called The Staff Recommends, John Warner and Andrew Womack, both of whom are associated with The Morning News and its wonderful Tournament of Books are behind the effort. The Staff Recommends is unique in that it only features books that “pass muster” with Warner, the venture’s editor and ombudsman. The first selection can be seen at the end of our “Recent Articles” section on The Millions front page and also in the sidebar on article pages. Enjoy!

Introducing the Corey Vilhauer Book of the Month Club [Max: This is the introduction to a new monthly feature...
Introducing The Millions’ “Books and Reviews” Knowing that people like to dig through the archives to...
Introducing the Vagazzled Vajayjay In an interview about her new book, The Day I...

Welcome Bill

C. Max Magee — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:07:04 +0000

The Millions is adding a new staff writer today. Join us in welcoming Bill Morris. Bill most recently wrote a consideration of China Miéville for the site this week, his fifth piece for us thus far. Bill is the author of the novels Motor City and All Souls’ Day. His writing has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, L.A. Weekly, the (London) Independent, the Washington Post Magazine and the website Aolnews.com. He lives in New York City.

Bill Watterson Speaks The Cleveland Plain-Dealer published an interview with Calvin and Hobbes...
In Search of Bill Watterson Inspired by the recent release of The Complete Calvin and...
The Best Sports Journalism Ever (According to Bill Simmons) I’m still fairly new to reading ESPN’s Bill Simmons (and...

Welcome Ujala!

Editor — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:33:53 +0000

We’d like to introduce you all to our new intern, Ujala Sehgal, who beat out 50+ other applicants for the position. Ujala lives in Manhattan and recently left a nascent career in corporate law to travel and focus on her writing. Her first full-length piece, about negotiating one’s limitations as a reader and writer, has been published today. Welcome Ujala!

Fire Good…But Also Bad I’m loving these Time Travel posters from 826LA’s Echo Park...
Top Travel Books Travel site WorldHum has created a top-100 travel books of...

Introducing The Millions’ “Books and Reviews”

Editor — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:09:39 +0000

Today we’re unveiling an exciting new feature at The Millions. Over the last seven-plus years, we have written about thousands of books. Knowing that people like to dig through the archives to read about the books we’ve covered, we’ve tried to create ways to make that easier, but until now our efforts had proven unwieldy to use and to manage.

So, in an effort to solve this problem once and for all, we’ve spent several months putting together a new section that we are proud to show off today: The Millions Books and Reviews.

That main page is an exercise in serendipity. Hit refresh and ten new random books will appear that have been mentioned on the site at some point in our history. Click on any one of those covers and learn more — or hit refresh again.

If you are looking for something more specific, browse by author using the alphabetical navigation at the top of the page. From those pages you’ll be able to click through to any book and view The Millions’ coverage of that book.

You may notice that in some cases we have more than one listing for a book — this is because over the years we may have linked to more than one edition of the book (paperback and hardcover, most commonly).

We hope you find this new feature useful. Before I let you go check it out, I just wanted to thank our many readers who have supported the site. This support has allowed us to continue to innovate with features like this new section and hopefully provide a great experience for readers looking for book coverage online.

The Millions Top Ten: July 2009 – And Introducing the Hall of Fame We spend plenty of time here on The Millions telling...
Introducing Difficult Books, A Descriptive List This post inaugurates a new Millions series devoted to identifying...
Introducing the Corey Vilhauer Book of the Month Club [Max: This is the introduction to a new monthly feature...

Help Wanted! The Millions Seeks an Intern CLOSED

Editor — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:50:23 +0000

Thanks for all the interest! This listing is now closed.

The Millions back office is looking for some help. With the site growing, we’ve decided that we could use a book-loving young person to give us a hand with various editing and production tasks. In return for a very modest time commitment, our intern will also join a great group of creative thinkers and have the opportunity to get their work edited by the working writers among us and potentially see their pieces published at The Millions. As is the case with our crew of regulars, our intern will be compensated for the pieces he or she publishes on the site.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

A voracious reader – Our ideal candidate will be well-read and have a solid knowledge of contemporary fiction.
A copy editing ninja – Our intern is going to have the opportunity to copy edit all our stuff, so whoever signs on needs to be good at it.
A blogger – Ideally, our intern will have tried blogging in the past and will be familiar and comfortable with the medium. Experience with WordPress is a huge bonus.
The “Always-on” type – We’re going to need to be able to email our intern with editing tasks that need to be completed on (reasonably) short notice. If you only check email twice a week, this isn’t going to work. Furthermore, if you are adept at finding cool literary stuff online on a daily basis, all the better.

Cash money: Long-form pieces written by the intern for the site and approved for publication will be compensated using the same system we use to compensate our regular writers. And there will most probably be some free books here and there.

Why should you do this? The Millions is read by upwards of 20,000 people every week. Our readership is a laundry list of influential, brilliant folks in the publishing and media industries as well as in academia, not to mention the most engaged, avid readers of literary work that you’ll find anywhere. Aside from learning about how a site like The Millions operates, you’ll have an opportunity to write for all these people.

Where do I sign up? If you are interested in The Millions internship, please send an email to intern@themillions.com telling us about yourself and any blogging and copy editing experience you have as well as up to three samples of original writing you’ve done that you think would be a good fit for The Millions. (These can be attachments or links to elsewhere online.)

We look forward to hearing from you!

Ask a Book Question: The 64th in a Series (Closed Room Mysteries) Judy wrote in with this question: What is a “closed...
Editor Wanted A highly sought after editor position is about to open...
The Millions Hits Facebook I’ve never been big on social networking sites. In fact,...

Welcome Jacob!

C. Max Magee — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:58:36 +0000

We’re welcoming another regular to The Millions. You’ll recognize Jacob Lambert from his ongoing series “The Road (A Comedic Translation),” and he’ll be doing more humor pieces for us as well as whatever else he comes up with. Jacob has written for MAD Magazine for several years. He also has a regular column in Philly Weekly and freelances for various other publications. Welcome Jacob!

Fighting the Taxman Neighbor and sometime Millions humorist Jacob Lambert has published a...

The Millions Turns Seven

C. Max Magee — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:41:06 +0000

The Millions was started on this day seven years, four urls, and umpteen layouts ago. Though it is now unrecognizable to anyone who hasn’t visited since nudging their Internet Explorer 6 over to that long gone blogspot address, the core mission that I developed in that first year for this project largely remains unchanged.

In those early months, when I was nearly broke and working at a bookstore, before I was married and went to grad school, and before I had much notion that this site would be anything at all (let alone what it is today), I wrote what would probably be the closest we’ve ever come to a manifesto (going against my subsequent preference to let The Millions’ larger purpose be self-evident). The nut: “Given that you and I will only be able to read a finite number of books in our lifetime, then we should try, as much as possible, to devote ourselves to reading only the ones that are worth reading, while bearing in mind that for every vapid, uninspiring book we read, we are bumping from our lifetime reading list a book that might give us a profound sort of joy.”

I’ve probably not lived up to that lofty goal in the years since, but it’s a nice sentiment to aspire to.

Funnily enough, at the end of that piece I wrote something that nearly seven years later is like a time capsule from an internet stone age: “Anybody know of any decent book blogs or websites about books?… I haven’t been able to find any besides Arts & Letters Daily and the various newspaper book sections, of course.”

Granted, this could be partially chalked up to my being an online neophyte at the time, but by any measure the last seven years have been a period of proliferating discourse about books and arts. And though the gloom in many corners of the publishing and media industries is sometimes warranted, I maintain that there’s never been a better time to be reader in terms of access to books and communities of fellow readers.

While this is a big day for The Millions, it’s nowhere near as big as August 16, 2009 was. That was the day that we relaunched The Millions in this new incarnation and the site, almost overnight, grew up and became something different (and thankfully our loyal long-term readers came along for the ride, in no small measure because our designer Sean Tice understood what The Millions was all about when he embarked on the design.) In future years, we may point to that date as when The Millions really came into being, everything up until then being a long period of gestation for the site you see today.

I wouldn’t have expected this, but two things happened right away after the redesign. First, the more magazine-like look unconsciously pushed us farther in the direction of focusing on standalone, long-form content. With the Curiosities section offering the perfect repository for interesting links and one-off observations, our writers set themselves to the task of putting out essays and reviews that (in my biased opinion) are with few peers in the world of cultural coverage. The Millions has never been shy about posting longer (if not always weightier) pieces, but this year the site seemed to find its calling as a regularly updated font of such things.

Second, pitches from writers all over the world began flowing into my inbox. It was as though the redesign was also a huge “writers wanted” sign. The Millions has long had a tradition of publishing terrific guest contributions, but since the redesign especially we have posted many dozens of thoughtful pieces by both talented “beginners” and established pros. A look at our “About” page reveals The Millions as a place where precocious college students (and younger) can be published alongside National Book Award winners. I don’t know what this means, necessarily, but it makes me happy.

With the redesign, the securing of our domain name just prior to that, and our ongoing commitment to paying our regular writers, this year also represented the first year of significant investment back into The Millions. Without caveat, this was made possible by the generous patronage of our readers and we sincerely hope that you’ll continue to lend your support going forward. Click here to find out how.

Finally, because anniversaries are a nice moment to look back, I’ll leave you with some of my favorite things from The Millions over the last year. Garth updated his “Walking Tour of New York’s Independent Bookstores” and we joined readers in taking the tour. Fun was had by all. We hope to do something like this again one day. Garth and I put together a three-parter on the future of book coverage online (starting here). We named our favorite reference books. We learned about finding Indie opportunity on the Kindle, the overseas frenzy over Haruki Murakami’s forthcoming opus, and what goes into getting your book cover designed. We tallied up the prizewinners and wrote an open letter to Kanye West. We asked, what’s your “just one book?”

We tried to determine the best book of the millennium (so far) and our readers helped. Edan ogled author photos, Emily M. worked the double shift, and Emily W. prized apert Twilight. We had our Year in Reading. I interviewed a book pirate and Anne interviewed John Banville. Kevin reflected on his parents’ bookshelves, Andrew his grandfather’s papers, and Edan her own. Lydia reviewed Pamuk and won a prize. And Patrick, once and for all, devised a unified theory of reality TV.

Look for more in year 8. Thanks for reading The Millions.

Birthdays Past: An Historic Day; The Millions Turns Two; Thanks for Three Years from The Millions, Four Years of The Millions, Anniversary: The Millions Turns 6.

The Millions Turns Two March 24, was The Millions’ second birthday. In the year...
Anniversary: The Millions Turns 6 The Millions is six years old today. We’re another year...
AbeBooks Turns 100 Million AbeBooks, home of what is likely the most extensive commercial...