KickTraq

Random-Penguin, Penguin-House—whatever you want to call it, the merger of two of the world’s biggest publishers is officially complete. The company, headquartered in New York, now employs over 10,000 people and will publish roughly 15,000 books a year across 250 different imprints. (Read More)

Director Francesco Marchione has launched a Kickstarter campaign to adapt a short story by David Foster Wallace into a 25-minute film. Marchione obtained the rights to “Oblivion,” a story about a marital conflict, from the David Foster Wallace Literary Trust and Little, Brown. So far, he’s raised over $3,000 of his $30,000 goal. (Read More)

Last week there was a hubbub over a Kickstarter campaign to fund a "seduction" guidebook that included passages that encouraged men to be assertive with women. "Don't ask for permission. Be dominant. Force her to rebuff your advances," and other amateur advice justifiably set off alarm bells. Yet the furious attention that followed backfired -- the small, self-published book got funded eight times over. Can literary projects on Kickstarter that aren't offensive do the same? (Read More)

For everyone who was disappointed that the Tom Cruise vehicle “Oblivion” was not based on the David Foster Wallace story and/or collection of the same name, now is your chance to turn that frown upside down! That is, until you see the new “Oblivion” movie, which, as the recently launched Kickstarter campaign describes it, is “story of marital strife, sleep deprivation, and hallucination” and is not likely to be very uplifting. (Read More)