Around the Word

The hoaxes with the mostess! Putting a wordly spin on April Fools Day, the Huffington Post gives us the "Best Literary Hoaxes Of All Time." From a falsified letter from Emperor Constantine to a string of modern fraudulent memoirs, this list shows that making stuff up has a long literary tradition.

On your mark, get set, screenwrite! The fifth annual Script Frenzy starts today, a challenge for pros and amateurs alike to write 100 pages of an original script in 30 days. It is free to participate and every writer who completes the challenge gets a certificate and web icon to celebrate their accomplishment. To offer encouragement to these speedy wordsmiths, the screenwriter Greg Marcks is offering a script-writing tip on the Script Frenzy website each day this month. Also, for more of the back story, check out this interview with Frenzy found Chris Baty that Gotham friend David Henry Sterry (of the Book Doctors) put up on Huffpo.

The downside of Kickstarter? We blogged yesterday about Kickstarter, a fundraising site that helps inventors and artists raise money for creative projects. While the site has many advantages for creators looking for cash, the Columbia Journalism Review hones in on some potential problems with DIY fundraising. If Kickstarter gets too big or people start abusing the system, CJR warns, the intimate feel that makes it so popular might be lost forever -- and the donors will be too.

Publishers still pitching in: As Japan continues to pick up the pieces after the earthquake and tsunami last month, the publishing industry is doing what it can to help. Among some of the recent initiatives: Melville House is donating a portion of the proceeds from sales of Banana Yoshimoto's forthcoming novel to relief agencies, while Chronicle Books employees held a San Francisco bakesale that raised $8,000 for the American Red Cross.