Book Links: The Force is strong in this marketing machine; homeless man writes bestseller; how the book industry invented holiday shopping

Retroactive backstory almost ruined Star Wars (Lit Reactor) …
… but creating a “forever” franchise is good marketing. (Publishing Perspectives)
Homeless man writes a bestseller about his life on the streets. (The Telegraph)
Salman Rushdie honoured with the Mailer Prize for lifetime achievement. (Huffington Post)
BitLit adds audiobooks to its bundling services. (The Bookseller)
Carmen Balcells, Gabriel Garcìa Màrquez’s longtime literary agent, on the success of One Hundred Years of Solitude. (Vanity Fair)
Stressed about holiday shopping? Blame the book industry for inventing it. (Literary Hub)
Read Harper Lee’s short story about her first Christmas in New York. (The Guardian)

Quill and Quire