By: Jill Grunenwald, Marketing and Communications Specialist

Mondays, amirite?

Even for those of us that love our job, Mondays can be a struggle so why not ease back into your work day with some light reading? Whenever I need just a few minutes of breathing room, I peruse my large collection of bookmarked websites. Over the course of the week I always find several links that I just have to share with everyone, which is where the Monday 5×5 comes in.

You may be asking yourself what, exactly, is the Monday 5×5? Every Monday, I will be sharing five links from the previous week that I came across that I think you should read. These links will come from a mix of five industries: Literature, libraries, tech, publishing, and, well, anything else I happen to find interesting that week.

So grab your morning cup of joe, settle in at your desk, and let’s get started!

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Over on Electric Literature, Christine Prevas discusses why we need more non-binary characters who aren’t robots or monsters
The book industry as a whole is emphasizing the importance of diversity and representation in what we read and write, which is fantastic. Of course everyone wants to see a mirror of themselves in the books they consume. But for non-binary individuals, that mirror reflects back an image that continues to other them, often in harmful ways.

From LitHub, a brief history of million dollar advances
Ah, advances. Before I became a published book author myself, I was always a twinge envious of authors who landed such large advances. A million dollars! Can you even imagine? Here’s the thing about advances: they are an advance against royalties. It’s not just free money the publisher is giving with no strings attached. The author has to earn that money back for the publisher before they can start collecting any additional royalties. And royalties? That gets paid out at a very small percentage per copy sold, which means an author has to sell a lot of books just to break even.

May is Mystery Month and The Booklist Reader has Five Agatha Christie Mysteries Everyone Should Read
Spoiler alert: sadly, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, is not included. But you should add it to your own list after reading the others mentioned in the article.

(Ed. Note: Also Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. Come on Jill AND Booklist!)

Legal Inspiration unpacks the romance author who got a little cocky with her trademarks
I tend to (half) jokingly say that if I had known intellectual property attorneys were a thing, I would have become one of those rather than a librarian. IP law is fascinating but also very, very complicated. Trademarks! Copyright! Patents! All have their own rules and regulations and attempting to navigate them as a layperson is a bit like riding a tandem bicycle by yourself through a sandstorm, which is why I always appreciate when someone who actually knows what they are talking about breaks it down.

Shameless self promotion: Head on over to The Millions to find out why I have stopped waiting for George R. R. Martin to finish his Game of Thrones series.
“But this is not a transactional relationship. There is no quid pro quo here. My giving George R.R. Martin money, my helping him achieve superstar status, does not earn me the right to dictate and demand when and how his next book should appear.”