Category: publishing

“Sales of e-books more than doubled from 2010 to 2011, according to a survey of nearly 2,000 publishers released Wednesday. E-books jumped from 6 percent of the market to 15 percent and e-revenue for new adult fiction is now higher than the revenue for hardcovers.”

“Unpublished writers are set to compete on a level playing field with the biggest names in literary fiction after Costa announced that its new short story award will be judged anonymously. The £3,500 prize will be for a single, previously unpublished short story of up to 4,000 words.”

“Jumping on the Fifty Shades of Grey bandwagon, along with the rest of UK publishing, the small press [Total-E-Bound] is about to launch erotic rewrites of classic titles including Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Jane Eyre and A Study in Scarlet.”

“It is an unlikely spot for a literary festival, a town of half a million people with no theatre and no cinema. But Hargeisa is carving out a reputation as the Horn of Africa’s answer to Hay-on-Wye by attracting readers and writers from around the world to its book fair.”

“The government-funded comic doesn’t try very hard to create believable, sympathetic characters caught up in meaningful conflicts. Instead, America’s Army focuses on making the Army look good.”

“It’s easy to portray the future of political cartooning exclusively as one of doom and gloom, but there’s also opportunity on the horizon. And it comes, perhaps not coincidentally, from the same force that threatens the existence of print media – the all-consuming Internet.”

“This technology cannot simply substitute for the great libraries of the present. After all, libraries are not just repositories of books. They are communities, sources of expertise, and homes to lovingly compiled collections that amount to far more than the sum of their individual printed parts.”

“Odd as it may seem, the utopian yearning for an authentic literary culture is part of a growing current of opposition to the status quo. It’s embyronic and confused – and New York’s insane cost of living may yet move the centre of gravity elsewhere – but an interest in Hungarian fiction may signal much more than meets the eye.”

“At the centre of the current row is a virtually identical jacket on Harry Lipkin, PI. This book’s publishers and author, Barry Fantoni of Private Eye fame, call it an “affectionate homage” to Hawkey, although they admit it is used without acknowledgement or authorisation.”

“As a crime writer, surprise is PD James’s forte. Her ability to keep readers guessing has not failed her in half a century. And it is characteristic that, towards the end of her writing life, she should elect to spring a new surprise on us.”