Category: publishing

Well-known Lebanese author Rabee Jaber won the $50,000 International Prize for Arabic Fiction for The Druze of Belgrade, which “moves from Beirut just after the civil war in Mount Lebanon to Belgrade and the Balkans, following the misadventures of a Christian egg seller who is forced into exile with a group of Druze fighters.”

From notes found in the margins of various scrolls: “The parchment is hairy.” “The ink is thin.” “Oh, my hand.”

“Is it possible that the most inspired children’s book writers never grow up? By that I don’t mean that they understand or have special affection or affinity toward children, but that they don’t understand adulthood, and I mean that in the best possible sense. It may be that they haven’t moved responsibly out of childhood the way most of us have, into busy, functional, settled adult life.”

“Over the past 25 years, Henry James has been the top-ranked American writer, according to the latest MLA International Bibliography. More than 3,000 pieces of scholarship have been devoted to him in whole or part since 1987. Only William Faulkner approaches him in volume.”

A book by the late Christopher Hitchens is leading the field for this year’s Orwell Prize for best political book. ‘Arguably’ is a collection of essays whose subjects range from the War on Terror to Diana, Princess of Wales.

“Setting aside the legalities, all the arguments about competitive and anticompetitive behavior in e-books seem to turn on how best to carve up the e-book pie among ten or twelve different market actors.”

“Great content on the Web ends up being a desired opportunity for brands on a direct basis. Networks are losing to the machines and moving towards context-based selling, and so are publishers. We get caught up talking about technology but in my mind it always comes back to great content.”

“Because even though all surveys (and there are many) of tablet users indicate that the majority of them regularly use their devices to read, reformatting, repackaging, and, most importantly, monetizing that material can be complicated and costly — which is especially problematic as publishing houses and newspaper companies continue to be hit hard by the recession.”

“Why was the live encounter between a newspaper and its readers so much more affable than it can sometimes feel online? How can the liveliness of digital debate be preserved and enhanced while embracing more of that friendliness?”

Time for a reality show set in a bookstore? What with distributor boxes, 5-year-olds moving chairs, random toys, tendonitis from reshelving books and the whole Hunger Games thing, bookstores aren’t exactly OSHA-approved.