Category: publishing

“Certainly, the mass closure of Borders and A&R stores in city centres, suburbs and rural areas underscores how, for authors, publishers and booksellers, sweeping change is on the horizon. Either we [writers] change with it or we find something else to do.”

“Within a day of the Library of Congress’ announcement, several of Levine’s books had sold out on Amazon.com, including “News of the World” and “The Simple Truth.” Little of his work, or of any poetry, is available electronically because verse is so difficult to format for digital reading devices.”

“Dramatic falls in hardback sales are turning the triumph of the ebook into a defeat for paper publishing, with readers in their thousands opting for electronic editions rather than expensive, dust-jacketed copies of the latest fiction titles.”

“Book publishers launching their fall seasons this month are madly producing trailers in the hopes they’ll get a similar response, creating advance buzz in an ever-enlarging market hooked up to the Internet.”

“‘Terrified’ by Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and discounted e-book pricing, five major publishers allegedly acted together to increase e-book prices and compel Amazon to abandon its discount sales strategy. That’s the gist of a new class action antitrust lawsuit filed in the US District Court [in California]”.

“A new study suggests that spoilers can actually increase our enjoyment of literature. Although we’ve long assumed that the suspense makes the story — we keep on reading because we don’t know what happens next — this new research suggests that the tension actually detracts from our enjoyment.”

“It is the reader-review that has prompted the recent and widespread suggestion that the critic is dead; that the paid-up arbiter of elegance is finished. Actually, I like reader-reviews – or I did, until I wrote a book. Then I decided that several reader-reviewers were both wrong and, indeed, crap.”

“The Library of Congress will announce on Wednesday that Philip Levine, best known for his big-hearted, Whitmanesque poems about working-class Detroit, is to be the next poet laureate, succeeding W. S. Merwin.”

“This month the best-selling ‘lad-lit’ novelist Tony Parsons becomes the second author to take up the airport operator BAA’s invitation to spend a week at Heathrow. In fact, he’s there right now, observing stressed holidaymakers and bored business travellers, eagle-eyed security guards and overworked cleaners, as he works on a new book.”

“BookStats, a comprehensive survey conducted by two major trade groups that was released early Tuesday, revealed that in 2010 publishers generated net revenue of $27.9 billion, a 5.6 percent increase over 2008. Publishers sold 2.57 billion books in all formats in 2010, a 4.1 percent increase since 2008.”