Category: publishing

“The latest report from the Association of American Publishers, compiling sales data from US publishing houses, shows that total ebook sales in February were $90.3m (£55.2m). This makes digital books the largest single format in the US for the first time ever, the AAP said, overtaking paperbacks at $81.2m.”

“A researcher analyzing the sounds in languages spoken around the world has detected an ancient signal that points to southern Africa as the place where modern human language originated.”

“Some of the biggest names in Irish literature are set to go head to head for the richest literary prize in the world, with Colm Toibin, Colum McCann and William Trevor all making the shortlist for the 100,000 euro Impac Dublin literary award.”

“Writers don’t get to meet readers very often and when they do it’s only for a short time (after a book festival or library event, for example). On Twitter, people who had read my book followed me and I could see what else they were reading, why they’d liked what I’d written and by the by, more about them than I’d ever elicit from two minutes in a tent at a book festival, stuck at a signing desk. It was fascinating.”

“In the old days, it would seem like ideas were crammed in like people in an elevator. And my head was sometimes a very noisy place to be. The other thing that happens with that is, say you’re working on something and it’s going along pretty well, and two or three ideas occur, and they’re all yelling ‘You should write this! You should write this!’ It’s almost like being married and all of a sudden your life is full of beautiful women.”

Orders were placed by telephone, fax, or (snail) mail. Sales figures were totaled up manually and distributed inter-office on mimeographed sheets. The top retail booksellers were B. Dalton, Waldenbooks and Crown; the Book-of-the-Month Club was still a big deal. Peter Osnos looks back …

“A book that undertakes to educate ‘general readers’ about contemporary poetry is handicapped by the uncomfortable truth that there is no such thing as a general reader.”

“Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, winner of a National Book Award for young people’s literature, has become one of the most challenged books in the U.S., according to the American Library Association.”

“Amazon has found a new way to make its Kindle e-book reader even cheaper: It will start shipping a new edition next month that is supported by advertising. … The ads and special offers will show up as full-screen screensavers on the Kindle device and as small banner ads at the bottom of the Kindle home screen.”

“Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife, Emma Henderson’s Grace Williams Says It Loud, and Kathleen Winter’s Annabel made the shortlist announced yesterday for the £30,000 prize for women writers.” The other finalists are Emma Donoghue’s Room, Aminatta Forna’s The Memory of Love, and Great House by Nicole Krauss.