Category: publishing

“For much of Twitter’s life, the idea that its 140-character stricture could be a crucible for a new kind of ambitious writing has been, more than anything else, a punch line. But there’s evidence that the literary flowering of Twitter may actually be taking place. The Twitter haiku movement — “twaiku” to its initiates — is well under way.”

“If we think of language as a technology, we could think of paper dictionaries as a kind of user’s manual. And if the language had a third-party manual, that book would be “How to Read a Word,” by Elizabeth Knowles.”

“An eerily prescient novel in which a giant earthquake knocks the earth from its axis has netted a £500,000 deal reminiscent of the heady days before the economy took a nosedive and publishers’ advances plummeted.”

“A ripple of horror has spread through library campaigners at the news that the only legal protection enjoyed by the public library service has been put up for review as part of a government initiative to scrap ‘burdensome’ duties on local authorities.”

Chains such as Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Sears “are backing a coalition called the Alliance for Main Street Fairness, which is leading efforts to change sales-tax laws in more than a dozen states including Texas and California.”

“Sales of electronic books in January increased by more than 115 percent compared to the same time the year before, a report released by the Association of American Publishers said on Thursday.”

The book “follows three female members of a peasant family that counts seven girls and one boy, as they negotiate the transitions China has undergone,” from the Cultural Revolution through rapid development and urbanization. The judges even compared Bi’s Three Sisters to its namesake Chekhov play.

The chain “is set to close another 28 of its superstores on top of the 200 locations it is already shutting down as part of its reorganization under bankruptcy protection. … The closings will leave Borders with only half of its superstores.”

“On Tuesday 1 March, several publishing offices in Europe were raided by inspectors from the European Commission. No one likes to meet a Eurocrat at the best of times, but these ones may be beating the death knell of the publishing industry.”

“I actually don’t disapprove of them, but I do predict that they will only ever occupy a small percentage of the market, in the same way that audio books, airport or large-print editions do.”