“Science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin has gathered almost 300 signatures in her fight against a Google scheme to digitize books.”
Category: publishing
How To Top The Amazon Kindle’s Bestseller List
“More than half of the “best-selling” e-books on the Kindle, Amazon.com’s e-reader, are available at no charge. The hope is that customers who like what they read will go on to obtain another title for money.”
Will The Tablet Save The Publishing Industry?
“The tablet – or the iSlate or the iPad as it may become known – is regarded as a possible saviour for newspapers, magazines and textbooks… Publishers hope the unquestioned design talents of Apple will ensure that its latest product is the vehicle that enables them to transform their business models.”
How To Preview Poetry
“I think most readers of poetry can tell from the opening lines of a book if it’s a book they want to read more of, just as most of us make a decision about seeing a movie from its trailer. As with a movie trailer, a lot can be seen in a small space.”
Literature On The Island
“Ever since the head of the Nobel literature committee, Horace Engdahl, said that American culture is too “insular,” Americans have had issues with the Nobel. Who am I kidding — we have had issues way before then. Mr. Nobel made a true statement, but not a profound one. It presupposes that other cultures are not insular. Are the Nigerians really that interested in the literature coming out of Denmark?”
Concern Mounts Over Borders Books
The company is paying its largest vendors in timely fashion but is in growing arrears to a number of smaller publishing houses, some of whom are preparing to take legal action.
Judging A Publisher By Its Covers, Observers Cry Racism
Though the heroine of “Magic Under Glass” “is described in the book as black-haired and brown-skinned … the cover chosen by Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books shows a white, brown-haired girl.” Last year, the same publisher put “a white girl on the cover of Justine Larbalestier’s novel Liar, about a black girl.”
Canada’s Arts Publications Imperiled By New Funding Rules
Almost all “small publications with a total annual paid circulation of 5,000 copies or less are ineligible” for assistance from the new Canada Periodical Fund, which replaces two longtime funding streams. “Most of the country’s literary, arts and scholarly periodicals … fall into the ‘small publications’ category,” and they will likely die.
The Mystery Of The Jane Austen Phenomenon
“While she didn’t quite invent the romantic comedy (Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing,’ a clear inspiration for ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ can probably claim that honor), Austen surely conceived and perfected it in its modern form; no one has ever surpassed ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ and not due to any lack of trying. Still, literary achievement can hardly explain the Austen craze.”
Amazon Tries To Lure Authors With 70% Royalty Rate
The company said “that it would give authors a 70% cut of the sale of e-books sold for its Kindle readers, net of digital delivery costs — essentially offering writers a way to bypass traditional book publishers. In a direct swipe at print publishers, the company asserted that authors would make more money if they published digitally with Amazon.”