Category: publishing

The problem is that the best-seller lists are now so dominated by memoirs and novels “written” by celebrities that genuine talent is being squeezed out, and once the publishers have paid the enormous advances — £1  million not being unusual — there is little left in the pot for those struggling novelists whose work has some literary merit.

“In a historic first, a black woman writer is a hot favourite to scoop France’s top literary prize next week for a haunting novel on family, betrayal and the hellish ordeal of illegal migration from Africa.”

“Authors must be free to write and publishers to publish. But critics must be free to say when they have had enough. So however many more outpourings of sadistic misogyny are crammed on to the bandwagon, no more will be reviewed by me.”

“The library says the manuscript — sold at auction for $2 million US in 1990 to a book dealer acting on behalf of the German government — should be returned to Israel in accordance with the wishes of the late Max Brod, the executor of Kafka’s will.”

“Dubbed Kindle for PC, the free software will enable readers to view full-color photos and use touch screens to browse books, turn pages and adjust font sizes for digital books purchased at Amazon’s online bookstore.”

“How is a good story invented? Is it yet another of those decision-based endeavors that can, according to the technotopian, freakonomical wisdom of our time, be performed better en masse than by the hopelessly antiquated individual?”

“[E]ven though the Nook offers improvements that trounce the Kindle, it is hard not to see the device as a doomsday machine that could destroy B&N’s beleaguered business. … The Nook will put pressure on a structural weakness in B&N’s business plan, toppling a flailing operation.”

“Our town is the birthplace of the first American library, the first American newspaper, and the electronic ink used in Amazon’s Kindle and other e-readers. Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau were born in Massachusetts; today it’s home to cutting-edge institutions whose revolutionary technologies are reshaping the way those authors’ words will be read by future generations.”

“The government-affiliated China Written Works Copyright Society … [says that Google Books is] illegally copying Chinese-language works for its digital library.” The group is “taking U.S. critics to task for protesting Chinese copyright violations while Google is copying works without prior authorization and posting them online.”

Stephen King’s next novel, “Under the Dome,” will be released as an e-book Dec. 24, “several weeks after the hardcover is published on Nov. 10. … [P]ublishers don’t want to risk cannibalizing hardcover sales,” and they want independent booksellers to be able “to sell as many copies of the hardcover edition as possible during the holiday season.”