Category: publishing

“Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a book deal with HarperCollins Publishers for what is described as her memoir. … Neither Palin nor HarperCollins would … say how much she was being paid. Asked why, the governor and 2008 Republican nominee for vice president said she didn’t want to distract from the substance of the book.”

“Perhaps for the first time ever, the White House jammed and slammed last night. Poets and playwrights, actors and musicians packed the ornate East Room, delivering cool jazz and glorious spoken-word poetry, sprinkling a bit of hip-hop and a bit of the heroic couplet. And through it all, the president and the first lady watched — and applauded. ‘We’re here to celebrate the power of words,’ President Obama said.”

“Historic books in the Bodleian Library have been left out of reach after a health and safety directive banned ladders from a reading room. Students wanting to access works on the top shelf in the gallery section of the Duke Humfreys room have been unable to do so due to a low balcony and uneven floors … although ladders had been used for many years previously.”

The venerable British morning talk show, whose Oprah-like Book Club is a very big deal for the UK’s publishing industry, will go off the air in July, due to poor ratings on the for-pay digital channel to which it moved last fall. But production company Cactus TV says it’s in “advanced talks” with “media partners” to keep the Book Club going.

“Nobel prize winner Derek Walcott has withdrawn from the race to become Oxford’s professor of poetry following an anonymous letter campaign. The campaign saw up to 100 Oxford academics sent photocopied pages from a book detailing a sexual harassment claim made against Walcott by a Harvard student in 1982.”

“‘I thought, who do these people think they are?’ [Ursula K.] Le Guin said. ‘Why do they think they can violate my copyright and get away with it?’ This would all sound familiar to filmmakers and musicians who fought similar battles – with varying degrees of success  – over the last decade. But to authors and their publishers in the age of Kindle, it’s new and frightening territory.”

“Tintin mania swept a Belgian auction house on Sunday with almost 600 lots associated with Hergé, creator of the famous cartoon reporter, breaking national and world sales records, an expert said.” The sale raised a total of €1,172,000.

Barack Obama recently endorsed PEN winner Joseph O’Neill’s book. “Novelists should believe strongly enough in what they do to say, “What’s the big deal? Why shouldn’t the president read my book?’ O’Neill said. ‘Surely it’s not contended by anybody that the only valuable information about the world is to be found in briefing books’.”

“Of course, you can use the dosh to fund a prize for the best poetry collection of the year, but I’d be just as happy if you blew it on the horses or invested it in fetish gear. You shouldn’t be feeling that you have to fund a poetry prize out of your meagre emolument.”

“Changes on the horizon include the phasing out of print catalogues, a de-emphasis on in-person sales conferences in favor of video and web conferences, more focused lists, reduced travel and attendance at trade shows, more use of social networks and a reduction in print advertising. Sales reps will also extend their territory into non-bookstore accounts.”