Category: publishing

“The proportion of adults reading some kind of so-called literary work — just over half — is still not as high as it was in 1982 or 1992, and the proportion of adults reading poetry and drama continued to decline. Nevertheless the proportion of overall literary reading increased among virtually all age groups, ethnic and demographic categories since 2002.”

“Whose fault is this? Canadian authors, for not creating more world-shaking masterpieces, or Canadians in general, for being such ignorant philistines?”

Publishers and literary agents are “staying on the sober side of upbeat. They all feel that, for true readers, books are not a ‘discretionary spend’.”

“The slow-motion collapse of L.A. Weekly also coincides with a radical shrinking of the L.A. Times, the implosion of The Daily News and the continuing downward descent of smaller papers like City Beat and The Daily Journal. If there was ever a time for an aggressive, irreverent, credible metro weekly to take on the Gray Lady, it’s right now, right here.”

“Author Solutions, a publisher of print-on-demand books based in Bloomington, Ind., has acquired Xlibris, a rival self-publisher, expanding its footprint in one of the fastest-growing segments of publishing.”

“If you choose to create entertainment that demands reading, you are deliberately choosing the most inaccessible of art forms from which to make your living… Astoundingly, however, books continue to be a lucrative business. It doesn’t make any sense. Popular books are selling in the millions. Think about all the disadvantages of reading…”

Jack Shafer: “It would be easy to accuse editors and publishers of being clueless about the coming Internet disruption… [but t]he industry has understood from the advent of AM radio in the 1920s that technology would eventually be its undoing and has always behaved accordingly.”