Category: publishing

“While not immune to fears of a general economic downturn, publishers and retailers in the Canadian book business are cautiously optimistic at the start of this year’s crucial holiday selling season, heaving a collective sigh of relief that 2007’s toxic climate has lifted.”

“Oversharing, of course, is the default setting in modern American letters.” But even if writers feel the need to publish the most intimate details of their lives, exposing others along the way, do we really need to know these things?

Far better to buy some new books than to ponder the countless unread volumes we already own. “The to-read pile is more than just a physical stack of books: it’s a tower of ambitions failed, hopes unrealised, good intentions unfulfilled. Worse still, it’s a cold hard reminder of mortality. Already, I have intentions to read more books than I can hope to manage in a normal lifetime.”

“Former president of the National Book Critics Circle and prolific book reviewer John Freeman has been appointed American editor of Granta magazine. Freeman, who will remain in New York, will collaborate with Granta’s headquarters in London to develop author events, and provide a connection between the magazine, writers who live in the U.S., and Granta’s North American and Canadian readership.”

“This is panic mode for a publisher. New books are the lifeblood of the business. Without them, the operation would wither and die.” But with fewer new titles, where is the new product coming from? How about translations of foreign authors?

“Lunch is to publishing as liquidity is to banking. The book world is in full-blown transition. Blogs are rampant; Google is digitising every text going; e-readers are transforming the experience of reading. Books (and book reviewing) have been pushed to the margin. It doesn’t help that in a global recession publishing is also feeling the pinch.” So is the Lit-Lunch kaput?

Several publishing houses announced layoffs or salary freezes, and a major reorganization at Random House left two major players in the business without jobs. All this comes as booksellers head into the holiday season — when 25 percent of all book sales occur.

“Yes, it’s a nice, high-minded idea to join a book group, a way to make friends and read books that might otherwise sit untouched. But what happens when you wind up hating all the literary selections — or the other members?”

Recession-hit booksellers hope the book – a collection of five fables mentioned in Rowling’s saga about boy wizard Harry Potter – will give them a festive boost.

“The New York edition of Time Out is on the auction block with a cover price of up to $40 million (£26.8 million) after backers of the weekly magazine pressed for a sale in an attempt to generate profit on their 13-year investment. It is more successful than the original London title, with more than double the weekly circulation, but Tony Elliott, Time Out‘s founder, cannot afford to buy out his investment partners in the business.”