Category: publishing

“While saying what constitutes a literary novel is hard enough, identifying what makes one a big popular hit is even harder. Novelists and publishers fantasise about international success to match Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong, or Louis De Bernieres’ Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. That trio seem to back up Martyn Goff’s belief a literary best-seller needs to transport the reader to a remote time or place.”

“Sir Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children has won the Best of the Booker prize, as voted for by the public. The 1981 book beat five other former Booker winners shortlisted from the prize’s 40-year history.”

“Publishers and authors are joining forces to campaign against the proposed lifting of restrictions on booksellers importing books that are also published in Australia.The Australian Publishers Association and the Australian Society of Authors are organising a grassroots campaign to educate the public that cheap books will come at a cost to the local industry.”

“The UK has always had the world’s liveliest and most expansive lit-crit pages. A new book over here can hope for reviews in a dozen or more places in its first couple of weeks. But this traditionally vibrant sector, with its myriad outlets, is on the wane. Terminally, it would seem. Pages are falling away, like leaves in autumn.”

“Plans were announced earlier this summer for new titles and reprints to feature a graphic on the back cover indicating “suitable” ages of 5+, 7+, 9+, 11+ and 13+/teen. Due to be implemented this autumn, the scheme has provoked widespread opposition from some of the biggest names in children’s writing including JK Rowling and all four children’s laureates.”

“I love books. Admire and appreciate and adore… And yet, if I’m painfully honest, I have to admit it: I barely read books anymore. Not nearly the way I used to, anyway. Not for a long, long time. And chances are, if you’re at all drawn to the new media vortex, neither do you.”

“This is a country with a rich literary tradition – think of Borges, Sabato, Hernandez – but since the devaluation of the peso in 2002, books have become a luxury item. Personal libraries, much less common now, are seen as a sign of wealth. People buy books they’re likely to hold onto for longer. And they don’t give them up so easily.”

A major restoration is planned for the Bronx apartment where Edgar Allen Poe lived out his final years. “Work is expected to start in the spring and last a year. The cottage will be closed to the public during the work. The restoration will cost about $250,000.”

“The way Mark Bauerlein sees it, something new and disastrous has happened to America’s youth with the arrival of the instant gratification go-go-go digital age. The result is, essentially, a collective loss of context and history, a neglect of ‘enduring ideas and conflicts.’ Survey after painstakingly recounted survey reveals what most of us already suspect: that America’s youth know virtually nothing about history and politics. And no wonder. They have developed a brazen disregard of books and reading.”

“Whether or not we are ready to see the process by which books are made laid so bare – a sort of reversal of the demystification that well-intentioned parents visit on their children when they explain exactly where chicken nuggets come from – is another matter. We should be perfectly happy to accept that books are just elaborately and prettily presented photocopies – but we object when we feel that they are being sold like so many cans of beans.”