Category: publishing

The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Isesco) has urged its 50 members to boycott the fair, which starts on March 14. So far, Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and Tunisia have confirmed they are to pull out.

“When novelists try to make their sex scenes literary, when they try to orchestrate each moan and groan into the book, wasting all that time trying to create the perfect scene, trying to make it seem believable, they fail miserably. The literary approach to writing a decent, believable sex scene is the most embarrassing thing about contemporary literary fiction today.”

Not too many years ago, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs was a marginal group with a few hundred members and lots of financial problems. Now 9,000 poets, fiction writers and literary wannabes of every description throng the annual meeting, the group has a $2 million budget, and a list of accomplishments…

“Penguin is planning to offer audiobooks that are free of digital copyright protection technology, which will allow buyers to play them on any digital device, dismissing fears that they could become the latest target for online pirates.”

“As you may have heard, all the writers are in Brooklyn these days. It’s the place to be. You’re simply not a writer if you don’t live here. Google “brooklyn writer” and you’ll get, Did you mean: the future of literature as we know it?”

“Why did people take her seriously for so long? Raising questions about the authenticity of someone’s Holocaust testimony, however implausible it seems, is a joyless task and one that puts you in unsavory company.”

All three of the remaining presidential contenders can reasonably claim to be bestselling authors. But as the campaign drags on, only Barack Obama has seen a major spike in sales accompany his rise in the polls. Sales of Obama’s two memoirs have averaged 35,000 per week in 2008, while Hillary Clinton and John McCain are racking up fewer than 1,000 sales each.

Audible Inc., in the process of being acquired by Amazon, reported total revenue of just under $110 million in 2007, an increase of 34% over 2006.

“Book publishers, well aware that there’s a brave new world of digital content just around the corner and keen to exploit their backlists, as well as any future titles, across as many platforms and devices as possible, are in the midst of the rather overdue process of securing digital rights from their authors.”

“Rowling said she was especially irked that the site’s owner and the lexicon’s would-be publisher, RDR Books, continued to insist that her acceptance of free, fan-based Web sites justified the efforts.”