Category: publishing

“The Association of American Publishers announced Wednesday that it will give its annual AAP Honors prize, for “significant achievements in promoting American books and authors,” to the National Book Critics Circle.”

“Ragip Zarakolu is facing up to three years in prison for publishing a book – promoting reconciliation between Turks and Armenians – by George Jerjian, a writer living in London.”

“The Catholic school board in Calgary has followed the lead of a Catholic school board in Burlington, Ont., in pulling the children’s fantasy book The Golden Compass off school shelves.” The book’s author is an acknowledged atheist, and some view his work as anti-Christian.

“Now the country’s leading literary award — the winner takes home $20,000 — the Russian Booker has had a bumpy history. The contest was established 15 years ago by Booker Plc, the food wholesaler that bankrolled the U.K. Booker Prize until 2002.”

“Since the National Endowment for the Arts released a report in November that linked a decline in reading for pleasure, especially among young people, to a decline in reading scores, there has been a lot of freaking out about why Johnny won’t read. Of course, we already know the answer: competition from other media, ranging from TV to Game Boy Advance, and the pace of modern life. But maybe it’s the wrong question.”

“The collection, amassed over 170 years, ranges from manuscripts by the Marquis de Sade to pictures of naughty nuns and randy noblemen.”

“The Internet has become, like the 17th-century printing press, incapable of observing copyrights. In the same way the printing press encouraged the mass production of books and magazines and newspapers, the Internet cries out for the distribution of all information–everything from blog entries to pictures to books. And as it distributes all of this information, it exerts a leveling force that diminishes the value of everything it touches.”

“As editors juggle the variables and fight intramural turf wars, the freelance reviewer nurses his or her anxieties in isolation, gnawing on the umbilical cord. It’s lonely inside their shoebox.”

“Powell’s, which takes up a city block, has managed to thrive in this era of bookstore busts, thanks in part to a decision to move early and aggressively into online sales. So why is there a creeping fear that Powell’s, which has five other locations and a 60,000-square-foot warehouse, could soon get lost?”

A long-buried book by Pulitzer-winner Wallace Stegner is the subject of a dispute between a small publishing house and the late author’s family.