Category: publishing

“Regan accuses Jane Friedman, president and chief executive of HarperCollins and the News Corporation, which owns the publishing house, of mounting a ‘malicious assault on her character and reputation.’ Ms. Regan says claims that she was fired last December because of an anti-Semitic remark were ‘completely fabricated’.”

A rare first edition of Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights has been sold at auction for £114,000 – more than twice the estimated price.

Samina Malik “went all Web 2.0 and posted poems – terrible, terrible poems – on various websites. That’s about the extent of her terrorist activity. But never fear. The judge and prosecutors went the extra mile to give her a notoriety that her very, very bad poetry and infantile fantasies about being a terrorist really don’t warrant.”

It seems hard to believe that a book called “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read” would hit the best-seller lists in France, where books are still regarded as sacred objects and the writer occupies a social position somewhere between the priest and the rock star.

A new UK study says that 77% of readers re-read favorite books they’ve enjoyed. “The research quotes figures suggesting that we are likely to return to favourite books not just once but over and over, with 17% of readers polled claiming to have read a favourite book more than five times.”

“The prize is sponsored by the Man Group Plc — the financial group behind the world-renowned Booker Prize. Publishing giant Penguin is set to release Jiang’s work next March and it believes the book could become a global hit.”

Without the TV talk shows, authors have lost an important promotional tool. “To make matters worse, fall is the biggest time of the year for booksellers, who schedule many of their heavyweight titles to appear in October and November.”

A publisher has agreed to delay the release of a Harry Potter encyclopaedia after being sued by author JK Rowling.

Harry Potter tops the list. “Nearly 80 per cent of Britons have re-read a book, with the Harry Potter series the most likely to be picked up again.”

“Wal-Mart, Costco, Fred Meyer, Safeway, Bartell, and other mass-market retailers, sell around 40 percent of romance novels, according to the RWA. Study these in-store displays and you’ll discern highly specific genres within romance: fantasy, paranormal, sci-fi, and especially historical.”