Category: publishing

“I’ve done the math and here’s the bottom line. If you want consistent artistic bang for your buck, skip the movies, forget the theatre and turn off your TV set. Instead, read a book. More specifically, read a novel. More specifically still, read the kind of novel that publishers call ‘trade fiction.'”

There’s nothing like a new book. The physical beauty, the perfectly printed pages, the… smell? “As a book reader (and as someone who enjoys the physical object that is a book), I’ve come to identify this particular smell as being intricately connected with the beauty and wonder that great art books and artfully produced books can provide.”

Everyone in the publishing biz wants desperately to find the next Harry Potter. But what if there just isn’t another one to be found? The reality may be that the Cult of Harry is one of those unexplainable, once-in-a-lifetime phenomena that we need to enjoy while it’s here.

Mirriam-Webster so decrees. Along with embracing the adjective that combines “gigantic” and “enormous,” the dictionary publishers also got into “Bollywood,” “sudoku” and “speed dating.”

Some people get so upset about punctuation errors. “The ‘zero tolerance’ approach recommends that we angrily harangue greengrocers and others who have failed to learn the standard English norms.” But aren’t there worse crimes to go on about?

“It’s every critic’s nightmare. A publisher gets snotty and refuses to send out any advance copies of a well-hyped book – even if you agree to sign an embargo letter – and you know that your editor is going to want you to write something the day it’s published for the following day’s paper.” This is when a speed reading course comes in handy…

The Canadian dollar is now almost an even exchange with American currency, which is good news for the country’s economy as a whole, but bad news for consumers, who are still paying hefty markups on products like books despite the new strength of the loonie. But relief is on the way: “Last week, some major publishers that distribute U.S. books began to offer retailers 5 per cent discounts to take into account the soaring loonie. That’s on top of publisher reductions of up to 20 per cent last year.”

“Known as the African Booker, the annual Caine prize is awarded to a short story published in English by an African writer whose work has reflected African sensibilities. It is the second time that Arac de Nyeko has been in the running for the award, after she was shortlisted in 2004 for her short story Strange Fruit. That year Brian Chikwava from Zimbabwe won with Seventh Street Alchemy.”

“Among all the possible reasons people have for shuttering bookstores these days, slipping into a diabetic coma does not come up terribly often. Andrew Dowdy, owner of Other Times Books, was about as invulnerable as anyone could be in this storm-tossed trade: Here was a guy who could make his rent, who didn’t worry about Amazon, who offered something that Barnes & Noble never could. Still, when he was awakened by his landlord after four days and nights passed out on his apartment floor, he realized … that it was time to hang it up.”

“Los Angeles has a way of plowing under its landmarks. … And so it is with genuine delight that we receive word that a Los Angeles landmark will survive. Dutton’s Brentwood Books is a cultural institution of the first rank, host to the happenstance discoveries that define great bookstores — the chance lighting upon a bit of fiction across from the latest biography, the illuminating browse through a book of photographs, the helpful wisdom of a literary clerk.”