Category: publishing

“For Perseus Books Group, which recently acquired Carroll & Graf and Thunder’s Mouth Press as part of its acquisition of Avalon Publishing Group, it was a dollars-and-cents issue. The company decided that the two were no longer distinctive enough to thrive in a competitive market. But the New York-based Perseus pointed out that it has also made a multimillion-dollar investment to support independent publishers.”

“‘Literary tourism has until recently been dominated by Burns but there’s been something of revolution. It’s moved away and diversified with people like Ian Rankin and JK Rowling becoming increasingly important,’ said Dr Alastair Durie, of Stirling University.”

“Militant, atheist writers are making an all-out assault on religious faith and reaching the top of the bestseller list, a sign of widespread resentment over the influence of religion in the world among nonbelievers.”

Comic books are beginning to borrow the “season” idea from TV. Comics are produced as episodes that have a TV-like story arc. And some of the more successful of these are run by TV people.

“A few minutes before starting this blog I emailed my agent with the completed manuscript for my latest contribution to bathroom literature: Annus Horribilis. It’s all done. I’ve finished another book, and now – I feel quite weird. … The dominating feature of the last six months of my life has disappeared. My time is my own again, but I’m not certain whether this means freedom, or just emptiness…”

“Forget LA Confidential losing the Best Picture Oscar to Titanic, and Englebert Humperdinck stopping Penny Lane from getting to number one: the worst cultural snub in living memory is that Philip Roth hasn’t won the Nobel prize for literature. It’s not like he’s an unrecognised talent…. But it’s time for his genius to get the global platform – and prize – he so richly deserves.”

“Seven bookshop groups are to launch their first pilot marketing campaign to black and ethnic minority readerships. Starting on Saturday, 70 of their stores will give prominent displays to books by more than 200 authors in these categories.” The companies “are working with the Arts Council of England’s diversity initiative, decibel.”

The Association of American Publishers said total sales by U.S. publishers last year were estimated at $24.197 billion, down from $24.263 billion in 2005. Sales of religious books were down 10 percent, while sales of audio books dropped 11 percent.

“Blooks – books based on blogs or websites – are beginning to reap returns for publishers… Whether blooks will really change the way in which publishers decide what we read is arguable – particularly since a narrow group of people has helped to put many bloggers into bookshops. But for all the noise made about blogging, the mark of success still seems to be a move into print.”

In America, it’s often said that baseball attracts more writers than it does athletes. In Britain, the same is apparently true of… um, fishing? “Fishing is about the closest you can get to physically experiencing poetry. It is a pursuit based on contemplation and solitude that involves an appreciation of the elements; it is a game of chance, hope, escapism; a step into the murky waters of the unknown.”