Category: publishing

“Just as military contractors, air traffic controllers and federal workers are coping with the grim results of a partisan impasse over the federal deficit, the Library of Congress, whose services range from copyrighting written works — whether famous novels or poems scribbled on napkins — to the collection, preservation and digitalization of millions of books, photographs, maps and other materials, faces deep cuts that threaten its historic mission.”

“The graphics may be beautiful, but pausing every few minutes to pan around a room or take in a vista of London makes the whole storytelling business desperately slow.”

No, we have no actual jokes about his one-on-one poetry performances putting people to sleep (apparently, though, his 15-minute poem bombs make people cry).

“Literary translators have to understand the cultural underpinnings of both languages and they have to elicit the author’s voice, intended meaning, melody, rhythm, and sensibility. They have to understand the intricacies of place and time as well — and all this often requires research and travel and a kind of intimacy with the author.”

“The goal of designating a chief poet is ‘to encourage other Navajo poets, writers, film makers and artists to realize how important their work is to the continuance and growth of Navajo contemporary culture.'”

“Defendants have marketed themselves as an independent publisher with a reputation for outstanding quality and impressive book sales. Instead, Defendants are not an independent publisher, but a print-on-demand vanity press.”

“It’s fair to say that Wikipedia has spent far more time considering the philosophical ramifications of categorization than Aristotle and Kant ever did.”

“We have every interest in seeing that publishers remain sustainable enterprises and that authors are paid fairly for their work. But those economic imperatives must be considered alongside the role of libraries in a democratic society. The challenge is to ensure that the information revolution provides more, not less, access for the public.”

“Total spending on printed and digital books rose 4% to £3.3bn last year, the Publishers Association said.”

“We judges knew too well what a difference the award could make. Yet this willingness to hold back, even when the burden of doing so was heavy, hopefully reflects what makes the Vogel so unique: it still searches for those works that achieve a certain stillness.”