Category: publishing

“The two most prestigious awards for American children’s books went yesterday to Susan Patron, a relatively unknown author who was awarded this year’s Newbery Medal, and to David Wiesner, an illustrator who won the Caldecott Medal for the third time.”

“The relationship between writers and their readers has changed considerably over the past few years. You write a book because what you have to say is, at the very least, long-winded, and possibly even nuanced or subtle. It takes you months or years. But this is the information age; whoever you are, the digital camera will find you eventually. Right now, it is the turn of writers to be caught in the net.”

“At a time when publishing has become yet another media spectacle, with advances rising into the stratosphere and key players engaging in public dramas like Judith Regan’s firing from HarperCollins, Robert Loomis has remained rooted in the classic mold of the editor, which is to say, in the background.”

Oprah Winfrey’s powerhouse book club returns later this month with its first selecyion in a year. Winfrey’s picks usually sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Winfrey’s last choice, Elie Wiesel’s “Night” sold more than 1.5 million copies thanks to her endorsement, according to publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

“The Decibel Penguin prize, an Arts Council initiative awarded to writers of ‘Asian, African and Caribbean background,’ has been forced to change its entry criteria after an intervention by the Commission for Racial Equality.”

New Yorkers love to disparage Los Angeles’ literary scene. “In fact, there has never been a shortage of serious, gifted writers in Los Angeles and its surroundings. In the last decade, however, Los Angeles has fortified this reservoir of talent with a new sense of literary community, and a growing literary infrastructure. The two go hand in hand.”

“Judith Regan’s lucrative, scandalous reign at ReganBooks ended abruptly when she was fired last December amid allegations that she made anti-Semitic remarks to a HarperCollins lawyer. In November, Regan’s planned Simpson book and television interview were canceled by corporate head Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. in response to widespread public outrage.”

“A memoir of a rough-and-tumble childhood in Saskatchewan, a biography of one of Canada’s most charismatic leaders and a history of the convulsions in the French art world of the 19th century are the finalists for the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction… The winner will be announced in Toronto on Feb. 26.”

A landmark independent bookstore is facing possible closure in Los Angeles because its landlord wants to redevelop the site to take advantage of a surge in real estate prices. “In a neighborhood where median housing prices approach $2 million, neighbors fear the loss of a quirky, laid-back community gathering spot. But a reckoning between the burgeoning Westside real estate marketplace and this rambling, anachronistic store seems inevitable.”

“There was a small rise of about 1% in the number of visits to public libraries – continuing a trend for increasing visits. The total number of visitors has risen 7.5% in total over the past five years. The number of computer terminals in public libraries has risen by 7% in the past year as libraries continue to expand their role into different forms of educational media.”