Category: publishing

A North Carolina school district has banned the much-lauded Cassell Dictionary of Slang, claiming that the book, which includes some 87,000 entries, is somehow inappropriate for children. Not surprisingly, the impetus for the ban came from a Christian fundamentalist group, which is also seeking to ban many other books, including Maurice Sendak’s “Mickey In The Night Kitchen” and Robert Cormier’s “The Chocolate War.”

“A London hospital that holds the copyright to Peter Pan has questioned the appropriateness of a series of books that portrays the character Wendy exploring her sexuality. The Lost Girls books, by graphic novelist Alan Moore, are about three world-famous characters: Wendy, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The characters meet one another and have sexual adventures. Wendy not only engages in erotic trysts but also encounters pedophiles.”

Casinos are booking authors to give readings. “It is one thing to see Siegfried & Roy or even Cirque du Soleil between playing the slots, but an author? For casinos, which are trying to attract visitors interested not so much in gambling as in a broad range of entertainment, it can make sense.”

“Independent booksellers in the Bay Area share a common lament over a grim or nonexistent future for some of the most cherished havens for book lovers and strongest venues for visiting authors. Many cite Amazon.com and the proliferation of big chain bookstores. But there are other factors, they say, that have piled straw on the backs of businesses that face thin profit margins and stiff competition from discounters. They range from the dot-com blowup to bad city planning, to a societal turn toward laptop literacy.”

A magnificent collection of antique books collected by the heir to a Cincinnati brewery fortune is to be sold at auction next week. “The sale features books in all forms, including ancient papyri fragments, Persian manuscripts, European books of hours and Hebrew manuscripts, as well as book-related curiosities, like the only known round bookbinding of the Renaissance, made in leather in 1590 by Caspar Meuser of Dresden for Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn, Prince-Bishop of Würzburg… The sale is expected to raise $4.5 million.”

The ACLU is contesting a Miami-Dade County school board decision to remove a book from its library shelves. “Last week, the board voted 6-3 to remove ‘Vamos a Cuba’ and its English-language version, ‘A Visit to Cuba’ from 33 schools, stating the books were inappropriate for young readers because of inaccuracies and omissions about life in the communist nation.”

So what if authors are selling product placement in their books? Jane Smiley thinks it’s a great… er… never mind…

“At present, there is no common standard used by producers and manufacturers. As a result, customers can’t read a Palm e-book on a Microsoft Reader, noted Nick Bogaty, executive director of the IDPF. If companies adopt the new standards, not only will customers be able to read e-books on different devices, but e-books will be cheaper and easier to produce, which should lead to more titles being available.”

The city of San Francisco is opening its first completely new branch to open in 40 years. “For residents and workers in Mission Bay, it will be not only a place to borrow books but also a place to gather — the kind of public center that established neighborhoods take for granted.”

University press publishers gather to talk about their business. Like all publishers, the university presses are having to reinvent their business. This spring the presses were hit with a glut of textbook returns. It seems students are getting more saavy about used textbooks. One expert warned that “today’s students, tomorrow’s faculty have grown up with technology. This Net Generation’s expectations are defined by Google, Amazon.com, and eBay. They expect everything to be online and everything to be free. They have become a visual culture. They’re moving away from text.”