Category: publishing

There has been a phenomenal rise in the number of book clubs in America. But “these days, ‘book club’ is more like code for girly gab session than a meeting of the Algonquin Round Table.”

His book “The Master” explored the tortured soul of the 19th century American novelist Henry James — received the $125,000 prize and a Waterford crystal trophy during a ceremony in Dublin City Hall. The 11-year-old prize is one of the world’s most lucrative for fiction writers.”

“By now, television and movie viewers have become used to this kind of thing: when they see sneakers or cars on a show or in a film, they generally assume that these appearances have been paid for by the companies that make the brands. But product placement in books is still relatively rare. The use of even the subtlest of sales pitches, particularly in a book aimed at adolescents, could raise questions about the vulnerability of the readers.”

“Three of the largest publishers have created imprints – semi-independent publishing companies – to deal specifically with conservative titles. Like their counterparts on the left, few of these books seem intended to convince much of anyone of much of anything. Authors have been preaching to the choir or, more accurately, throwing to the carnivorous choir chunks of bloody red meat.”

“Stephen Joyce is James Joyce’s only living descendant, and since the mid-nineteen-eighties he has effectively controlled the Joyce estate. Scholars must ask his permission to quote sizable passages or to reproduce manuscript pages from those works of Joyce’s that remain under copyright—including “Ulysses” and “Finnegans Wake”—as well as from more than three thousand letters and several dozen unpublished manuscript fragments… His audacity and his pique have amused some Joyceans, and at times the Joyceans have provoked him.”

“Literary dedications began with scribblers in the 18th-century sucking up to rich patrons. It was only in the past 100 years that they became vehicles for private missives and Valentines.
Decoding them is fun – with luck you can catch an illuminating flash as the authorial skirts are momentarily lifted. But, when love turns sour, loving dedications can have a horrible, inexpungable irony. Novels have an unfortunate habit of surviving marriages.”

A US judge has ruled that the rights to ten works by John Steinbeck belong to his relatives. “The rights properly belong to the author’s son, Thomas Steinbeck, and granddaughter Blake Smyle. The ruling came after the two canceled rights previously held by various individuals and organizations, including publishing house Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and the heirs of John Steinbeck’s widow, Elaine, who died in April 2003.”

A giant new used book store is taking shape in Toronto. “Modelled on the Strand bookstore in New York, which boasts that it has “18 miles of bookshelves” and on Half Price Books, a chain of 80 secondhand stores in the American southwest, it will be like nothing Toronto has seen before, at least on this scale.”

“Worth a lucrative 100,000 euros ($126,000), the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is the richest and most international prize of its kind. Libraries from all over the world nominate books and, unlike many other awards, it is open to translations and thus to books written in any language.” Judging for large literary prizes is generally conducted with the utmost secrecy, but one of this year’s IMPAC judges has decided to document her experiences.

“Borders Group has eliminated 90 positions, approximately 6% of its corporate workforce. No store positions were cut, but reductions were made “across the board” at the company’s Ann Arbor headquarters.”