Category: publishing

Even with a ton of torrenting and occasional free download offers, say comic book publishers, “digital brings new and lapsed readers to comics, so it’s additive to the overall industry. We are really interested in widening our readership, as that’s good for everybody.”

“Material degradation isn’t just a fond side effect of book resales. It’s essential. It’s what ensures that the resale price matches the diminishing value of the product. If every copy is perfect, the whole thing breaks down.”

“For decades, this publishing aristocracy could take special pride in two things: it made money and it represented more than just vile profit. A colorful intellectual elite was created as a result, as well as a culture of literary abundance — the intellectual backbone of the nation.”

“The publishing landscape looks very different to when they first started. As Callil points out, although there have always been many women in publishing, it is only more recently that they have tended to head companies and wield serious power. The question is whether the movement succeeded beyond that.”

“War is said to be the mother of invention – and in the increasingly bitter battleground of publishing, bookshops have a new weapon.” Authors are providing extra material available only with books purchased in brick-and-mortar stores.

“The Malaysian novelist Tan Twan Eng has won the 2012 Man Asian prize with his novel, The Garden of Evening Mists. His novel, which was shortlisted for last year’s Booker prize, was hailed by the chair of judges Maya Jaggi for its ‘stylistic poise and probing intelligence’.”

“The 22 page micro-book is called Shiki no Kusabana (flowers of seasons) and contains the names and microscopic monochrome illustrations of Japanese flowers like the cherry and the plum. The pages are 0.75 millimetre (0.03 inch) in size while the letters are just 0.01 mm wide.”

“The Folio Society has been named as the surprise sponsor of a new fiction prize that its supporters hope will rival the stature of the Man Booker prize, but – crucially – will also be open to American writers, allowing the likes of Jonathan Franzen to compete with Hilary Mantel.”

“Among the contenders for the leading prize for fiction written by women is a bestselling thriller and a how-to-live-your-life memoir so divisive it had some reviewers wanting to throw it across the room. Also in the running are novels by literary heavyweights Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith and Barbara Kingsolver.”

“The result is the growth of an info-elite–“newsies like me and you out there in the audience”–and vast consumer world uninterested in news, or at least uninterested in paying a meaningful amount of money for it.”