Category: publishing

The Harry Potter craze has been hailed by parents and educators on both sides of the Atlantic as a sign that children of the information age can still be engaged by good, old-fashioned books. But are the books really the classics of children’s literature that they are constantly made out to be? Robert McCrum thinks not. “When the current generation of Harry Potter readers has grown up, it will look back on the Harry Potter phenomenon with a mixed thrill of intense nostalgia, embarrassment and dismay. Our children’s children will certainly read these books, but as curiosities, bizarre literary relics from a lost world.”

“[UK] bookselling giant Waterstone’s yesterday pulled advertising for a new novel about suicide bombers creating mayhem in London. The book, called Incendiary, was published on Thursday, the day all-too real bombs hit London. Pictures promoting the novel show plumes of smoke curling above London’s skyline. The wording reads ‘a massive terrorist attack … launches this unique, twisted powerhouse of a novel’. Waterstone’s has removed all advertising for the book from today’s newspapers – except for the Guardian’s Guide, which went to press before the advert could be pulled.”

It’s been 150 years since Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass, widely considered to be America’s greatest contribution to the world of poetry. Over the years, sales of the opus have stayed strong as Whitman’s legend has grown, and scholars and public alike have come to view Leaves as something of a definitive poetic statement on American life.

While anticipation is high for the new Harry Potter book, there will be less Harry merchandise for sale. The release of “Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth of Rowling’s seven-book fantasy series, should confirm that Harry Potter mania is essentially a celebration of reading, a phenomenon created by children, not marketers. Demand for the book is higher than ever. Scholastic, Inc., Rowling’s American publisher, has announced a first printing of 10.8 million, seven times the first run of Bill Clinton’s “My Life” and 4 million more than for “Order of the Phoenix.”

“A Nigerian writer, SA Afolabi, has won the sixth annual Caine prize, known as the African Booker, with his story ‘Monday Morning’.”

“Sometimes the photographs on book covers are not just similar, but exact duplicates. Rather than pay photographers’ day rates, most book designers turn to stock-photography agencies. Top agencies charge $1,200 to $1,500 a photograph, and twice that for exclusive rights, a premium publishers are loath to pay. That’s where the trouble starts.”

“To make a career in American poetry nowadays you must enter poetry contests and work your way up the prestige ladder. The contests are run by university and small press publishers. Thousands of hopefuls enter their manuscripts, paying a fee of around $25. The publisher is guaranteed a profit. Most contestants are guaranteed to lose. It’s like boxing – just as bloodily competitive and, Foetry alleged, just as crooked.”

Hype for the launch of the much anticipated next installment of Harry Potter is cranking up. “Bookshops have been equipped with 16-day “count-down clocks”, modelled on the Weasleys’ clock in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, in the lead-up to the worldwide launch on 16 July. The main event will be a reading by JK Rowling at Edinburgh Castle, to be broadcast on ITV1. It is understood there are plans to project an image of Rowling on to the castle rock.”

Penguin is offering a collection of every book it has published. “Laid down page by page and end to end, the Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection would stretch about 84 kilometres, or about the same distance as a morning commute to downtown Toronto from Kitchener. And it can all be yours — all half a million pages of it — for the low price of $7,989.99.”

“That folks can pick up a gadget approximately the size of a cigarette lighter at their local library, programmed with a current bestseller for their listening pleasure, is the realization of countless sci-fi movies and Philip K. Dick novels. The future has clearly arrived: Apple’s immensely popular iPod—the software company shipped 5.3 million of the variously priced and sized devices in its second fiscal quarter of 2005 alone—is making consumers more comfortable with the idea of downloading audiobooks and listening on-the-go. So could DABs—which are more accessible, hip and cost-effective than traditional formats like cassettes and CDs—be the next big thing?”