Category: publishing

Canada’s Governor-General’s arts awards are some of the most prestigious in the country, and the literary awards in particular are most coveted. But when the current Governor-General, Adrienne Clarkson, took office, she was shocked to discover that the official residence’s library was missing an alarming number of award-winning titles, thanks in part to the sticky fingers of some of her predecessors. Clarkson and her husband made it their personal mission to rectify the problem, and as Clarkson prepares to leave office, the residence once again has the only complete collection of Governor-General Award recipients.

The sixth Harry Potter book will hit shelves this fall, and doubtless it will sell millions of copies. But it’s been seven years since Harry first burst upon the scene, and the legions of devoted young readers that made him such a phenomenon are seven years older as well – many of them heading off the college, in fact. So how do you keep your newly adult audience interested in what is, after all, a children’s book series? You can age the hero, of course, but subtly increasing the complexity of the storyline will help, too. And you can always count on good old-fashioned reader loyalty…

The Canadian book industry is gathering in Toronto this weekend for BookExpo Canada. “Among the concerns for booksellers this year is an emerging U.S. trend for publishers such as Penguin Books to sell directly to the public through their website.” A new study of Canadians’ book-buying habits says that “59 per cent buy at the national chain Indigo, 28 per cent buy at smaller independents and the number that buy only on the Internet is ‘inconsequential’.”

A first look at the contract between Google and universities to digitize their libraries has some publishers concerned. “Some publishers argue that Google doesn’t have the right to make and hold digital copies of their intellectual property. At the same time, they worry that universities will use their digital versions to make books available to students and faculty online, suppressing sales of additional copies.”

“All books should be exactly as long as they need to be. There is no ideal length. But like mainstream Hollywood films, nonfiction books have shown a tendency to expand in recent years, for no particular reason. Directors cannot bring a film in at 90 minutes anymore. Likewise, my shelves are overloaded with nonfiction titles that, 30 years ago, would have been 225 or 250 pages. I’m not sure why. Fatter spines do look more imposing, and readers may feel, subconsciously, that $30 should buy them a thick, substantial volume. But time and again, I find, the extra weight comes from empty calories.”

In 1998, Mary Duncan opened Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Moscow. The store thrived, selling English-language books. “But we didn’t survive the election of President Vladimir Putin. Within a month of his inauguration in 2000, new, slickly dressed city officials claimed our sign did not conform to proper standards, our wiring was a fire hazard and our paperwork was incomplete. Fifty-dollar fines escalated to $1,500.”

“The Bush administration says that while it is important for law enforcement officials to get information from libraries if needed in terrorism investigations, officials have yet to actually use their power under the Patriot Act to demand records from libraries or bookstores.” But a survey by the American Library Association reports that “agents are coming to libraries and they are asking for information at a level that is significant, and the findings are completely contrary to what the Justice Department has been trying to convince the public.”

“When novels by ‘Yasmina Khadra’ first appeared, literary France thought it had at last found the authentic voice of the Arab woman. But then she turned out to be a man – and not just a man but a veteran Algerian army officer.”

“A new center was opened this month by the Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney to offer scholars access to a collection of manuscripts, books and other material that gathers 90 percent of Wordsworth’s known papers. The new Jerwood Center, named for the charitable foundation that pledged the first $925,000 of its $5.9 million building costs, represents a victory of architectural innovation and scholarship over those eager to keep England’s Lake District free of anything but the most traditional of building designs.”

The market for religious books is booming, and publishers are cranking out new titles at a record pace. “According to the Book Industry Study Group, which uses data from all sectors of the industry, total U.S. book sales rose 2.8 percent in 2004 to $28.6 billion, while religious books saw 11 percent growth to nearly $2 billion.”