Category: publishing

It may seem unbelievable to those of a certain age, but comic books are not terribly popular with today’s youth. Still, comics are a $500 million a year industry, with some savvy marketers behind them, and this coming weekend, “for the fourth year in a row, stores across the United States, England, France and other countries will be giving away 2 million comic books” in an effort to get more of us hooked on the increasingly diverse genre.

Remember Dial-A-Poem? That wonderful little phone number with a New York area code that you could call at any time of day and hear rants, songs, and straight poetry from some of the biggest names of the era didn’t last too long (it was active, on and off, from 1969 to 1971,) but it lingers in the collective memory of the ’60s generation like so many other icons of the time. Now, Dial-A-Poem has been reborn as a web site, archiving all the old content from the phone service, as well as bonus material that never made it on the line.

“Yes, it’s true that newspapers are steadily losing readers and that younger people will undoubtedly choose the web. Ultimately, the printed word will die off. Not tomorrow or the next day, but in the coming decades. It’s inevitable since it will be more cost-effective (not to mention better for the environment) to distribute news over the web and via cell phones and PDAs than by printing it on paper and relying on trucks to deliver it to newsstands and subscribers’ doorsteps. What is not true, however, is the notion that newspapers are dying. They aren’t. In fact, more people read traditional news outlets today than ever before. But they are doing it on a screen.”

Literary blogs can be addictive for those interested in the written word. And there are so many litblogs to catch up on. “Reading other writers’ writing about writing is hardly what most people would consider “connecting with others.” In fact, maybe I’m even more isolated when I carry around this illusory notion that I’m interacting with people simply because we’re reading the same blog. It’s like celebrity stalkers who think being slapped with a restraining order is as fine and true a connection to fabulousness as being invited to stay in the guesthouse for the weekend.”

Independent booksellers may be dying by the dozens, but a new frontier is fast being established to compete with the oh-so-alluring chain stores. You’ll find it wedged between the Cheerios and the artichoke hearts. “Grocery stores have gone beyond the traditional spinning racks of pocket-size paperbacks, adding mahogany fixtures, sitting areas and cafes, and often placing their book sections in the center of the store, where shoppers are likely to stroll. Eye-catching displays of new hardcovers are sprinkled throughout the stores, encouraging impulse purchases.”

Bound To Be Read, a large-scale independent bookseller operating stores in Albuquerque and the Twin Cities has announced that it will close its doors within a few months. The company had sought to attract consumers who would ordinarily shop at large chain stores by offering a wide array of products and services (including a coffee bar and on-demand CD burning) in addition to a huge in-store stock of literature. 68 employees at the two stores will be laid off – the Albuquerque store had been open for fifteen years, the St. Paul outlet for five.

It’s old news that literature in translation doesn’t sell too well in the English-speaking world, and even getting the stuff displayed can be difficult in a marketplace of megachains bent on squeezing every drop of profit out of the latest bestsellers. But a new promotional push by two indie publishing houses has signed up 80 independent booksellers who have agreed to prominently feature ten works in translation over the next month. The aim isn’t necessarily to make a killing, merely to get bookstores and readers in the habit of considering foreign books alongside the usual domestic choices.

In today’s lowbrow world, face-to-face conversations about serious literature can be hard to come by. But then, that’s what the Internet is for, and a new generation of lit-blogs has sprung up, to the delight of obsessive readers everywhere. “It’s infinitely appealing for a person who loves to read and aims to write to slip through the wardrobe into a parallel world where other people actually care about books; where Michael Chabon and Jonathan Lethem aren’t just boldface names but animated superheroes forced to face the wrath of supervixen Candace Bushnell.”

“All That Matters, the latest novel from Toronto-based writer Wayson Choy, is among the winners of the 18th annual Trillium Book Awards.” The Ontario-based awards ceremony took place on Wednesday, and other winners included Antonio D’Alfonso in the French language category, and Maureen Scott Harris for her poetry collection, Drowning Lessons.

Collins Booksellers, Australia’s third largest book chain, has declared bankruptcy and owes $7.5 million. “The family-owned company has just $36,000 in the bank but the administrator will try to keep it trading while he seeks a buyer.”