Category: publishing

Getting a first book published is a monumental undertaking for most authors, particularly if their tome is not a new-age self-help book or a shrill political diatribe. So for those writers who manage to get a publisher interested in their work and make it to press, the anticipation of publication is a heavy time, and every wannabe’s road to success is unique.

“Almost two years ago, about 11 independent librarians in Cuba were among 75 dissidents, journalists and others arrested and given prison sentences of up to 28 years for essentially collaborating with enemies of the state. Most are still in jail, despite an international outcry. Although New York is home to magnificent libraries, world-class publishers and fierce champions of free expression, the Cuban Cultural Center is the only group in the city so far to adopt an independent library. They hope their action will send a dual message. ‘It’s not just about sending whatever books we can, but we want the people in Cuba to know they are not alone and that someone here recognizes what they are going through’.”

“The daughter of one of Mormonism’s most prominent religious scholars has accused her father of sexually abusing her as a child in a forthcoming memoir that is shining an unwelcome spotlight on the practices and beliefs of the much-scrutinized but protectively private Mormon religious community… The Mormon Church issued a statement condemning the book, calling it ‘seriously flawed in the way it depicts the church, its members and teachings.’ [The author] and her publisher have said she has received e-mail messages containing death threats. In addition, Mormons around the country have participated in an e-mail campaign against the book.”

Random House has invested in a company that distributes content to wireless phones. So will books be offered? “This is the first step, and we will probably see a lot of other content from Random House and Bertelsmann being offered to mobile users. One hurdle, however, is the confining nature of the mobile interface, which does not lend itself to reading books, for example. But this will probably be a lot more compelling when they start offering content from the Bertelsmann channels.”

“A newly discovered set of letters written by the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley are to go on sale after being found in a trunk at a house in London. The correspondence, written by Shelley and his friend and biographer Thomas Jefferson Hogg, was destined for a car boot sale before being identified.”

“Coming soon to a dictionary near you: ‘wife-beater.’ Not the abusive husband, mind you — but the sleeveless, white undershirt. The ‘wife-beater’ — frequently spotted on Kid Rock, available at your neighborhood Gap — is soon to be immortalized in the Oxford English Dictionary. It’ll likely be added, somewhere between ‘whip’ and ‘women’s lib,’ next month.”

Author Francesca Lia Block “writes in a style that she says is influenced by Greek myth, the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez and the modernist poetry of T. S. Eliot and H. D. Her stories abound with sudden transformations, fairies, genies and ghosts.” But her novels, aimed at a young adult audience, also contain plenty of frank discussion of drugs, sex, and the other temptations confronted by teens and college students. As might be expected, not everyone is happy with Block’s subject matter, but her books are flying off the shelves, and winning awards on their way to the cash register.

“As a researcher at Recorded Books, the audiobook publisher, Paul Topping hunts for precise pronunciations of foreign expressions, medical maladies and obscure geographical and biological names.” His job also requires that he keep from laughing when narrators ask him how to pronounce much simpler words. “Proper pronunciation is serious business among audiobook publishers, who are enjoying double-digit sales growth in an otherwise stagnant publishing industry. When reviewers hear gaffes, they let it rip.”

“No one ever went broke overestimating snob appeal. It’s one of the most marketable vicarious pleasures. And it colors writing well beyond Cinderella fiction. Biographers are often drawn to elite subjects. Chick-lit heroines are perennially obsessed with status. The coming-of-age memoir gets more attention if its narrator learned about life at a socially prestigious school. And a diet book has more cachet if it cautions against too many tartes aux pommes rather than too many Twinkies.”

“Nobel laureates Saul Bellow, Gunter Grass and Gabriel Garcia Marquez were among 18 finalists announced Friday for the first ever Man International Booker Prize, a lifetime achievement award worth around $115,000.”