Category: publishing

Charlie Wright is chairman of timber and development company R.D. Merrill is known in art circles for restoring solvency to the New York-based Dia Foundation. Now he’s turning to another big interest – poetry – and starting a new publishing house. “We’ll be focused on mid-career American poets. There will be some exposure to emerging poets, also reprints and translations – sort of a mixed bag.”

So there’s to be an Oscars for the book world – the Quill Awards. Televised on TV too. But David Kipen has a problem with one of the overseers of the awards – Reed Business International, the company that owns Publishers Weekly: “Now, PW is a pleasant and frequently useful publication. Unaccountably — maybe by mistake? — it’s even hired a gifted and energetic literary journalist, Sara Nelson, to become its new editor. But still, in co- administering an annual awards ceremony honoring the very industry PW covers, the magazine’s conflicts of interest are, not to put too fine a point on it, ripe for the plucking.”

The BBC is starting a book club after seeing the success of other such clubs. “The shortlist of 24 books, designed to showcase the “best new books” on offer in the UK today, was whittled down from a longlist of over 300 by a panel of book-loving celebrities and literary experts.”

The Los Angeles School District has spent nearly $50 million on a computer reading program that failed to improve student reading skills and in some cases hindered achievement because schools did not use it properly…

A new study in the UK says that the wealthier a child’s parents are, the more advanced a reader that child will be. “A government-funded study reveals that the gap occurs irrespective of natural ability, parents’ education or how often mothers and fathers read to their child.”

Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code was based on Leonardo’s Last Supper fresco. Now “authorities in Milan have banned a billboard featuring an all-female version of the 15th Century fresco, which the fashion house itself says was inspired by the hotly debated book. The campaign has run without controversy in both Paris and New York. But its use of religious symbols could offend Milan, the town hall ruled.”

“For literary theoreticians, it is axiomatic that language is unequal to the task of encompassing reality. Its failure is inevitable, a given.” But this is patently not true, writes Craig Raine. Just look at Kipling…

Comic books have been a big success in the adult market in recent years. “But the new wave has had its costs, chief among them being the near vacuum that’s been left in what was once a thriving market for well-crafted kids’ comics. If you need proof, just take a stroll through your local 7-Eleven. You’d be hard pressed to find any evidence of kids’ comics or the iconic racks they used to call home.”

Margaret Atwood is working on a device that would allow her to sign autographs remotely and cut down on traveling. But autograph collectors reject the idea. “We quite understand the idea behind Margaret Atwood’s invention because, as she says in interviews, she is an old-age pensioner [who doesn’t want to face the rigours of book tours], but the intriguing thing we found is that it’s not so much the signature that fans care about, it’s meeting the author in person, that’s the real thrill,”

A new study says textbook publishers have hiked the prices of their books at a rate much higher than inflation. “Textbook prices have increased at four times the average rate of inflation in their category, finished goods, over the past 10 years, according to figures from the Producer Price Index maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The wholesale price of textbooks increased 62 percent over that decade while the average price for all finished goods increased by just 14 percent. Prices for general books increased 19 percent in the same period.”