Category: publishing

Two friends took “an unreadable book, written more than a half-millennium ago in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean” and rewrote it, modernizing the plot. Voila – the thriller turns into an instant bestseller…

“So what is the future for fiction if a hardcore of the population are joining the illiterati? While the written word can be credited with liberating the sight and consciousness of the emerging working-class in the 19th and 20th centuries, the explosion in new media has challenged that role.”

How do you generate buzz for your book among the crowd of 100,000 books that are produced each year? “At the meeting that ended Sunday in Chicago, the talk turned often to what it takes to snag media attention and, therefore, new readers in a market shaped by politics and the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. In short, political books have been gold for more than a year, and more are on the way.”

A visit to the annual BookExpo in Chicago is an opportunity to see what the buzz in the outside world is (and is going to be) says Carlin Romano. This year’s event (attended by 10,000 book people) was a reflection of politics and issues beyond the convention center.

Azar Nafisi, 54, has a book on the bestseller list. Now she’s “learning the pitfalls and conundrums of playing the fame game in her adopted country as she contends with her corporate handlers, her book club fans and jealous former countrymen. “I thought I can live with the snide remarks: `Look at her wanting to become a celebrity, yada yada,’ ” she said. “That is not pleasant, but you can live with it. But one thing I can’t live with, which I would criticize, is to be in competition with my book. A writer should allow the work to speak for itself.”

How is the publishing industry doing? Take a look at the numbers: “During Expo, the Association of American Publishers announced that sales of consumer books were up 6.3 percent. Religious publishing rose a stunning 37 percent. E-books grew 45 percent, though, the Association noted, that was from a tiny beginning base. E-books are never returned, while mass-market books were returned at a rate of 41 percent of sales.”

Why did Seattle’s BookFest festival bite the dust? “The argument over what Bookfest could have done better is now hypothetical, but what no one seems exactly ready to admit is that if recent festivals had been better and more accessible (and more interesting), they would have drawn more paying vendors and more paying attendees, and the finances would likely have fallen into place. Financial instability, dwindling attendance, the remoteness of the Sand Point venue, and increasing criticism about the quality of the festival are among the problems that have plagued Bookfest in recent years.”

At the Hay Literary Festival, “the women-only Orange prize for fiction set out to discover the British public’s most cherished contemporary novels – and found that 58% were by men. But organisers said this margin was smaller than it would have been before the prize was founded to promote writing by women eight years ago.”

The Arts Council and the Poetry Book Society have named the 20 most exciting young poets in the UK. “More than one-and-a-half million volumes of poetry were sold in Britain last year, yet nine out of every 10 volumes sold are by dead authors.”

A list and profiles of the UK’s Next Generation poets.