Category: publishing

Last week, thanks to a technical glitch,Amazon.com’s Canadian site revealed the actual names of customers who wrote reviews on the site. “The weeklong glitch, which Amazon fixed after outed reviewers complained, provided a rare glimpse at how writers and readers are wielding the online reviews as a tool to promote or pan a book — when they think no one is watching.”

Each year more and more books are being published. “The most recent figures show that, in 2002, total output of new titles and editions in the United States grew by nearly 6 percent, to 150,000. General adult fiction exceeded 17,000 – the strongest category. Juvenile titles topped 10,000, the highest total ever recorded. And there were more than 10,300 new publishers, mostly small or self-publishers.”

What books are the British public checking out of libraries? “On the top 100 titles list, the authors who started their careers most recently are JK Rowling and Kathy Reichs (whose debuts came out in 1997 and 1998 respectively); Rowling is the only author under the age of 40. It seems that book borrowers feel that Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella, Cathy Kelly and other voguish bookshop favourites will have to pay their dues, so to speak, for a while longer. Nor are borrowers particularly partial to literary fiction.”

American book sales were up 18 percent in December. But “despite the supposed good news, the meat and potatoes of the industry, adult hardcover fiction and nonfiction and their paperback counterparts, continue to stagger. Despite robust increases in December — 11.9 percent and 27.7 percent, respectively — sales for both categories were below 2002 marks. What scored the big gains last year were “electronic,” “religious” and “juvenile hardcover,” that last segment’s 28.5 percent rise attributed primarily to “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

It’s the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Dublin “has planned a three-month festival of celebrations costing about £700,000. Unfortunately, the only living direct descendant of Joyce has promised to disrupt the festival by banning any public readings of his work. Stephen Joyce, the writer’s grandson, has informed the Irish government he will sue for breach of copyright if any recitations take place.”

“Australians, the most enthusiastic magazine buyers in the world, have perhaps become so discriminating that it is difficult to generalise about their tastes.” So what to make of “the mood of Australia when we discover that the fastest growing magazines by readership over the past year dealt with movies, pop singers and property, while the biggest declines were in gardening, shares, home repairs, and naked women?”

David Berlin, the founding editor of Walrus magazine, produced in Toronto, is unexpectedly stepping down after only three issues. The magazine of arts and ideas has a circulation of 32,000 subscribers. “They are dropping 29,000 to 30,000 on newstands and a 30 per cent sell-through is the industry average. At that rate they are rivalling or outselling Maclean’s on the the newsstand.”

Who’s the most-borrowed author in British libraries? Children’s writer Jacqueline Wilson. “Her name may not be as famous as JK Rowling but she is hugely popular – her books are “growers” and tend to sell through children’s word of mouth.” And, she’s sold 30 million books.

Who’s the most-borrowed author in British libraries? Children’s writer Jacqueline Wilson. “Her name may not be as famous as JK Rowling but she is hugely popular – her books are “growers” and tend to sell through children’s word of mouth.” And, she’s sold 30 million books.

What does the love of your life want for Valentine’s Day? Nope, not flowers. It’s poetry. “In a survey of 1,000 people for the Spoken Word Publishing Association, 19% said they would prefer loving words. The only gift they wanted more than this was one which puts deeds before words – a holiday mini-break.”