“Publishers be warned: For all the attention given to *rich multi-media experiences* news-readers still enjoy reading the news the way their great-grandparents did: In columns of paragraphs.”
Category: publishing
Will eBooks Save Hardbacks?
“There is, however, no doubt that ebooks, which are decimating paperback sales, have now become the established, contemporary mass market for books. Meanwhile, the hardback remains the elite format.”
Novelist Wilbur Smith Paid £15 Million For Six New “Plot Outlines”
“Smith will reportedly sketch plot outlines and characters, leaving his appointed writers to flesh the skeletons out into full books. The new arrangement means his output of novels will dramatically rise, delighting his fans and adding to his fortune, already estimated at £100million-plus.”
UK Library Use Down
“The UK had 201 fewer libraries in 2011/12 than the previous year, a drop of 4.5% on the total of 4,466 in the financial year 2010/11. Visitor numbers to physical premises and to library websites were also down, falling year-on-year by 2.4% and 14.4% respectively.”
Eugene Ionesco, Children’s Author
“In the late 1960s, … the Romanian-French absurdist playwright, published a series of ‘silly stories,’ in his words, that he’d written for his young daughter decades before. … When they were published, Maurice Sendak called them ‘among the most imaginative picture books of the last decade’.” Children are, after all, a natural audience for absurdism.
Need To Up Your Writing Output? Hire A Co-Writer
“The concept is not too dissimilar to ghostwriting, but while it is widely accepted that ghost writers are commonly used for celebrity-penned biographies or novels, the notion that Wilbur Smith – as a working author – could hire co-authors has caused some rumblings in the press and among literary purists.”
US Schools Dropping Fiction In Favor Of Non-
“Books such as JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird will be replaced by “informational texts” approved by the Common Core State Standards.”
Finally, An IMdB/Wikipedia (And Timesuck) For Books
“You can find out how many books mention the Beatles or the Pacific Ocean or Rice Krispies. You can find answers to questions you never meant to ask, such as whether writers favor Marlboros or Camels (Camels have the edge, 85-65), or which brands of cold medicine are cited in E L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey (NyQuil, Advil, Tylenol).”
Losses, And Gains, When We Leave Print For Screens
“The physical book seems like a fitting reward for the labour of writing a book. It is flattering that third parties – typesetters, printers, designers – are roped in on your behalf. A physical book represents closure, whereas ebook publication means becoming part of the eternal, energy-sapping flux of the internet.”
Rules For Reading Fiction, According To Kurt Vonnegut
“Do not do so as an academic critic, nor as a person drunk on art, nor as a barbarian in the literary market place. Do so as a sensitive person who has a few practical hunches about how stories can succeed or fail. Praise or damn as you please.”