Older generations argue that young people’s insistence on equality in all things – including books – threatens to stifle free speech. But is that always true?I wouldn’t normally air my dirty literary linen in public, but here goes. When I finished writing my novel Putney, about a 13-year-old girl who has a “love affair” in the 1970s with an older man and realises decades later that it was actually abuse, my previous editor at Jonathan Cape chose not to publish it. The reasons emerged this year when he was interviewed in the Spectator. “If Lolita was offered to me today,” Dan Franklin said, “I’d never be able to get it past the acquisition team – a committee of 30-year-olds, who’d say: ‘If you publish this book we will all resign.’” He pointed to #MeToo and social media as fundamental factors: “You can organise outrage at the drop of a hat.”Fortunately, Bloomsbury’s acquisition team – overwhelmingly female and mixed aged – were brave enough to take on Putney, which was described in the Observer as “a Lolita for the era of #MeToo”. Whether there was any truth in his words or not, Franklin’s position reveals how much fear now exists in publishing. Related: Putney by Sofka Zinovieff review – a Lolita for the age of #MeToo ‘It’s only about not being an arsehole,’ my daughter said. ‘That’s not so difficult’ Related: Nabokov's Lolita: the latest thing millennials have apparently ruined Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-07-10 10:03:01 UTC ]
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Nothing gets the work done faster, or makes the word travel further, than having the might of the government behind it or the united action of a group of individuals with shared interests. In the Korean publishing industry, such synergy is evident and has been very effective. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Americanah' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie took the prize for fiction, while 'Five Days at Memorial' by Sheri Fink secured the nonfiction prize. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New figures show that three-fifths of Britain's video, video games and music sales are now derived from the internetGrowing demand for streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify helped the UK home entertainment sector increase its revenues in 2013 for the first time in five years to £5.3bn,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Looks like whatever happens in the Goldman Sachs elevator will stay in the Goldman Sachs elevator. Less than two weeks after the anonymous author of the popular @GSElevator feed on Twitter was... To view the full story, click the title link. Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2014-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A report advocating the inclusion of fair use provisions in Australia’s copyright laws has drawn criticism from the International Publishers Association. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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• BBC admits it 'got this one wrong'• Executive board 'applied insufficient scrutiny'• 'Governance arrangements … were inadequate'Read the NAO report on the BBC's handling of the DMI projectThe BBC's handling of the £100m Digital Media Initiative fiasco has come in for further criticism, with a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nominees for "The Hatchet Job of the Year, given to the “writer of the angriest, funniest, most trenchant book review of the past twelve months,” are out. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A revival in classic illustrated books is helping Poland's children's book market boom, says Katarzyna Domańska of publisher Dwie Siostry. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Speaking at an investor conference, HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray said growing digital and international sales will drive gains for publishers in the years ahead. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has been forced to cancel promotional... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Shenton says he was accused of bringing the paper into disrepute after bosses found pictures of him on a gay websiteMark Shenton, the chief theatre critic of the Sunday Express, has claimed he was fired after executives discovered naked pictures of him on a gay website.In the daily blog he... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Mohsin Hamid, Ruth Rendell, Tom Stoppard, Malcolm Gladwell, Eleanor Catton and many more recommend the books that impressed them this yearChimamanda Ngozi AdichieFive Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (Fourth Estate) is a brilliant, sprawling, layered and unsentimental... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook has sent unprecedented levels of traffic to publishers across the internet in recent months, a dramatic and unexpected increase affecting a large range of sites serving a wide variety of content. According to data from the BuzzFeed Networ ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the new book Before They Pass Away, photographer Jimmy Nelson has captured a series of gorgeous pictures of 31 remote cultures that are on the verge of disappearing.Over the last three years, British photographer Jimmy Nelson traveled around the world--from Namibia to Papua New Guinea to... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I’m grateful to MacKenzie and to every other thoughtful reviewer who shares their perspectives on my book and on this remarkable story. – Bloomberg Businessweek reporter and Jeff Bezos biographer Brad Stone, responding to a one-star review of his new book from MacKenzie Bezos, Jeff Bezos’s wife.... Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2013-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Chevrolet launches its 2014 Corvette Stingray this fall, it will rely as much on data as a big creative idea to reach its target audience of affluent sports-car owners.Instead of widely blanketing the country with expensive national TV and print ads, Chevy is microtargeting owners of the... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2013-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When it comes to referral traffic from social networks, there's Facebook and Pinterest — and then there's everyone else. Facebook accounted for more than 10% of overall traffic to publishers in September, by ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Andrew Wiley argues that Amazon has entered the business of print publishing to mislead the Department of Justice into thinking it's something other than a digital distribution monopoly.Andrew Wiley, the megawatt literary agent publishing insiders know by the longstanding sobriquet “the Jackal,”... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We live in the age of new media and the kingdom of pop culture, and a new crop of books looks at how those spheres intersect with religion. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paulo Coelho cancelled his Frankfurt Book Fair appearances as an act of political theater, rather than support for genre writers, as he claims. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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