A heart-warming love letter to books and bookshops, by an amenable fellow turned antisocial old misanthrope“I was in here two years ago and you had a book by Roger Penrose. Do you know what happened to it?” Shaun Bythell – owner of the Book Shop in Wigtown, Galloway – has 100,000 books in stock, sells 20,000 a year, and has handled nearly 1m second-hand books since he bought the shop in 2001. Unsurprisingly, the Roger Penrose volume had not stuck in his mind.Before he entered the book trade at the tender age of 31, he was “amenable and friendly”. Now, after many years of fielding bizarre questions, constant haggling over prices (why is it “acceptable to try to screw the profit out of struggling small businesses” but not supermarkets?), and struggling to survive despite Amazon’s “icy grip” on bookselling, he has been forced to embrace the stereotype of the “impatient, intolerant, antisocial proprietor”. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-24 10:58:38 UTC ]
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If you find yourself in a bookstore, Peter Mendelsund can be hard to avoid. The post What Makes for a Brilliant Book Cover? A Master Explains appeared first on WIRED. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2014-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A dying woman writes a book about life's end; a psychotherapist explores the untapped power of the will. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week highlighted the resurgence of indies with the opening and reopening of four new bookstores and the addition of a new Miami-based Books and Books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amis's French and German publishers passed on his novel about the Holocaust, but another French company will be releasing the book and Amis's agent said there will most likely be a new German publisher that is willing to publish it. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers and librarians are among your best resources as an author. They are at the front-line of presenting your book to the public. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-09-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For the last several years, the New York artist has fastidiously tracked the phrase "working on my novel" as used on Twitter. His new book, Working On My Novel, collects hundreds of these tiny declarations of literary intent. It's a clever conceit, but it's also something more. Taken together,... Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2014-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's been a good week for indie bookstores with Maple Street Book Shop in New Orleans celebrating its first half century and two stores announcing successful transitions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hannah Moushabeck, age 25, is the children's department director at Odyssey Bookshop, a children's book editor for Interlink Publishing Group, and co-chair of the New England Children's Booksellers Advisory Council. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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French booksellers have found an amusing way to apologize to their customers for not stocking Valerie Treirweiller’s bestselling tell-all, political revenge memoir. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-09-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Joel Osteen offers more encouragement in his newest book; James Carroll explores the meaning of Jesus for today. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The unofficial start of the fall season is beginning with a grand reopening of a bookstore under new ownership and the opening of two stores. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephan J Harper's litany of angry comments about a critic is a textbook demonstration of the reasons why wounded writers should keep shtumIf it's not the craziest response ever by a novelist to a negative review, it's almost certainly the longest, most obsessive and most ridiculous. When... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I don’t have any do’s for writing book reviews on slavery—I don’t have any do’s for writing book reviews, period—but I have a few don’ts, courtesy of the Economist’s now-withdrawn review of The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, a new book from Cornell... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2014-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If Scotland goes independent it is likely to cause “huge disruption” to bookselling... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the countdown to Labor Day, the pace at many bookstores hasn't slowed. Politics & Prose is readying for tomorrow's National Book Festival. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Seattle giant has started selling print books in Brazil, demanding good metadata and creating better customer service. This move could raise the bar for the rest of the Brazilian book industry. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-08-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There was a time when Barnes & Noble was so big, so dominating, that even Tom Hanks managed to look like a jerk when he played a book-chain executive. But times have changed, and as people began to order their books online -- or even download them --... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2014-08-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jan Karon's new novel brings Father Tim Kavanagh back to Mitford; Jan Aldredge-Clanton offers more inclusive pictures of God. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Now that eBooks have enabled anyone to be a published author, more would-be scribes are submitting their work directly through digital storefronts like Kindle Direct Publishing. Yet even with this radical change in the book industry, the e-publishing process is hardly simple. In fact the... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-08-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Former bookseller Julie Kagawa always had a “thing,” as she puts it, for dragons. Now, with her new series, Talon, due out October 28, the bestselling author of The Iron Fey books got the chance to explore her childhood obsessions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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