A charming French novel about an old-school publisher trying to get to grips with the digital ageAt more than one point in this novel I found myself asking: could this be any more French? Early on we meet a character described thus: “She used to be incredibly good-looking and now at thirtysomething she is creditably handsome.” Sorry? What the narrator, an ageing male publisher, looks like, or how creditably or uncreditably good-looking he is, we don’t find out. Another woman leaves the room “in a wiggle of buttock” – I dropped my annotating pencil when I read that line. “Artichokes require a degree of elegance” – there’s another drop of essence of Gallic for you.But there is more to Dear Reader, and what kept me going was that one of the subjects exercising our narrator is the issue of electronic readers – Kindles or, as our hero Robert Dubois has it, the “dear reader” of the title. This book is an elegy for a dying world: that of the printed book and, that death’s darker corollary, the reader who is still interested in, or has the attention span for, the long-form narrative. (I always thought these things were arranged better in France, with no Net Book Agreement and tax breaks for bookshops, but apparently not.) In the world of Dear Reader, there has been a general collapse of cultural understanding: the interns point out to Dubois the remarkable coincidence that the publishing house they have landed in has the same name as him. Meanwhile, Dubois cannot quite get to... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pan Macmillan’s Bluebird has acquired a “provocative, conversation-starting” book which presents a “pioneering new way to think about parenting” by child psychologist Dr Lisa Miller. Carole Tonkinson bought UK and Commonwealth rights to The Spiritual Child: The New Science on Parenting for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Books published by Templar, Bloomsbury Children’s, Andersen Press and Flying Eye Books are the winners of the 2015 English 4-11 Picture Book Awards, organised by the English Association. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Passengers flying on Southwest Airlines will now be able to access frontlist ebooks, as well as excerpts from frontlist titles, from major publishers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sun, sand, and--sin? Shelve the beach reads for books that explore the shadows of evil-doing and guilt. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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India's Ritesh Batra is to direct the film adaptation of The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes' Booker-winning novel, with British actor Jim Broadbent in the lead. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2015-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A title from Welsh press Honno has won the Bread & Roses award for radical publishing. Here We Stand: Women Changing the World, edited by Helena Earnshaw and Angharad Penrhyn Jones, is a collection of interviews and articles in which 17 British women campaigners talk about their activism.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Connect Books is consulting with 12 people in its Bradford office as the company continues to improve the “efficiency and flexibility” of its library supply service. Bertrams, which supplies libraries on behalf of Connect Books, has headquarters in Norwich but also an office in Bradford which... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paul Kingsnorth’s The Wake, published by crowd-funding platform Unbound, has been named the inaugural Book of the Year at the Bookseller Industry Awards 2015. The book is written in re-imagined old English and set in 1066, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Folio Prize,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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First quarter sales at Hachette Book Group USA fell 12.3% compared to the first first period of 2014. A decline in ebook sales was a major reason for the drop. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Travel rewards programs don't exactly scream "creativity," but FCB Brazil stepped way out of the box to promote the Smiles loyalty platform. Previously affiliated solely with Gol airlines, it's now an independent business attached to a number of other global partners. The agency created Trip... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2015-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The memoir by a Dutch plane crash survivor, initially self-published, draws multiple houses; a Swedish spy series repped by the Salomonsson Agency lures pubs from Greece and beyond; and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Virgin Books, an imprint of Ebury at Penguin Random House UK, has acquired two colouring books from illustrator Johanna Basford. Madeline McIntosh, president of the Penguin Publishing Group, acquired world rights from Ed Victor of Ed Victor Ltd in a co-publishing deal with Jake Lingwood at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A fall in physical book sales led to a decrease in revenue in the first quarter of 2015 for Simon & Schuster. Results released by the publisher’s parent company CBS Corporation were not broken down geographically, but gave publishing revenues for the first three months of this year at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The book trade is facing more library cuts and an uncertain future in Europe and at the department for Business, Industry and Skills, industry figures say, as they digest the results of the general election, emerging overnight. The Conservatives have racked up 330 seats for an overall majority,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Publishers Association released statistics about the UK book publishing industry that show a stable market and increased digital and export sales. The post Latest UK Book Publishing Statistics Show Stable Market appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The combined print and ebook sales of U.K. publishers fell by 2% in 2014, to £3.3 billion, according to the new edition of the Publishers Association Statistics Yearbook. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week, Sally Mann's amazing memoir, original sin, and the latest from Anne Enright. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Italian Publishers Association has produced a song praising the 'lives of a book' for a reading promotion, with revenues going to the visually impaired. The post An Italian Ode to the Many Lives of One Book appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The National Book Foundation has awarded $10,000 to Reach Incorporated for its annual Innovations in Reading Prize. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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International ebook markets continue to develop at different rates, with growth in some continental digital marketplaces appearing to have stalled despite increasing activity from global tech companies and local players. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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