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 ]
News tagged with:
#electronic readers
#attention span
#tax breaks
Print book sales showed "continuing resilience" in 2014, with overall spending on print and digital titles increasing across the year. Meanwhile, online book buying overtook in-store book buying for the first time last year. In 2014, sales of print and ebooks stood at £2.2bn, up 4% from the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#nielsen book
#annual conference
ITV daytime chat show Loose Women is today (March 24th) launching a new book club, with Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train (Doubleday) picked as the first title. The book club, called Loose Books, will see a different Loose Women panellist pick a book to read each month, which will be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book club
#loose women
#paula hawkins
#viewers invited
'We are creating a new thing for a new generation of readers...this is the future,' says Benjamin Alfonsi of Metabook's new ultra-enhanced ebooks. The post Is Metabook the Next Evolution of the Book? appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Hodder is the big winner at this year’s Peters Book of the Year award, taking home book of the year for both the junior fiction and teen fiction categories. A Room Full of Chocolate by Jane Elson and A Song For Ella Grey by David Almond, both published by Hodder, were announced as the Books of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#big winner
#room full
#ella grey
#david almond
#catherine rayner
I was surprised to discover how satisfying a two-person phone-text book club could be. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Film director Guillermo del Toro has teamed up with author Daniel Kraus to write a children’s book. Trollhunters is set in San Barnardino, California, where a 14-year-old boy called Jim is one of the few inhabitants to believe the rumours there are trolls in the area. The book will be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
New books tell the stories of Christian activists who are working at home and abroad to meet the needs of the hungry, the endangered, the abandoned, and the exploited. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
In this week's column, the concentration camp memoir from a French actress goes global; an Iranian punk rocker's posthumous novel draws buzz; and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#draws buzz
New York indie press McPherson & Company is organizing nine concurrent author readings throughout the country, on May 23, to promote its forthcoming Father's Day-themed essay collection, 'Every Father’s Daughter.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book launch
With meager advances, often just 500 euros, and royalty rates of 3-8%, French children's book authors have much to complain about. The post French Children’s Book Authors Suffer Pint-sized Payments appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#french children
#royalty rates
#book authors
An Alabama family says Lee was working on another book based on true crime cases, while the state of Alabama says it recently closed an investigation about the author. Lee is publishing a new book, 'Go Set a Watchman,' later this year. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book based
#recently closed
Louise O’Neill was yesterday (19th March) announced as the winner of the inaugural YA Book Prize. The Irish author was given the £2,000 award at a ceremony at Foyles’ flagship bookshop in Charing Cross, London, for her debut novel Only Ever Yours (Quercus), a dystopian, feminist satire on how... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#irish author
#flagship bookshop
#charing cross
The loss of Image Books, Pope Francis's popularity with both liberals and conservatives, and the lack of high-profile female speakers were top subjects at L.A. Congress, the nation’s largest annual gathering of Roman Catholics. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#pope francis
#buy books
#image books
Brightly is a new online resource from Penguin Random House to help parents find books that will encourage their children to become lifelong readers. The post PRH’s Brightly to Help Parents Raise Lifelong Readers appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#online resource
#lifelong readers
To mark the opening of the 'Insurgent' film, HarperCollins and Twitter are partnering to offer fans of Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy a discounted hardcover of the 'Insurgent' movie tie-in edition via Twitter links. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#sell books
#veronica roth
#divergent trilogy
#movie tie-
'Writing translated from other languages makes you see things differently,' says UK translator Daniel Hahn who will mine the Bologna Book Fair for gems. The post Why Reading Translated Kids’ Books Makes a Difference appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#things differently
Testing first, remaining flexible, and hanging out on Twitter are all best practices for to online book marketing today, says Derrick Schultz of Atavist. The post 5 Tips for Online Book Marketing Today appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
World Book Day titles continue to dominate the Official UK Top 50 with nine of the 10 titles published as part of the annual charity celebrations claiming positions within the Top 10 this week. The 10 ￡1 titles sold 224,433 combined copies in the seven days ending 14th March. This was down 34%... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#previous week
Japan's Rakuten, parent company of ebookseller Kobo, has purchased US ebook distributor OverDrive, likely blocking Kindle's further expansion into libraries. The post Rakuten Buys E-book Distributor OverDrive for $410 Million appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#$410 million
#ebookseller kobo
Gallic Books has acquired a new novel by French writer Muriel Barbery, author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#gallic books