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
Campaigners and prominent trade figures, including many high-profile authors, have expressed their delight with the High Court’s decision to rule the government's ban on sending books to prisoners unlawful. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#high-profile authors
#high court
#sending books
#prisoners unlawful
To listen to the Audio Book Club discussion of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, click the arrow on the player below. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2014-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The High Court has deemed the government’s ban on sending books to prisoners unlawful. Mr Justice Collins today (5th December) declared the ban unlawful saying he could see “no good reason” for the rule, “in the light of the importance of books for prisoners.” New measures were brought in in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#sending books
#prisoners unlawful
#high court
#good reason
A crowd of mourners gather as pallbearers carry in a black coffin and shroud it with a Canadian flag. Eulogies flow for James "Logan" Howlett, taken too soon. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2014-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
This week, the masterpiece "The Wall," new Murakami, and "The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Author CJ Daugherty discusses the release Night School the Web Series based on her bestselling YA novels — the first of its kind in the UK. The post Author C.J. Daugherty on Adapting Book-to-Web Series appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Book sales in the US jumped 23% week on week in the seven days ending 30th November as 15.8 million print books registered through Nielsen BookScan. It follows two consecutive weeks of volume growth above 5%. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book sales
#nielsen bookscan
#consecutive weeks
#volume growth
Ten titles are in the running for The Bookseller's inaugural YA Book Prize, with two Hot Key books featuring on the shortlist. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#ten titles
Mexico’s arts and culture council (Conaculta) launched librosmexico.mx, a book sales platform designed to solve production and distribution challenges. The post Mexico’s Conaculta Launches Book Sales Website appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#post mexico
#distribution challenges
'The Kindle is trying to reduce friction for reading a whole book, and it’s working,' Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said at a conference yesterday. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#jeff bezos
George Osborne is to pledge to overhaul business rates in a review in his Autumn Statement later today (3rd December). The Chancellor is expected to announce a review of business rates in the pre-budget statement in the House of Commons at 12.30pm, although it won’t be completed until early 2016. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#george osborne
#autumn statement
#business rates
Rowling's 2008 speech will be adapted as a book titled 'Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book titled
#good lives
#fringe benefits
Evan Schnittman, e.v.p, chief marketing and sales officer at Hachette Book Group (HBG) in the US, is to leave the company. Scnittman joined HBG in 2012, from Bloomsbury UK, where he was m.d., group sales and marketing, print and digital. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#chief marketing
#evan schnittman
#sales officer
#bloomsbury uk
#group sales
Everything about this is perfect—even the weird new lightsaber.There are a huge number of things that make Star Wars unique in terms of how movies are marketed—but one that doesn't get discussed much is the fact that the series' posters and one-sheets, rather than being photoshopped assemblages... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#star wars
#force awakens
#huge number
The latest statistics show an increase in U.S. consumer borrowing. While more spending can indicate increased confidence in the economy, new books from Christian publishers address the risks of too much debt, which can cause both emotional and spiritual stress. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#christian books
#increased confidence
The latest statistics show an increase in U.S. consumer borrowing—much of it credit card debt and auto loans.While more spending can indicate increased confidence the economy is growing, it can also lead to long-term financial problems for those not quite out from under the Great Recession. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#increased confidence
#great recession
Love- and Disney-themed titles in the series by Diane Muldrow, which offers life lessons based on the Little Golden Book series, will be published. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Thrillbent, the digital comics portal started by comics writers Mark Waid and John Rogers, has spun-off into a full featured app and a print campaign with two different publishers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#john rogers
Quercus has launched a Christmas campaign to celebrate the joy of giving and receiving books. As part of the Greatest Gift campaign, 15 key bloggers and BookTubers will upload a post explaining why they think books are the greatest gift to give. Each Greatest Gift “blog tour partner” will also... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#quercus books
#receiving books
#christmas campaign
#greatest gift
The Authors Guild, hoping to upend the 2013 decision favoring Google in its lawsuit over the company's library book scanning project, presented oral arguments in court, on Wednesday. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#authors guild