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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Written By: Tom Tivnan Publication Date: Tue, 13/09/2011 - 16:30 A D Miller and Carol Birch's novels are the big winners of the Man Booker Prize shortlist so far, with sales across the six books surging 290% by volume on last week. The six books on the list shifted 18,496 copies for the week... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon.com Inc. is talking with book publishers about launching a Netflix Inc.-like service for digital books, in which customers would pay an annual fee to access a library of content, according to people familiar with the matter. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's "Netflix for E-Books" lending program is still a rumor, and not popular with book publishers, but here are some ways it could work. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 09/09/2011 - 09:30 Waterstone's is to launch its own e-reader in 2012 inspired by Barnes & Noble's Nook device. Waterstone's m.d. James Daunt has spoken to BBC Radio 4's "You & Yours" programme, on the edition to be broadcast today at 12... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With Random Houses announcement last week that it is officially dropping its print catalogues in favor of digital, the countrys biggest publisher joins the growing ranks of houses that have done away with the traditional catalogue. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 09/09/2011 - 11:17 Virgin Books has acquired a title about US political firebrand Sarah Palin, written by Joe McGinniss. Publishing director Ed Faulkner bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Crown Publishers in the US to The Rogue, with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 09/09/2011 - 08:30 Independent children's publisher Catnip is using Twitter and bloggers to source original and out-of-print titles for its list. It will publish Katherine Roberts' out-of-print fantasy Song Quest in February 2012. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Three French publishers have dropped lawsuits against Google alleging that the company infringed their copyright. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With his trademark bowtie and button-down shirt, Christopher Kimball, founder of Americas Test Kitchen, doesnt look like a gambler. Yet he publishes magazines without advertising, charges for recipes while his competitors give them away, and produces dependable cookbooks for the home cook in a... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 08/09/2011 - 08:40 Vermilion has acquired a fitness book from the trainer who worked with Natalie Portman to make her body mimic a ballerina's for her Oscar-winning role in "Black Swan". Editor Louise Coe bought UK and Commonwealth rights,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 06/09/2011 - 09:00 Book sales throughout the UK in August have remained "tough" according to the British Retail Consortium, as it reported general retail sales were down by 0.6% compared to last year on a like-for-like basis. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Mon, 05/09/2011 - 08:00 The London Evening Standard will launch Calling London, a book about its recent Dispossessed campaign, on 7th September. The book, by chief features writer David Cohen, will tell how a conversation between Cohen and Evening... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hearst Magazines' homes title Good Housekeeping has launched a new reader recommendation tool for brands to use across marketing material and campaigns. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2011-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Mon, 05/09/2011 - 11:19 Fig Tree publishing director Juliet Annan has bought world rights in a new book by playwright and novelist Nell Leyshon. The deal was done at auction through Anna Webber at United Agents. The Colour of Milk is told in the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Mon, 05/09/2011 - 14:05 Spending on printed books slumped 4% in August, with sales plummeting to a seven-year low for the month, according to Nielsen BookScan data. A total of £107.5m spent on physical books at UK booksellers in the four weeks to 27th... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Moscow-based optical character recognition specialist ABBYY has released a major new update of its renowned OCR application. ABBYY FineReader 11 Professional Edition, which allows users to convert images or scanned documents into editable text, boasts improved processing speeds of up to 45 per... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2011-09-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 02/09/2011 - 07:55 The Galaxy National Book Awards ceremony will not be broadcast in full this year, instead being showcased in a six-part series on More4, with submissions for the awards closing on 16th September. The six-part series,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Thu, 01/09/2011 - 14:45 Hodder Children's Books has bought two teen titles from journalist and presenter Dawn Porter. Publisher Emily Thomas did the deal directly with Porter for a "sizeable" sum. The books are described as "epic stories of an... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Wed, 31/08/2011 - 08:05 Penguin is aiming to bring traditional family storytelling into the digital arena with a new picture book reader app, Me Books, which enables parents and carers to personalise stories by selecting parts they want to record... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Wed, 31/08/2011 - 14:45 The Edinburgh International Book Festival, Scottish indie Cargo and US publisher McSweeney's are to team up on a four-volume collection of stories from authors including Roddy Doyle and Ali Smith. Fifty authors are to take part... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#jackie kay
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