We used to know what it took to be a writer – you had to publish a book. But electronic publishing is piling pressure on myths of the author's lifeWhat's the difference between making money out of books and writing books that people want to buy? Turns out it's about 40% – if, that is, you believe this year's Digital Book World (DBW) survey.Only 20% of the 1,600 self-published authors surveyed, and just a quarter of the almost 800 writers with a traditional book deal, judged it "extremely important" to "make money writing books". Shift the issue to publishing "a book that people will buy" and the figures leap to 56% and 60% respectively.But of course, you say – this is literature we're talking about. These authors have loftier concerns than the grubby business of making money. Art is their province. If they must consort with the commercial world to find an audience, then so be it. But heaven forfend they should be interested in something so base as raking in the cash.Except, in the digital age this kind of logic just doesn't wash. If all you're interested in is finding an audience for your work, then electronic distribution allows you to find it without any connection to the marketplace at all. Write your masterpiece, stick it on your website, and sound the trumpets for the victory of Pallas Athene. Or, if what you're really looking for is the grateful adulation of your adoring fans, stick it on Scribophile or WritersCafe and get ready to feel the love. These days the only... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 09/06/2011 - 08:00 Angry Robot is to publish its first "quadrilogy", with publishing director Marc Gascoigne acquiring two further books in Mike Shevdon's Courts of the Feyre series. Gascoigne bought world rights through Jennifer Jackson at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Thu, 09/06/2011 - 10:05 Literary agent Peter Cox has offered to review "any" contract given to an author by an agent for free in order to ensure that the author has "impartial advice". The move is a response to agents setting up their own publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Thu, 09/06/2011 - 09:02 Thames & Hudson is to publish the retrospective of the work of "Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg announced at London Book Fair. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Tom Tivnan Publication Date: Wed, 08/06/2011 - 15:17 Digital rights management is a "felony", delegates at the second day of a UNESCO conference on digital books heard, as proponents for the liberalisation of copyright laws clashed with those favouring more traditional intellectual... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 07/06/2011 - 08:10 Avon has acquired three novels by Authonomy workshop author Laurence O'Bryan. Editorial director Claire Bord bought the three books directly from the author, who attended the crime and thriller workshop held by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 06/06/2011 - 11:35 Bestselling author of the Call the Midwife trilogy Jennifer Worth has died following a short illness, Weidenfeld & Nicolson has announced. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In May, AOL launched the AOL Advertising.com Group, a b-to-b advertising division focused on serving publishers. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bonnier showed the biggest jump in ad pages (up 19 percent) while Meredith showed the largest drop in ad pages (down 10 percent) among six major publishers in the first quarter of 2011, according to data from MagazineRadar. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 01/06/2011 - 09:52 E-book sales accounted for over 8% of Pan Macmillan's trade sales in the first quarter of 2011, with the publisher predicting a rise to up to 10% by the end of the year. Over the same period, the publisher's sales of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 31/05/2011 - 15:06 HarperCollins Children's Books has bought a debut by an author discovered on the Inkpop website for budding writers of teen fiction. Senior editor Lizzie Ryley bought UK and Commonwealth rights to the book from Jean McGinley at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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From Yahoo's The Cutline: At a panel during the TechCrunch conference in New York last week, Greg Clayman, publisher of News Corp.'s Daily iPad publication, said the application had "almost a million downloads" since its launch in February. "This puts us in the large pantheon of large apps,"... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 31/05/2011 - 14:18 Journalist and Pluto Books author Syed Saleem Shahzad has been found dead near Islamabad, after going missing on Sunday (29th May), according to reports just in from the Pakistan media. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Zinio, the digital newsstand that has previously been available for Apple iOS users, is now entering the Android market. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A ad tech startup that promises to help Web publishers make sense of all the data their ad sales generate. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 31/05/2011 - 14:18 Concerns are growing over the whereabouts of investigative journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, whose book Inside Al-Qaeda: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 has just been published in the UK by Pluto Press. Shahzad, who is Pakistan... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Research and Markets report features 2011 current and 2012 forecast estimates on the median wages and salaries nationally and for all 50 U.S. States. Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2011-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 27/05/2011 - 10:18 Chiki Sarkar, former editor-in-chief of Random House India, has been appointed publisher of Penguin India. Chiki had worked at Random House India since 2006, working with authors including Anita Desai, Salman Rushdie and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 27/05/2011 - 12:26 Children's publishers have welcomed the acquisition of Waterstone's by Russian businessman Alexander Mamut. Francesca Dow, m.d. of Penguin Children's Books, said: "The Waterstone's takeover is good news for children's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Sun, 29/05/2011 - 12:00 A publishing platform which allows readers to choose what should be published has been launched, supported by Faber and created by "QI" writers John Mitchinson and Justin Pollard, and Crap Towns author Dan Kieran.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 26/05/2011 - 08:38 The Random House Group has today released its first direct to digital fiction title, a short work by Karin Slaughter which will also feature the opening chapter of the thriller writer's next new book. The Unremarkable... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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