Has the editor of The Bookseller compared the fall of print sales of adult fiction since 2009 by more than £150m with the massively declined budgets of public libraries over the same five-year period (The writing’s on the wall for adult fiction in print, 14 January). This is also conditioned by the number of closures of public library branches and the radical changes in book selection due to the serious loss of qualified librarians. The problem facing traditional publishing must have been exacerbated by such austerity in local government, just as it affects the profits of retail supermarkets – and it’s time for real attention to be paid to Keynesian economics instead of finding blame everywhere but in the most obvious place. The villain is not always the internet. Should the austerity continue to such an extent that public libraries disappear, then publishers of fiction – and their authors – will go with them. As will, of course, hundreds of once very familiar journals.Ralph GeeNottingham• Thank You, Brian Lake, president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association, and thank you Guardian for publishing his letter (12 January). What a relief to know I’m not the only old bird reading an actual book, the World’s All-Time Best and Irreplaceable Present. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
A new font, Bookerly, and a totally new layout engine have made reading a Kindle ebook more like print than ever.Amazon's Kindle e-reader is a lovely single-purpose gadget, with an industrial design ethos that, in its singular focus on the purity of e-reading, even Dieter Rams could love. The... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2015-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Has the editor of The Bookseller compared the fall of print sales of adult fiction since 2009 by more than £150m with the massively declined budgets of public libraries over the same five-year period (The writing’s on the wall for adult fiction in print, 14 January). This is also conditioned by... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I had a nice surprise Valentine’s Day gift delivered to my door this morning -- a box of ten copies of my new novel (I Know What You Did Last Supper) courtesy of my publisher and fresh off the press. It seemed weird holding the book. Not just because it’s my first novel (co-authored with a... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2013-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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