In her 20s, she set up her own company, publishing everyone from James Ellroy to the Worst Witch series, and changing Britain for the better, book by book There is a revealing story Margaret Busby tells, about the first novel she published. A family friend had bumped into a former US serviceman called Sam Greenlee. Greenlee said he had written a novel, rejected by 40 American publishers, a satirical thriller about the first African American man hired by the CIA but given a very visible non-job (the point being it was only to improve the CIA’s image). The man keeps his head down, learns about guerrilla warfare, then quits to become a freedom fighter in Chicago. Busby took it on, borrowing money so Greenlee could stay in London while the book was edited and, when it was about to be published, in 1969, she sent it to the Observer.The paper refused it – it didn’t extract fiction and certainly not black power novels. Busby sent it back, insisting the paper was wrong. It ran an extract, and The Spook Who Sat By the Door was translated into six languages and turned into a film. When this “parable of institutional racism”, as the New York Times described the film, opened in 1973, newspapers wondered if it would start race warfare. It closed early under FBI pressure, and was not reissued until 2004, then, nearly a decade later, added to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-10-22 05:00:17 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 27/07/2011 - 09:10 The smaller publishers whose titles have been selected for the Man Booker longlist, including Seren Books, Sandstone Press and Oneworld, are preparing to reprint the titles and release digital versions to meet the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. reported revenue of $54.9 million for the second quarter of 2011 compared to $55.3 million during the same period last year. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new-releases display at the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle contains both paperbacks and hardcovers. Now publishers often don't wait the traditional year before bringing out paperbacks. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 26/07/2011 - 08:50 Stephen Leather's bestselling ebooks The Basement and Once Bitten are to be republished under Amazon.co.uk's Encore programme. He will join other indie writers such as Joe Konrath who have been picked by the initiative, which... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Fri, 22/07/2011 - 14:05 Asterix the Gaul is the latest character to get Where's Wally?-style treatment, with the publication of Where's Asterix? (hb, £8.99) coming from Orion, the series' UK licensor, in September. The book has already been... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: M J Deschamps in Ottawa Publication Date: Fri, 22/07/2011 - 15:02 Canadian publishers have attacked the decision by Indigo Books & Music, the country's biggest bookshop chain, to stock fewer books and evaluate returns on a shorter time frame. They claim it is putting extra... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital editions, the oft-dubbed Wild West of the publishing world, may be charted in the near future. Many publishers are investing large amounts of time and resources to navigating user behavior in tablet editions of magazines, and this data is being used in a variety of ways. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ella Dolphin, the publisher of Bauer Media title Grazia, is to join Cosmopolitan as publishing director. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2011-07-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 19/07/2011 - 17:41 The Publishers Association is launching its second digital survey this year and could introduce a quarterly digital survey by 2012. The trade body said the survey came in response to the "significant growth" in digital sales,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 15/07/2011 - 08:46 The industry is "haemorrhaging talent" as authors and illustrators are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living in the children's sector. Agent Caroline Sheldon said that she estimated that fewer than half of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-commerce is a big opportunity for publishers. If you talk to the people at Net-A-Porter or the people at Gilt, they say theyre increasingly commerce companies moving into content and I think what youre going to find is content companies are going to move into commerce, Hearst Magazines... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Tim Conneally, Betanews The business model behind textbooks is completely out of step with what the market today wants, according to the head of Nature Publishing's digital textbook initiatives. Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2011-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 15/07/2011 - 14:29 Ebury is hoping to have unearthed the talents of a new generation of war poets as it publishes a collection of verses, selected by a panel including poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, to coincide with Armistice Day. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: The Bookseller News Team Publication Date: Fri, 08/07/2011 - 14:19 Publishers are optimistic about the next six months, despite a number of big houses turning in their worst first half-year Nielsen BookScan TCM sales performances for years, with ebook growth already beginning to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers have the industry connections to publish their books just about anywhere, but for some bookstore owners, self-publishing is preferable to going the traditional route. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Cinchcast, whose technology has been used by BlogTalkRadio since 2006, released a cloud-based audio solution for digital publishers. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Wed, 06/07/2011 - 07:32 La Martinière is the latest French publisher to sign up to sell ebooks through Apples iBookstore. About 150 La Martinière and Seuil titles are available so far, with another 300 expected to follow by the end of the summer,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon.com has acquired The Book Depository International, a seven-year old online bookseller based in the UK, which also republishes titles that are no longer in print or poorly available. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 04/07/2011 - 08:36 Pan Macmillan will be offering "enhanced rates" on the titles it publishes under its new digital-only imprint, with agents welcoming the initiative and urging publishers to pursue similar projects. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With the global economy still struggling to get on a solid footing in 2010, the worlds largest publishers had a mixed performance in the year, although the majority of companies managed to post sales gains in the year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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