Whether publishers want it or not, the Netflix model is coming to the book business.The San Francisco startup Scribd, best known as a site for posting PDFs of documents, announced Tuesday it is launching a multi-platform digital book subscription service that will provide access to a wide range of titles for $9 a month. Users can read ebooks on iOS and Android devices, as well as on Web browsers, and keep as many as 20 titles available for reading offline.Unlike other Netflix-like services that have launched recently, including Manhattan-based Oyster, Scribd is starting with thousands of titles from HarperCollins, or the majority of the publisher's backlist up until July 2012. Getting the cooperation of the so-called Big Five New York publishing houses has been the holy grail of subscription-service startups, and having even one of them represents a significant advance.More than 30 smaller publishers are also working with Scribd, including Sourcebooks, Workman and Kensington.Scribd, founded in 2007, also starts out with a high profile and an enormous user-base: It claims 80 million active readers monthly, and says that the subscription service—which soft-launched in January—has been growing by 60% every month. The company declined to provide subscriber numbers."There's never been an access model rolled out with this level of support and scale," said Trip Adler, Scribd's 29-year-old CEO and co-founder.Publishers have typically shied away from subscription services on the... Continue reading at 'Crains New York'
[ Crains New York | 2013-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
Since 1985, literary agent Richard Curtis has irregularly chronicled the state of trade book publishing in verse in the pages of 'Publishers Weekly.' In honor of his final year-end poem, we've republished them all here. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-12-20 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Some time ago–a decade at least, but it feels longer–a literary agent read a manuscript that I’d written and told me that she loved it, loved my style, but the book felt too calculated, too much like a math problem. It didn’t lack heart per se, she said, but it felt too much like a […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-11-18 09:55:11 UTC ]
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Betsy Lerner has spent decades in the publishing industry. Writing her first novel, “Shred Sisters,” unlocked a completely new side to her creativity. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-10-01 19:20:03 UTC ]
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From fairy porn to romantasy via the Omegaverse, publishing is sexier than ever. The reason? A big shift in gen Z and millennial attitudes to respectability and shame ...I spent a fortnight reading nothing but smut and I don’t need to give you a reason. But since there is one, here it is:... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-08-06 04:00:33 UTC ]
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The cultural commentator, speaker, literary agent, and author's first children's book 'My Guncle and Me' (Running Press) is a gentle, authentic story of Henry Higgleston, a young boy bullied and teased at school for being different until his “guncle” comes for a visit and shows young Henry that... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Reid's blogs, 'Query Shark' and 'Miss Snark,' were widely read destinations for frank commentary on the publishing industry and the querying process. After a more than 20-year career as an agent, she died after a brief illness on April 14. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Chris Silbermann, whose clients include Dr. Seuss Enterprises, has been named one of nine managing directors at Creative Artists Agency, while motion picture literary department co-head Ida and literary agent Sloan Harris have joined the CAA board. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Every author wants to write a book like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Two decades after it first hit the shelves, the author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow celebrates its daring, dazzling appealPity the writer who believes they have written the next Cloud Atlas! A literary agent once... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-04-06 10:00:31 UTC ]
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When I was ghostwriting full-time, I produced twenty books in fourteen years. Thanks to a suggestion from my literary agent, I realized a ghostwriter might make a great heroine—they’re under tremendous pressure, often while adjacent to the fame machine—so Mari Hawthorn, the ghostwriter at the... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-15 12:05:00 UTC ]
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William Gladstone, the literary agent, publisher, author, and founder of Waterside Productions, died on December 27. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-12 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Patience, Perspective, and the Power of Story: An Interview with Toni Ann Johnson, by Scott LaMascus Interviews [email protected] Mon, 10/16/2023 - 13:46 Storyteller Toni Ann Johnson uses her skills as an actor, playwright, and fiction writer to... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-10-16 18:46:19 UTC ]
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Istanbul's accomplished literary agent Nermin Mollaoğlu is opening a new press in London with Tasja Dorkofikis and Geraldine D'Amico. The post Frankfurt-Bound Nermin Mollaoğlu Opens a Press in the UK appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-10-12 20:29:08 UTC ]
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American screenwriter and producer behind the creation of the hugely successful soaps Dallas and Knots LandingDavid Jacobs, who has died aged 84, was an aspiring novelist when he created the show Dallas, a worldwide phenomenon and US television’s first peak-time soap success since Peyton Place.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-08-23 13:56:48 UTC ]
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My cousin Carol Smith, who has died aged 84, was a literary agent and author best known for her thrillers Kensington Court (1996) and Unfinished Business (2000).Born in London to Winifred (nee Mapleston), a teacher, and David Smith, a businessman, Carol attended the North London Collegiate,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-25 15:31:17 UTC ]
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Letting a Wild Ride Be a Wild Ride: A Conversation with Amy Spangler, by Ipek Sahinler & Iclal Vanwesenbeeck Interviews [email protected] Wed, 07/05/2023 - 14:43 Amy Spangler is the co-translator (with Nermin Menemencioğlu) of Leylâ Erbil’s A... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-07-05 19:43:55 UTC ]
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Sound too good to be true? Well I have news for you, dear aspiring writer, you can get yourself a phone call or a manuscript critique from a fancy literary agent by bidding at this year’s Literary Agents of Change Auction. The LAOC is an organization that believes that advancing the publishing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-15 17:12:39 UTC ]
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Caroline Raphael, who has died of Parkinson’s disease aged 85, was for 20 years editor-in-chief of The Good Hotel Guide. She had worked on every edition from the first, in 1978, until her retirement in 2021, when the 2022 edition had gone to press.The Guide was launched by the literary agent... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-28 16:03:11 UTC ]
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After New Leaf "amicably" parting ways with literary agent Jordan Hamessley on May 12, authors affected by the agent's departure took to Twitter to express concern over how the transition was handled as the agency defends their actions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Hilary Mantel died last September at age 70, but a memorial service just this week revealed something of use to those who miss her words. The Guardian’s Saturday Paper will be publishing excerpts from an unpublished project mashing together Jane Austen’s works. “She was having the greatest fun... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-21 16:03:28 UTC ]
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Wolf Hall trilogy author remembered at memorial service at Southwark cathedral on ThursdayHilary Mantel, the celebrated author of the Wolf Hall trilogy, was working on a “mashup” of Jane Austen novels when she died suddenly, her literary agent told a packed memorial service at Southwark... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-20 17:46:20 UTC ]
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