Pantomime misanthropy is tempered with bursts of sweetness in the secondhand bookseller’s latest dispatches from WigtownThere’s a moment in the first season of the short-lived but influential sitcom Black Books in which an elderly customer appears with a box of attractive old editions of classics to sell to Dylan Moran’s crosspatch bookseller Bernard. Barely looking at them, Bernard offers him £40. But they’re worth more than that, the man says. “I know, I know,” Bernard concedes. “But I don’t want them. I’ll have to price them, then, and put them up on the shelves, and store them, and people will come in and ask about them, and buy them, and read them, and come back and sell them and the whole hideous cycle will just go on and on and on ...” He gives the man £40 to take the books away.Shaun Bythell’s dispatches from the Wigtown Bookshop, which he has run for nearly 20 years, read like a knowing riff on the persona of Bernard Black. He started out grousing about his life, pillorying his eccentric staff and venting about his noisome customers on a Facebook page. Then he did the same in his hit Diary of a Bookseller, continued with Confessions of a Bookseller, and here he is – an actual franchise – with a slim little listicle-titled till-point follow-up for the Christmas market. His inner Bernard Black will be heaving a world-weary sigh. The more he parades his contemptus mundi, the more the world loves him.Much steam is enjoyably vented over customers who whistle... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-11-11 09:00:33 UTC ]
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The former newspaper baron, serving out a sentence for fraud and obstruction, will publish "A Matter of Principle" in the fall. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill and Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 23/06/2011 - 16:34 Retailers have criticised J K Rowling's decision to sell the Harry Potter ebooks directly through the Pottermore website, with Waterstone's saying physical bookshops are "effectively banned" from selling... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 22/06/2011 - 09:13 HarperPress has bought a book by the mayor of London about the people who made the United Kingdom's capital city what it is today. Publishing director Susan Watt bought British Commonwealth rights to Johnson's Life of London:... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 15/06/2011 - 14:25 The Sandwich Bookshop in Kent is closing after seven years, blaming a rise in internet bookselling, supermarket discounting and the popularity of e-readers. Owner Louise Vance will be shutting the doors to her shop in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#internet bookselling
Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 10:36 Octopus has acquired a vegetable cookery title by chef, eco-restauranteur and star of "The People's Supermarket" Arthur Potts Dawson. Publishing director Stephanie Jackson acquired world rights to Eat Your Veg from Sophie Laurimore of Factual... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 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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People is the most profitable U.S. magazine and had an excellent, +5.6% ad-page advertising 2010, so it was appropriate that the magazine did very well at min's seventh "Sales Executive of the Year" awards breakfast Thursday morning (June 2) at New York's Grand Hyatt. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 14:13 Independent bookshop owners paid themselves an average wage of £22,200 in 2010, according to a new survey. Figures revealed that the average sales of those bookshops which took part in last years Bookseller Fitness Programme... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 18/05/2011 - 09:55 Publishers appear to have got a reprieve in the Hargreaves Review into intellectual property with it recommending against imposing an American style 'Fair Use' defence for copyright exceptions. The report also suggested the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 16/05/2011 - 09:56 The economics for booksellers "simply don't work" as they struggle with high costs and low margins, the president of the Booksellers Association has claimed. Jane Streeter was delivering the introduction at the BA Conference at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 09/05/2011 - 15:41 The administrators of British Bookshops and Stationers has said it can only pay back eight-10p in every pound owed and expects the level of claims to increase. A recent document published on Companies House said the former... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 04/05/2011 - 09:15 Somerset and Gloucestershire county councils have been landed with a judicial review in the High Court over their plans to close over 20 libraries. Somerset County Council plans to withdraw funding for 11 libraries while... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 04/05/2011 - 15:48 The owners of the Torbay Bookshop, the Paignton based independent bookseller, have put the shop up for sale after almost 20 years trading. Co-owner Matthew Clarke said it was the right time to sell the business, with he and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 28/04/2011 - 08:00 A large proportion of iPad owners in the US have not used the device to read an ebook, a survey from media and publishing forecast firm Simba Information reveals. A report on the firm's "Trade E-Book Publishing 2011"... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the first step of a two-phase launch, the long-awaited Los Angeles Review of Books has debuted its preview site at lareviewofbooks.org with essays and reviews by Ben Ehrenreich, Geoff Nicholson, Jane Smiley, Jefferson Hunter, and Richard Prince. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page, Philip Jones and Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 13/04/2011 - 09:28 Bricks and mortar bookshops in the United States face a grim future, with the heaviest book buyers choosing to buy digitally, delegates at London Book Fair were told. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 07/04/2011 - 08:59 Tindal Street Press has acquired a debut novel after discovering the author at a writing festival. Editor Luke Brown bought world rights to Robyn directly from author Deborah Morgan. He discovered her work when judging a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Administrators have announced the closure of 16 more Borders bookshops, leading to a loss of more than 500 jobs. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald
[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2011-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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