Categorising fiction may help to sell books, but it says little about how writers write or readers readIn her Reith lecture of 2017, recently published for the first time in a posthumous collection of nonfiction, A Memoir of My Former Self, Hilary Mantel recalled the beginnings of her career as a novelist. It was the 1970s. “In those days historical fiction wasn’t respectable or respected,” she recalled. “It meant historical romance. If you read a brilliant novel like I, Claudius, you didn’t taint it with the genre label, you just thought of it as literature. So, I was shy about naming what I was doing. All the same, I began. I wanted to find a novel I liked, about the French Revolution. I couldn’t, so I started making one.”She made A Place of Greater Safety, an exceptional ensemble portrayal of the revolutionaries Danton, Robespierre and Desmoulins, but although the novel was completed in 1979, it wasn’t published until 1992 – widely rejected, as she later explained, because although she thought the French Revolution was the most interesting thing in the world, the reading public didn’t agree, or publishers had concluded they didn’t. She decided to write a contemporary novel – Every Day Is Mother’s Day – purely to get published; A Place of Greater Safety emerged only when she contributed to a Guardian piece about writers’ unpublished first novels. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-11-27 12:30:00 UTC ]
To mark the opening of the 'Insurgent' film, HarperCollins and Twitter are partnering to offer fans of Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy a discounted hardcover of the 'Insurgent' movie tie-in edition via Twitter links. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Martin Amis, Sarah Waters and Jessie Burton have made the 15-strong longlist for the 2015 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The longlist has been released for the first time following a 40% increase in entries this year. Amis is longlisted for his dark love story set in a Nazi... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Books unveils a clever interactive site, inspired by the iPod's clicking wheel, to accompany the release of 80 classic e-books.Penguin Books turns 80 this year. To celebrate its birthday, the British imprint of the world's largest publishing house is releasing a new series of 80 books,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2015-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette is selling three of its titles, including Amanda Palmer's new book 'The Art of Asking,' using buy buttons on Twitter. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette has partnered with Gumroad, a company that enables direct sales through Twitter, to see if the social media platform can sell books. The post Hachette Tests if Gumroad Can Sell Books on Twitter appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette Book Group in the US has partnered with Gumroad to sell books directly through Twitter. From later this week (11th December), tweets from certain authors will contain buy buttons allowing customers to buy the books without leaving Twitter. The first book to be offered this way will be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By David Saabye Sometimes it's the little ideas that make a big difference. Magazine publishers have focused on many "big" ideas in recent decades, which have manifested in such projects as News Corp.'s The Daily... Continue reading at Publishing Executive
[ Publishing Executive | 2014-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Marcelle Soviero The publishing industry is busting out of business models as quickly as we can devise new ones. I think in 2015 we will see more product differentiation and more product offerings. These... Continue reading at Publishing Executive
[ Publishing Executive | 2014-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Ron Epstein In late 2012, I purchased a small, local publishing company. The marquee property was a magazine called L.A. Parent that distributed approximately 70,000 free copies every month, along with other... Continue reading at Publishing Executive
[ Publishing Executive | 2014-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon and Hachette have resolved a contentious contract battle that caught readers and authors in the crossfire for months. Neither company is talking specifics, but the New York Times reports that Hachette will get the ability to set its own ebook prices. At the same time, Amazon will offer... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Europa Editions UK has acquired its first title by a British writer, a historical fiction novel... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mabel Normand, who came to fame at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, was one of the top comedy stars of the silent era. Besides appearing in several shorts with Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle, Normand also wrote, produced and directed these slapstick comedies. She's the subject of "Mabel and... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hardie Grant Egmont will sell books from U.S. based Capstone Young Readers) and Curious Fox in the U.K. to readers in Australia. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Public Library Association President Carolyn Anthony faces a dilemma. “There’s so much I’m looking forward to that it’s hard to know where to start,” she says, when asked for her perspective on the division’s upcoming biennial conference, set for March 11–15 in Indianapolis, Ind. “I look forward... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the week after Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for literature, sales of her books jumped 6,650% in Canada, and saw significant bumps around the world. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ed Nawotka examines the publishing industry's changing relationship with data and how that might or might not impact the way publishers acquire and sell books. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Eat, Pray, Love' author Elizabeth Gilbert plunges into historical fiction with a creative passion in the novel 'The Signature of All Things.'With a charming, flawed heroine straight out of Jane Austen, a Dickensian rags-to-riches story and thwarted romances that hark back to the Brontës,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Warehouse clubs, mass merchandisers, and other big-box retailers remain important to publishers because they not only sell books, they are places where books can be discovered. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The finalists for the 2013 German Book Prize range from historical fiction to explorations of contemporary love and a brutal future for planet Earth. Find out the winner on October 7 in Frankfurt. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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