Karl Sabbagh says small publishers face with huge obstacles with selling books and even letting anyone know they exist; plus a descendant of Dr Miles Marley sets the record straightWith reference to your leader on literary fiction (28 December), as a small publisher we are faced with huge obstacles in the way of selling our books or even letting anyone know our titles exist, however good they are. Last year we published an excellent novel called To the Lake, by a Russian writer, Yana Vagner. This had sold over 100,000 copies in Russia, and is being made into a TV series there. It has won prizes throughout Europe, and been translated into half a dozen languages, with sales outside Russia running into tens of thousands. We paid an advance to the author, a fee to a translator, and typesetting, cover design and printing costs, a total of about £9,000. We sent at least 50 copies out to major periodicals, newspapers and broadcast media in the hope of getting reviews, but there were none. The one thing we couldn’t afford was advertising, at a cost of £1,000 or so for a quarter page in a literary journal and far more in widely selling newspapers. So far, we have sold 64 copies. Can anyone wonder why we don’t publish more such books?Karl SabbaghManaging director, Skyscraper Publications• Dr Christopher Goulding (Letters, 26 December) may regard Barry West’s “theory” about Dickens’ use of the name Marley as tenuous; in our family we regard it as long-established fact. I am a... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Known to legions of radio listeners for her exuberant coverage of literature and culture, she was a self-described “resident nerd” at NPR. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-11-16 04:21:16 UTC ]
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After five years at the helm of W F Howes, Miles Stevens-Hoare has led the audio pioneer through a huge growth spurt, and is now moving into creating its own audio-first content, launching the WFH Original list. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-11 21:35:34 UTC ]
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“Joined of course by Emma, Elizabeth Bennet, Anne Elliot, Marianne — well, that’s enough.,” says the renowned British biographer, whose latest book is “The Young H.G. Wells.” “We all enjoy heroines who don’t always behave themselves.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-11-11 10:00:03 UTC ]
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Damon Galgut's The Promise (Chatto & Windus) has thundered to the top of the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction top 20, the week of its Booker Prize win. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-09 19:53:38 UTC ]
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Today, the American Library Association announced the 2022 shortlist for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. The awards, established in 2012, celebrate the best books in fiction and nonfiction for adult readers, and will honor each winner with $5000. The... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-11-08 16:19:31 UTC ]
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Bestselling author Ken Follett said "it doesn't appeal" to him to write non-fiction and insists his life lacks the necessary drama for memoir. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-06 02:23:57 UTC ]
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The 2021 shortlists have been revealed for the Staunch Prize’s unpublished flash fiction and short stories without violence to women, while the original book prize is on hold until 2022. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-01 12:22:21 UTC ]
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Ilex Press has signed a deal for The Love That Dares: Letters of LGBTQ+ Love & Friendship, collected by Bishopsgate Institute archivists Rachel Smith and Barbara Vesey. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-29 21:04:12 UTC ]
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Comedian Frankie Boyle is making his crime fiction debut with Meantime, a “phenomenal” story set in the Scottish independence referendum's aftermath, to be published by John Murray imprint Baskerville. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-28 00:03:08 UTC ]
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An excerpt from a debut novel that Booklist calls "enthralling" and Kirkus hailed as "an ambitious literary debut." The post ‘Cairo Circles’: Featured Fiction from Doma Mahmoud appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-10-25 10:00:55 UTC ]
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Frank Herbert’s magnum opus: masterful or clumsy? Denis Villeneuve’s movie continues the debate. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-10-21 13:13:42 UTC ]
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What are the best places to begin exploring the wonderful world of science fiction? Some of the classic novels of the genre, from Frank Herbert’s Dune to Asimov’s Foundation series (which eventually stretched to seven volumes), might appear daunting because of their sheer size and scope. Below,... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-10-20 14:00:25 UTC ]
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Quercus imprint MacLehose Press has acquired My Pen is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women, an anthology of contemporary women's short stories with an introduction by BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-19 02:58:08 UTC ]
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Bluemoose Books is launching a non-fiction list, starting with a book by Stu Hennigan which exposes "the abject poverty of an inner city trying to cope with the onset of the pandemic". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-18 15:13:06 UTC ]
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Sequoia Nagamatsu’s bold first novel imagines how future humans might grapple with the fallout from climate change Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-15 04:56:32 UTC ]
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Gains of 26% in both the adult fiction and young adult fiction categories combined to increase total unit sales of print books by 2% last week over the comparable week in 2020. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-10-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Historical fiction can remind us that these "unprecedented" times are anything but. Here's what they can teach us about our current crisis. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-10-13 10:38:00 UTC ]
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Several Christian fiction publishers are employing sensitivity readers and taking other steps to responsibly represent marginalized people in books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-10-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Joe Yule and Katie Packer have been promoted as part of Headline Publishing’s strategy for non-fiction expansion. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-12 02:18:24 UTC ]
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The audio version of an in-depth article on how science fiction’s hopes and fears can inspire humanity’s response to the climate crisis. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2021-10-11 09:13:49 UTC ]
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