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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Pratfalls, chaos, and a clumsy, well-intentioned flying piglet have made a bestseller of 'Cupig,' by Flamingo assistant editor Claire Tattersfield and illustrator Rob Sayegh Jr. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-13 05:00:00 UTC ]
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From England and France to the deepest Arctic and northern China, these stories will transport you. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-11 10:00:24 UTC ]
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While much science fiction is based on theoretical physics, occasionally literature returns the favor and inspires scientific ideas. A perfect symbiosis between the two came about in the early 1980s, when astronomer-turned-novelist Carl Sagan was researching his fictional work Contact and turned... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-09 09:54:04 UTC ]
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Novelist Jacinda Townsend and writer James Bernard Short join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the movie American Fiction, which is based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett. Townsend and Short discuss how the film addresses race in the publishing industry via... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-08 09:08:33 UTC ]
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The movie, with its handful of Oscar nominations, has refocused attention on “Erasure,” a satire of the literary world and its racial biases. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-03 10:02:42 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House strengthened its grip on the picture book lists and made gains on the frontlist fiction lists, which Scholastic still rules. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-02 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Concerns raised about interference or censorship after documents showed writers were barred despite receiving enough nominationsA prestigious literary award for science fiction, which was hosted in China for the first time, has come under fire for excluding several authors from the 2023 awards,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-24 15:53:48 UTC ]
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Check out these 8 gothic science fiction novels! They're sure to both terrorize and entertain you in equal measure! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-24 11:34:00 UTC ]
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One in four books sold in France is a graphic novel. Increasingly, those include nonfiction works by journalists and historians. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-01-24 05:01:16 UTC ]
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The best historical fiction set in Italy, like these nine titles, explores the complex and even chaotic history of the country. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-18 11:31:00 UTC ]
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2023 was an incredible year for books celebrating all things science. Here are 10 of the best science fiction books of 2023. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-15 11:30:00 UTC ]
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In the midst of chaos, the characters in these books find their own ways to metabolize real-life tragedy. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-01-15 10:00:46 UTC ]
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Read your way into the best historical fiction of 2023, which spans the globe and time. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-12 11:31:00 UTC ]
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The debut novel 'Dead in Long Beach, California,' is a sharp, dazzling turn for Compton-raised author Venita Blackburn, who made her name with lightning-fast fiction. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-11 11:00:44 UTC ]
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The best new sci-fi and fantasy books out January 2024 feature mythological retellings, space adventures, cyberpunk ghost stories, and more! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-02 11:30:00 UTC ]
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In his last annual letter to authors as Hachettte Book Group CEO, Michael Pietsch hit on a number of topics, including the publisher’s steps to improve its marketing efforts. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-26 05:00:00 UTC ]
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These books provide us with a deeper understanding of what Korea is beyond what we hear or see in popular culture. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-12-15 11:30:00 UTC ]
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Of all the great premises™ boasted by this year’s slate of movies, the wonderful American Fiction has one of the very best. The film is about a veteran writer of literary fiction who, as a Black man, finds himself undesirable in the literary market for his lack of conforming to type. The... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-15 09:55:27 UTC ]
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PEN America has released "a cumulative data summary" of nearly 6,000 book bans in public schools, finding that shared lists of targeted books by organized political groups have led to books and authors being targeted in multiple communities across the country. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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NoViolet Bulawayo among authors paying tribute to independent publishing house that shook up the country’s literary sceneWhen the Zimbabwean editor Irene Staunton and her husband Murray McCartney set up their publishing business in 1998, it seemed natural to call it Weaver Press. Their modest... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-12-07 07:00:02 UTC ]
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