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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Macmillan Children’s Books has bought the world rights to A Girl Called Owl, a new tween fiction novel, from Skylark Literary. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-12-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At a time when the translation market is shrinking, the internet giant’s publishing arm, AmazonCrossing, has leapt ahead as by far the biggest publisher of English versions of international titles this year. Alison Flood inspects its basketTranslation Tuesdays: read poetry, short stories and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Key festive titles from publishers are now on bookshop shelves, including a number of new titles from big-name authors. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Del Rey, an imprint of Ebury Publishing, has acquired "a bold new voice in fantasy fiction" in author Mark de Jager. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Noy Holland on perhaps the most difficult and weighted subject an author can tackle. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2015 is David Almond for 'A Song for Ella Grey.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperLegend, with its focus on discovering new literary talent, will consider manuscripts submitted by un-agented authors. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There are some men who, upon learning that I have been involved in two feminist books, like to say to me that women are: “More equal now than before, so why do we still need feminism?” Typically, their tone has a kind of faux-earnest, head-cocked-to-one-side, u ok hun? edge to it. They aren’t... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ellen Banda-Aaku has long battled with her African publishers to make her teen/YA books ‘suitable’ enough to print. Now she’s started to stand her ground for the sake of her teenager readers – and risks not being published at allPlus find out about #ProjectKala, a campaign to promote reading in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dear booksellers, Nosy Crow publishes Refuge on 12th November. It is a book I dearly hope you will all support. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We take a look back at the winners from the past 10 years of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Four poetry collections have made the shortlist for the fiction category of the Portico Prize for Literature in a "surprise outcome." The prize is biennially awarded to the highest quality books set wholly or mainly in the North of England. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dynamic, radical, often female … Irish fiction is flourishing. Gone is the conservative writing – all nostalgia and sexual repression – of the Celtic Tiger years. The writers of the new wave are original and bold“Money kills the imagination,” says the narrator of Claire Kilroy’s 2012 novel The... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sam Edenborough, president of the Association of Authors’ Agents, talks about the next big thing in fiction and more. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Snapchat's retreat from home-grown content reflects an inherent tension between platforms and publishers. The one-to-one messaging app has been courting traditional publishers and everyday people to post directly on the platform, but at the same time, like other platforms, it’s trying to create... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2015-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Held in the South for the first time, crime and mystery fiction's annual convention mixed literary prizes and barbecue with programming focused on everything from traditional hardboiled crime novels to short fiction and international mysteries. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jesuit priest Martin, well known for his role on the Colbert Report and from his media work during the pope's recent visit, discusses his first novel 'The Abbey.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"I’d be unable to distinguish between what is me and what is Lizzie in the book; Lizzie’s memories appear in my mind as vaguely and as vividly as my own." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sarah Weinman, the editor of new Library of America anthology, spotlights the no-nonsense work of female crime writers. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-09-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bestselling author Francine Rivers was among those honored during the 2015 American Christian Fiction Writers Awards, taking home the top Lifetime Achievement Award. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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