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 ]
News tagged with:
#won prizes
#dozen languages
#cover design
#printing costs
#broadcast media
#literary journal
By encouraging readers to tackle longer, more sophisticated novels, the queen of daytime TV may have hurt overall fiction sales. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2012-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#fiction sales
#book sales
#encouraging readers
#daytime tv
Other National Book Critics Circle honorees include writer John Lewis Gaddis for 'George F. Kennan: An American Life' and Maya Jasanoff for 'Liberty's Exiles.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#american life
The under-the-radar author won for her collection "Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories."Reporting from New York -- The National Book Critics Circle gave its 2011 fiction prize to Edith Pearlman, an under-the-radar writer of short stories, at its annual awards ceremony Thursday evening at... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#selected stories
#york --
#edith pearlman
#short stories
A novel banned by the Chinese government has made the longlist for the Independent Foreign... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#chinese government
Transworld titles earn pride of place in both the Mass-market and Original Fiction charts this... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The Booksellers Association has called for “dynamic and innovative” authorities to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#booksellers association
W H Smith is to promote cross- over young adult (YA) titles more directly to adults via a new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#wh smith
Germany’s top fiction title at the end of December, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out His Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson climbed up from #5, supplanting previous chart-topper Inheritance (Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance was also #2 in Spain). Jonasson’s novel has sold more... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#million copies
Jon Appleton has been appointed to the newly-created post of editorial director for fiction at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#head fiction
#newly-created post
William Shawcross, whose official biography of the Queen Mother was published by Macmillan in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#official biography
John Sutherland, a former judge and chair of the Man Booker prize, is to chair the judging panel... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#judging panel
Independent publisher Saqi Books is to launch a new non-fiction imprint, with plans to publish... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#non-fiction imprint
Waterstones is reverting to its original logo in the Baskerville serif font and dropping its... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Gibson Square Books will be increasingly "dipping its toe" into fiction, following on... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Sussex-based independent publisher Myriad Editions is launching a series of events to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Authors including Patrick Ness, Kate Mosse, Simon Singh, Mary Hoffman and Katherine Langrish,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#kate mosse
Literary agent Fiona Spencer Thomas has sold a thriller by Alex Churton to Anthony Cheetham's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#alex churton
#anthony cheetham
Literary agent Fiona Spencer Thomas has sold a thriller by Alex Churton to Anthony Cheetham's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#alex churton
#anthony cheetham
Constable & Robinson is to launch Canvas, a new commercial fiction list headed by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#constable robinson
Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Mon, 07/11/2011 - 08:30 Independent bookseller Ron Johns is moving into childrens fiction publishing, following a number of successes as a publisher of picture books and coffee-table books under the Mabecron Books imprint. Johns, who owns bookshops... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#picture books
#coffee-table books
#owns bookshops
#st ives
#local authors
#publishing titles