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
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 01/11/2011 - 15:42 Avon has become the latest publisher to acquire a book tying into the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. Editorial director Claire Bord bought world English rights to two novels by Gill Paul from Vivien Green at Shiel... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#latest publisher
#book tying
#100th anniversary
#vivien green
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 28/10/2011 - 10:53 Actress and Loose Women co-presenter Lynda Bellingham has signed a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster to write commercial women's fiction. Publishing director Suzanne Baboneau signed the deal with Gordon Wise at Curtis... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#simon schuster
#gordon wise
#curtis brown
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 27/10/2011 - 08:15 HarperCollins has appointed Katrina Troy, currently head of commercial affairs for Vintage and Mainstream Publishing, as its commercial director for its fiction division. Troy will join in January 2012 and report to group... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#head fiction
#mainstream publishing
#commercial director
#fiction division
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 09/09/2011 - 08:20 Weidenfeld & Nicolson has landed an artistic coup with a cover image created exclusively by British artist David Hockney for Bryan Appleyard's book, The Brain is Wider than the Sky. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 28/07/2011 - 14:22 HarperPress will no longer publish fiction by the end of June 2012 with the publisher choosing to concentrate on non-fiction in the wake of Clare Smith's upcoming departure to Little, Brown. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#clare smith
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 06/07/2011 - 09:19 The third edition of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is to be released online later this year by ESF Ltd, a new company set up by the contributors to the book, in association with Orion imprint Victor Gollancz. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#science fiction
#company set
Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 05/07/2011 - 16:04 Dawn Frenchs début novel, A Tiny Bit Marvellous (Penguin), retains its position at the summit of The Official UK Top 50 week-on-week, thanks to a promotional appearance on ITVs This Morning, and a £2.99 if you spend £10... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#wh smith
Young-adult books are being sold to an audience that can't vote, yet they're being written by people commonly referred to on the Internet as "the olds." We should know. We're two of them. Both of us have made our living writing. One of us in journalism (Grady) and the other in literary fiction... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2011-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#young-adult books
Fiction is the leading sales driver of ebooks, and just how dominant that segment has been is clearly seen in a new market study just released by Bowker. According to "20102011 U.S. Book Consumer Demographics & Buying Behaviors Annual Review," fiction accounted for 61% of unit sales in 2010... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Thu, 19/05/2011 - 12:59 Three Random House Group titles have been picked for the first Fiction Uncovered promotion, which also includes two from indie Portobello. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 20/04/2011 - 09:45 The BBC is broadcasting an item on The Culture Show about science fiction next month, in the wake of a row about the broadcasters approach to genre fiction. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#culture show
#science fiction
#genre fiction
Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 15/04/2011 - 08:56 An e-fiction venture aimed at tweens and teenagers is being launched by packager Discovery Books in May. Called Fiction Express, it will invite teenagers to buy books in instalments and to vote to decide the direction of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#digital series
#buy books
#released weekly
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 07/04/2011 - 09:01 Angry Robot has made two fantasy fiction acquisitions, one a swashbuckling adventure and the other set in Elizabethan England. Both deals were signed by publishing director Marc Gascoigne for world English rights for physical,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#fantasy fiction
#swashbuckling adventure
#elizabethan england
#audio editions
#zeno agency
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 05/04/2011 - 16:11 Coronet will publish "Strictly Come Dancing" presenter Tess Daly's first sashay into fiction, having acquired The Camera Never Lies by the TV host. Editor Charlotte Haycock acquired British Commonwealth rights to the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#tv host
It's the Stieg Larsson show in 2010 paperback bestsellers. The first two books of his enormously successful trilogy racked up sales of more than 10,942,000 in their mass market and paperback editions. That's more than the combined sales of two other stellar sellersJames Patterson and Nora... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#mass market
#combined sales
#big names
#paperback editions
#nora roberts
What's new in the hardcover fiction bestsellers of 2010? Very little. Almost every author in the fiction top 30 has been on these charts in previous yearsmost several times. The sole exception is the #1 fiction bestseller, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, with sales of 1.9 million. Stieg... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#mass market
#trade paper
#ebook list
Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Thu, 17/03/2011 - 15:51 Creative agency Hothouse Fiction is expanding its team to increase output and extend its international sales, especially into the US. Hothouse, which develops commercial series fiction for children aged five years and older,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#children aged
#international sales
#creative director
#darley anderson
#editorial consultant
#managing editor
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 15/03/2011 - 14:47 Adult hardback fiction books have been added to the basket of goods that the government uses to calculate the cost of living in the UK. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 22/02/2011 - 16:01 Sales of Jamie Olivers Jamies 30-minute Meals (Michael Joseph) fell 22% week-on-week, but its 39,118 sale in the seven days to 19th February is easily strong enough to ensure it spends another week (its 17th in total) at the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 15/02/2011 - 15:59 TV chef Jamie Oliver has achieved the rare feat of topping both the hardback and paperback non-fiction bestseller lists, helping publisher Penguin score number ones across all four of The Bookseller's main bestseller liststhe... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#records began