Can a one-size-fits-all, low-price, consumer-dominated sales model support a diverse, innovative, challenging literary output?It is either an existential threat to intellectual freedom or a rustbelt media industry meeting its comeuppance at the hands of disruptive technology. The battle between the multibillion-dollar publisher Hachette (and now the Scandinavian publisher Bonnier) and the even more multibillion-dollar Amazon is usually discussed in high-minded tones, particularly by publishers and their authors. But at heart, it is merely another collision between producers and consumers that has a particular significance only if you ascribe a value to books as cultural artefacts. It is perfectly possible, instead of Hachette and Amazon, and the 900 writers who took out a two-page ad in the New York Times to protest, to substitute supermarkets, dairy farmers and the price of milk.Although books account for only 7% of the sales of the Everything store, Amazon sells a lot of them. In particular it has 60% of the ebook market. It believes a flat-rate sales price for new books and bestsellers delivers higher sales and bigger profits. Hachette disagrees. Amazon is forcing the issue by disadvantaging Hachette books (no buy button, no discounts and so on). Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Reading Agency is launching a project to provide reading activities for older people thanks to a £2.1m grant from the Big Lottery Fund. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon has launched a new self-service video uploading platform called Amazon Video Direct. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Around 27% of people fear reading could become a “forgotten pleasure” according to new research commissioned to mark the 10th anniversary of Galaxy Quick Reads. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New Writing North, working with Channel 4, Northumbria University and Lime Pictures, is offering aspiring TV writers from the North of England 12-month placements in either soap or children’s drama production companies. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Earning a living as a writer is as likely as winning the lottery. Instead of writing books and persuading others to buy them, find out what people want to write, then do it for themPhilip Pullman: professional writers set to become ‘an endangered species’ due to low wagesI left school with a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The number of children in the UK who took part in The Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge this year was down 2.8% on last year’s figure. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Books vice president Jennifer Cast discusses Amazon's strategy for its first physical bookstore, where a mix of data and user reviews decides the inventory. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Welcome to NaNoWriMo! MG Leonard (who wrote her first book Beetle Boy in six months, one hour a day) has tips on how to do it. And it starts with writing EVERY SINGLE DAY NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and takes place every November. It’s for anyone thinking about writing a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Quick Reads is set to become one of the The Reading Agency’s programmes after the two charities have decided to work together. Cathy Rentzenbrink, project director of Quick Reads, told The Bookseller she is very excited about the partnership. “All the work we now do will have a greater impact.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-09-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frank Schembari loves books — printed books. He loves how they smell. He loves scribbling in the margins, underlining interesting sentences, folding a page corner to mark his place. Schembari is not a retiree who sips tea at Politics ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Specs Who LeVar Burton Age 57 Claim to fame Emmy-winning actor (Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation); host and producer of Reading Rainbow; author of the children’s book The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm (available Oct. 7) Base Los Angeles Twitter @levarburton What’s the first information you... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2014-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon has refreshed its entire collection of cloud music apps with the releases of Amazon Music for Windows 3.0, Amazon Music for Mac 3.0, Amazon Music for iPad and iPhone 3.0 and Amazon Music for Android 3.0. All four platforms share similar updates, and accompany Amazon’s foray into music... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2014-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Men are giving up on reading books because they prefer to watch the big screen version instead, a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Early last month Junot Díaz nearly caused a riot when hundreds of fans descended on the Union Square Barnes & Noble in New York City to hear the author read from his latest, This Is How You Lose Her. But, to put it mildly, not every author is Junot Díaz, and getting a crowd to hear you read... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Are you ready for a bombshell? Turns out people who read ebooks read more books than those don't. That tidbit comes from the number crunchers at Pew. According to a new report titled "The Rise of E-Reading," the ebook readers read an average of 24 books in the past year, versus the 15 books read... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Ken Follett will publish his next, as-yet-untitled book with Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK, after decades with Penguin and Pan Macmillan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Cysts in both wrists made reading a literal pain. But Lamicall’s Tablet Holder takes that pain away by holding up my Kindle for me. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2024-05-12 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Emily Henry, Toni Morrison, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dr. Seuss and more books on sale for 50% off today! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-05-10 18:01:00 UTC ]
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Photo by Miria-Sabina Maciągiewicz. As Emerson said to Whitman: “I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start.” The same words my editor said to me when I published my first novel in—good God—1982! Although I have to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-10 08:56:38 UTC ]
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