A government proposal to ease restrictions on the sale of imported cultural works risks harming a world-class industryThe hoopla around the release of Sally Rooney’s new novel on Tuesday – with bookshops opening early, and queues of shoppers eager to lay their hands on Beautiful World, Where Are You – has contributed to the image of a publishing industry in rude health. Last year had the highest sales in eight years. Yet authors, bricks-and-mortar bookshops and publishers alike fear that the industry faces a powerful new threat, if cheap editions legitimately produced for an overseas market are allowed to be sold in the UK. Kazuo Ishiguro, Bernardine Evaristo and others have warned that the effect on writers would be devastating.EU regulations meant that UK producers could prevent the importation of such books into Britain; in the wake of Brexit, the government is considering reversing this. A report proposes to change how we deal with the exhaustion of intellectual property rights. The document, from a taskforce headed by Iain Duncan Smith, Theresa Villiers and George Freeman, argues that, apart from limited exceptions, “in general, protectionist use of IP rights should be resisted”. It suggests that we liberalise parallel import laws “to reduce prices and increase choice for consumers” (in notes from a familiar Tory hymn sheet). This would mean that a non-UK publisher, say, that has legitimately bought the rights to publish Harry Potter, could then sell those books back... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-09-07 18:00:33 UTC ]
Bernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge take No 1 slots in wake of anti-racist demonstrations, as Waterstones staff ask chain to support causeBernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge have become the first black British women to top the UK’s fiction and nonfiction paperback charts, in a week where... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-10 13:46:40 UTC ]
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Author Dorothy Koomson has written an open letter to the publishing industry, in which she describes it as a “hostile environment for Black authors”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-10 06:37:48 UTC ]
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Frontline booksellers are the first people customers see when they set foot in bookstores across America, and are among the most vulnerable workers in the publishing industry. This is what their world looks like now. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Cultural Cross Sections Taylor Hickney In this profile, one of Marie-Helene Bertino’s students at the New School provides a personal glimpse of the author, whose new novel, Parakeet, was published June 2. On the evening of the National Book Awards,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-04 19:40:55 UTC ]
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Asking consumers to remember what booksellers mean to them, Spain's publishing industry associations roll out a campaign to reopen book retailers. The post Coronavirus Response: Spain’s Publishing Industry Mobilizes Bookstore Support appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-06-04 13:07:04 UTC ]
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Pandemic Dispatches Elena Poniatowska In this column that originally appeared in La Jornada, Elena Poniatowska considers the role of editors and talks with Diego Rabasa, founder of publisher Sexto Piso. Already precarious, the pandemic lockdown has made... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-03 21:05:48 UTC ]
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Cultural Cross Sections Elena Poniatowska In this column that originally appeared in La Jornada, Elena Poniatowska considers the role of editors and talks with Diego Rabasa, founder of publisher Sexto Piso. Already precarious, the pandemic lockdown has... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-03 21:05:48 UTC ]
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Today sees the launch of South Asian LitFest, a free, live online festival I've created to show celebrate and showcase authors both from the subcontinent and the diasporic South Asian writing community around the world. Why do we need it? Well, even as the publishing industry talks about... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-27 22:25:54 UTC ]
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Having dropped up to 2.5 million units in its worst 'acute COVID period' week, Kristin McLean says the US publishing industry needs to assess, predict, and harden weak spots for challenges ahead. The post NPD’s Kristen McLean on the US Industry: Weathering the Pandemic appeared first on... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-05-27 12:33:49 UTC ]
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Recently, a colleague experienced an irksome response from a coworker when she could not meet with him at short notice. She felt frustrated that he seemed to show little compassion or understanding when she’s currently balancing a full-time job and homeschooling two young children. She’s not... Continue reading at Publishing Executive
[ Publishing Executive | 2020-05-27 12:00:06 UTC ]
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The Amazon Literary Partnership has announced $1 million in grant funding to 66 organizations across the publishing industry. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Covid-19 pandemic has brought huge swaths of the publishing industry to a halt, but one channel remains open and thriving: mobile webcomics. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Many months ago, when we all sat in our meeting rooms, sipping coffee and bouncing campaign ideas around, I don’t think any one of us marketing folk could have predicted just how much our plans would be forced to change. The effects of the national lockdown on marketing campaigns and the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-20 21:41:29 UTC ]
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Bernardine Evaristo, Caroline Criado Perez and Colson Whitehead are among the authors to make the Orwell Prize shortlists for its political writing and fiction awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-20 20:07:42 UTC ]
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Interviews Veronica Esposito Emma Ramadan is a literary translator based in Providence, Rhode Island, where she is the co-owner of Riffraff, a bookstore and bar. She is the recipient of an NEA Translation Fellowship, a PEN/Heim grant, and a Fulbright... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-05-18 18:20:27 UTC ]
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Offering what they call their ‘360-degree view of the potential as well as the shortcomings of the publishing industry,’ Italy’s literary agents are organizing during the ‘critical situation’ imposed by COVID-19. By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson ‘For a New Start After the... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-05-11 03:29:40 UTC ]
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April 2020 found the publishing industry entering a period of unexpected change as bookshops closed and the focus turned to digital sales. The COVID-19 lockdown has forced writers to re-evaluate the future in this difficult time. As a narrative psychologist and fiction writer, I am interested... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-05 04:49:45 UTC ]
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Publishing industry sales rose 3.5% in the first two months of 2020 over the same period in 2019, according to data supplied to the AAP by 1,361 publishers for the organization’s StatShot report. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Could the coronavirus crisis and the UK lockdown be offering the publishing industry a glimpse into a world without bookshops? Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-30 02:18:22 UTC ]
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Publishing industry sales had a nice start to 2020, rising 3.5% through February, according to AAP's StatShot program. Sales of adult books were up 2.9%, and sales in the children/young adult rose 6.3%. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-04-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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