People want stories and that means cultivating a publishing ecosystem where big and small can flourishThis week both the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and the Department of Justice in the US announced investigations into the planned $2.2bn acquisition of the publisher Simon & Schuster by Bertelsmann, which already owns Penguin Random House. The merger, if allowed, would see Bertelsmann have almost one-third of English-language book sales. The move follows a year when a population cocooned at home, reaching for comfort reading, inflated the profits of big publishers. Bloomsbury and Pan Macmillan recently announced that they would be returning furlough payments; HarperCollins did not take them.Many of the UK’s smaller publishers fared rather differently: a Bookseller survey last summer found 60% feared they would cease to exist by autumn. Indies tend not to have the backlists full of household names that, say, a Penguin has; they depend far more on serendipity, on a customer wandering into a shop intending to buy one thing but coming out with something else as well. This happens far less with online shopping; at least one publisher lost up to 90% in sales. Some also found it difficult to qualify for furlough. They took to social media to announce their plight, or to try new selling tactics; some crowdfunded; some received emergency Arts Council England cash. Many were dragged back from the brink, for which we should be grateful. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-03-28 17:25:47 UTC ]
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If they succeed in distracting commuters from their smartphones, short story dispensers will be a welcome addition to the landscapeCan fiction miniatures dispensed through slots lure commuters away from their smartphone apps and social media feeds into the imaginary worlds created by authors... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-04-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The giants of the scientific publishing industry have made huge profits for decades. Now they are under threatScientific publishing has long been a licence to print money. Scientists need journals in which to publish their research, so they will supply the articles without monetary reward. Other... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The story of Dan Mallory, aka the bestselling author AJ Finn, reads like a thriller. But it asks uncomfortable questions of the literary worldA true story worthy of a Patricia Highsmith thriller was published this week in the New Yorker. The magazine detailed the deceptions of Dan Mallory, who... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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These days, most writers cannot afford to live secluded from their public. But when a very private author like Thomas Harris announces a new novel, there’s always special excitementAuthors – at least as far as their relationship with the public goes – fall into several distinct categories. There... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Martin Lewis is suing Facebook. The question is whether companies can be held responsible for the behaviour of their softwareMartin Lewis, the consumer advice and money-saving expert, is suing Facebook in a case that threatens the dominant business model of publishing on the internet. It raises... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The standards by which the internet is controlled need to be open and subject to impartial judiciaries – not left to advertisersThe revelations we publish about how Facebook’s data was used by Cambridge Analytica to subvert the openness of democracy are only the latest examples of a global... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The news that the music weekly will no longer appear in print is unsurprising. Where should we look for the sense of excitement it once offered?It would be silly to mourn the demise of NME, which is closing its print edition after 66 years, maintaining only its painful digital existence. This is... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stories should come from all parts of society – not just from the well heeled and the middle classLiterary fiction, you might think, is in wonderful health. Book festivals, from Edinburgh and Wigtown in Scotland, to Hay-on-Wye in Wales, to Cheltenham and Bath in England, are flourishing. There... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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London book fair has shown how upbeat the literary world can be – and how worried our cultural businesses have become at the thought of losing old certaintiesThe mood at this week’s London book fair appeared upbeat, with hotly contested auctions leading to the return of the six-figure publishing... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It may not prove easy to marry British and Japanese journalistic cultures. But in a global media world this deal makes senseThe Financial Times is one of the best newspapers in the world, not just in Britain. It is quick without being rash, accurate without leaden pedantry, thoughtful without... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The readiness of juries to defend public interest journalism is good news. But the press should be more transparent about payments to sources for storiesThe case of the Sun journalists charged with paying public officials for information has been a troubling one in many respects. It is, we... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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From tinting their pages yellow to redesigning fonts, publisher Barrington Stoke is leading the way in dyslexia-friendly books. They and their authors – including Meg Rosoff and Anthony McGowan – explain the practicalitiesMainstream understanding of dyslexia has come a long way from the days... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The San Diego Reader is mining gold from its rich archives and releasing the treasures as a collection of six eBooks, the first installment of a series that will showcase the literary quality and historic value of a collection spanning more than 40 y ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Two new books, a U. K. paperback and a world first edition, were delivered to my door on the same day last week. I put the books side by side on the table. The first, suggestive of dark happenings in the past, was The Lion House: The Rise of Suleyman the Magnificent. The second book’s […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-03 08:52:43 UTC ]
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You can read ebooks, write notes, or mark up PDFs on this new slate, but your wallet will feel a lot lighter. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2022-12-08 14:00:00 UTC ]
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Klein, who previously served as editorial director of Lee & Low, will report to publisher Stacy Lellos. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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With a romance series, a memoir, and a picture book, the versatile author leverages social media to grow her fan base and interact with readers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-05-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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What is it like to be blind in an industry overwhelmingly dominated by sighted individuals? Jessica Powers, founder and publisher at Catalyst Press, spoke to George Mendoza and Kristen Witucki about crafting stories for sighted readers, finding community and release in fiction, and battling... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-04-28 08:58:13 UTC ]
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Jenny Downham answers our questions about her latest YA novel, Furious Thing (David Fickling Books), which has been shortlisted for the YA Book Prize 2020. 1. Can you sum up Furious Thing in one sentence? There are many ways a girl’s sense of self can be whittled away — this book explores what... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-16 09:06:03 UTC ]
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