The truth about book prizes, why Amazon is like an old-fashioned library and how much famous writers really earned from their journalism …Periodically, signs go up saying that Grub Street is closed to through traffic. Observers speculate that the street is being redeveloped as gentrification forces the former inhabitants to move out, or else that the closure may be due to the expansion of the neighbouring university’s English department. Older heads are shaken in what had been the local pub but is now a coffee’n’crafts shop: there used to be more life in the place, they mourn, when bohemian writers could dash off a review against the clock to pay for their round. Even if Grub Street is eventually reopened, it will never be the same again, and anyway it will probably have been renamed “Creatives Crescent”.Such cliches and exaggerations are characteristic of this genre of lament. Like most keening for the good old days, these threnodies are not pieces of dispassionate historical analysis: they are attempts to compensate for so much that is disagreeable about one’s own time by inventing a more or less idealised version of the past. Still, it is worth wondering why “Grub Street” should be the form taken by paradise lost in this case. After all, the street originally so named in London (it was real before it was metaphorical) came to be the home of that kind of “grub” defined by the OED as “a person of mean abilities; a dull industrious drudge; a literary hack”. Even allowing... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
In the first step of a two-phase launch, the long-awaited Los Angeles Review of Books has debuted its preview site at lareviewofbooks.org with essays and reviews by Ben Ehrenreich, Geoff Nicholson, Jane Smiley, Jefferson Hunter, and Richard Prince. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Tue, 12/04/2011 - 10:36 Barbara Kingsolver's Orange Prize-winning The Lacuna (Faber) has been shortlisted for the 100,000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The 10-strong list, announced this morning (12th April), also includes three from Irish authors, Brooklyn by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 15:45 Sphere believes it has a smashing winner with the acquisition of the autobiography of Rafael Nadal, the Spanish tennis ace and current world number one. Non-fiction publishing director Adam Strange bought UK and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Tue, 05/04/2011 - 15:10 Pan Macmillan has signed a six-book deal with London self-help bookshop The School of Life. Editorial directors Liz Gough and Cindy Chan bought world rights in the series directly from The School of Life. The intelligent,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 25/03/2011 - 11:56 Sceptre is to publish a début novel-in-verse which promises to put an end to one of the greatest literary mysteries, that of whether playwright Christopher Marlowe wrote Shakespeare's plays. Publishing director Carole... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen and Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 23/03/2011 - 15:48 Mainstream, J R Books, Pan and Faber are to rush publication of titles on Elizabeth Taylor, after the Oscar-winning film star died today [23rd March]. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Thu, 17/03/2011 - 17:10 Novelist Bi Feiyu has won the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize, becoming the prize's third Chinese winner in four years. He was awarded the US$30,000 award at an event in Hong Kong for his novel Three Sisters (Telegram/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).The... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 15/03/2011 - 09:58 Price and range have been highlighted as the most important factors in buying habits of online book buyers, with recommendation and review less crucial. In a survey of 91,500 customers worldwide on the Book Depository's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Thu, 10/03/2011 - 08:30 Emily-Jane Taylor has been promoted to finance director of the Little, Brown Book Group with immediate effect. Taylor, who has worked for the publisher for eight years, was previously head of finance. Taylor said she was... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Tim Conneally, Betanews Amazon on Monday pre-released a software update for Kindle e-readers running the 3.0 software which updates the interface for magazines and newspapers, adds a quick review section at the end of each book, and adds page numbers that match Kindle books with their print... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2011-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Environmental publisher Earthscan has been bought by international academic publishing group Taylor & Francis following a process brokered by mergers and acquisitions specialists Bertolli Mitchell. The deal was completed on Monday [31st February]. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams The Publishers Association [PA] has attacked the culture secretary's decision to allow communications watchdog Ofcom to "delay" the Digital Economy Act. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced yesterday [1st February] that Ofcom is to assess whether the Act's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Hodder & Stoughton has acquired the account of the life of "real life Charlotte Gray". Pearl Witherington was the only female agent in the Special Operations Executive to run her own network in France during the second world war. Hodder non-fiction publisher... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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