The publishers' year: hits and misses of 2013

Publishers choose their books of the year, and the ones that got awayRobin Robertson Deputy publishing director, Jonathan CapeThe book that made my year: Many years ago, I was sitting in Blake's bar in Enniskillen with John McGahern and he recommended an American novel from the 60s, written by John Williams: a book called Stoner. I thought it was astonishing, and I passed it to vintage, who brought it out in 2003 with John's introduction. Like so many great books, it promptly disappeared, again – only to come back this year, miraculously, and succeed.Our book that deserved to do better: Chamber Music by Tom Benn. It's the late 1990s, in the middle of the drug wars on the estates of Manchester, and complicated antihero Bane is pitched against a Yardie called Hagfish, whose weapon of choice is a Komodo dragon. Tom Benn – still only 26 – is writing these amazing dialogue-driven noir literary thrillers that, as the blurb says, "do for low-life Manchester what Trainspotting did for Leith", and no one is paying attention.I wish I'd published: Cormac McCarthy, as usual. Even a screenplay by Cormac McCarthy, like The Counsellor (Picador).Alexandra Pringle Editor-in-chief, BloomsburyThe book that made my year: In a year that included fiction by George Saunders, Aminatta Forna, Colum McCann, Jhumpa Lahiri, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Gilbert and Khaled Hosseini, how can I choose? But perhaps in the end it will be 21-year-old Samantha Shannon's debut The Bone Season, which hit the... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2013-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Other news stories related to: "The publishers' year: hits and misses of 2013"


Headline to publish Mark Mills

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 26/10/2011 - 08:29 Headline has acquired two novels by Mark Mills, previously published by HarperCollins, and author of bestselling title The Savage Garden. Publishing director for fiction Imogen Taylor bought world rights excluding North... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Octopus to publish Biggest Loser cookbook

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 25/10/2011 - 07:30 Octopus will publish the next tie-in title to ITV1 show "The Biggest Loser" next year, the third in the brand to be released by the Hachette publisher. Publishing director Stephanie Jackson made the deal for UK and Irish... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Esquire ad director Darren Singh appointed publisher of ShortList

Darren Singh, advertising director for Hearst's Esquire magazine, has been appointed publisher of ShortList. Continue reading at Media Week

[ Media Week | 2011-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Big Green Bookshop turns publisher

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 25/10/2011 - 09:00 The co-owner of the Big Green Bookshop has launched his own publishing company and is set to release his first book with author Greg Stekelman. Simon Key, co-owner of the independent bookshop based in Wood Green, London, has... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Indies call for more publisher support

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 24/10/2011 - 08:25 Educational publishers have been accused of not providing enough support to help independent bookshops stay on the high street, as owners call for more discounts. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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IPC appoints Emily Hutchings as NME publishing director

IPC Media has appointed Emily Hutchings, the current publisher of weekly titles Now and Soaplife, as publishing director of music titles NME and Uncut. Continue reading at Media Week

[ Media Week | 2011-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Indies call for more educational publisher support

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 24/10/2011 - 09:25 Educational publishers have been accused of not providing enough support to help independent bookshops stay on the high street, as owners call for more discounts. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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DK Publishing Bounces Back

When Penguin began the restructuring of DK Publishing in 2009, it had two main objectives—to reduce the size of its list and to cut editorial costs to improve the profitability of its illustrated book group. What it hadn’t counted on was the phenomenal success of its publishing partnership with... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors to Get Sales Data From Three Big Publishers

Simon & Schuster, Random House and the Hachette Book Group said they would allow authors to access book sales data online, a service Amazon began providing last year. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-10-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New Holland hit by more redundancies

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 20/10/2011 - 15:50 Illustrated publisher New Holland has undergone its third round of redundancies in four years, with nearly half the company’s UK staff leaving the publisher, including its managing director. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Cuts Publishers Out of the Mix, Makes Deals With Writers

Releasing a book on one of the world’s largest publishing marketplaces could help your company. Here's a quick guide to the basics of self-publishing. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2011-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Alma Books to expand after profitable year

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 20/10/2011 - 08:45 Alma Books is planning to hire more staff and expand its non-fiction and YA lists, after reversing a loss made in its 2009 financial year. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers and booksellers to swap working days

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 20/10/2011 - 08:30 Publishers and booksellers will soon be able to swap a working day in the life of each other’s businesses in a new joint initiative soon to be launched by the Booksellers Association and the Publisher Association. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Pattern of Success at C&T Publishing

The launch of C&T Publishing’s Stash Books imprint in early spring 2010 was a key factor in driving up sales last year at the Concord, Calif., craft and quilting book publisher, and the new imprint, aimed at a younger audience than C&T’s usual customers, continues to do well in 2011.... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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AOP Summit 2011: Publishers must show courage of conviction

The opportunity to put a value on content and services should be harnessed and not feared by publishers, a panel at the AOP Digital Publishing Summit 2011 has argued. Continue reading at Media Week

[ Media Week | 2011-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers Flocking to Apple's iOS 5 Newsstand App

The highly anticipated launch of Apple's new iOS 5 is now here and with the new functionality comes new features--including one that publishers may find particularly valuable. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Robson Press to publish Stoker's lost notebooks

Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Thu, 13/10/2011 - 08:50 Jeremy Robson has secured world rights to a book that features the previously unpublished notebooks of Bram Stoker as one of Robson's launch titles for his new imprint at Biteback. Robson bought the rights directly from... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing Technology to build UN e-collection

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 12/10/2011 - 10:17 Publishing Technology is to build the United Nations e-collection. The publishing software services provider has signed the UN e-collection to its pub2web platform, which allows cross-searching, discovery and sales via... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Downer warns publishers: 'set the agenda'

Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 11/10/2011 - 15:33 Publishers must take ownership of selling books or face quickly becoming irrelevant, former Borders UK chief Philip Downer told delegates at Tools of Change Frankfurt today (11th October). Downer said he was concerned that... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon expands into SF publishing

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 11/10/2011 - 14:30 Amazon.com has announced its seventh imprint, a science fiction, fantasy and horror brand called 47North, which has launched with 15 books. The imprint name is based on the latitude co-ordinates of Seattle, where Amazon was... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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