Category: publishing

“David Beckham may be barely literate, but he has outsold all six Booker Prize nominees in the first two days of his autobiography going on sale. The England soccer captain’s book, My Side, sold 86,000 copies in two days, 21,000 more than the combined sales of the six shortlisted Booker candidates, which have been on sale for months. “

“A piano teacher from Birmingham, whose first four novels were rejected by publishers, has beaten Martin Amis to the last six of the Man Booker Prize. ‘I suppose it is a strike for all those of us who have unpublished books under our beds and wonder is it worth going on. Well it is,’ Clare Morrall declared. ‘Keep going’!”

The selection of Stephen King for an honorary National Book Award has been greeted by some with dismay. “Told of Mr. King’s selection, some in the literary world responded with laughter and dismay. ‘He is a man who writes what used to be called penny dreadfuls. That they could believe that there is any literary value there or any aesthetic accomplishment or signs of an inventive human intelligence is simply a testimony to their own idiocy’.”

“In the hitherto esoteric world of book-jacket design, Chip Kidd has achieved an unusual fame, earning the awe and enmity reserved for genius. In hailing Kidd as ‘the world’s greatest book-jacket designer,’ thriller king James Ellroy was merely adding his voice to a loud chorus of praise. Art critic Robert Hughes and novelist Paul Golding have been equally effusive.”

This year’s Booker shortlist is something of a mystery, eschewing plenty of big names. “All but one of the big names in fiction, including that of Martin Amis, once the darling of literary London, were culled. Instead, the judges came up with one of the most surprising lists in the 35-year history of the prize. It includes the highest number of both first novelists – three – and women writers – four.”

“In the past two decades, the price of textbooks has soared. The price of educational books and supplies has risen 238 percent, while the price of consumer goods over all has increased only 51 percent, according to the Consumer Price Index. At four-year private colleges, the College Board found, students spent an average of $807 on books last year. Some students, particularly science and math majors, spent that much in one semester. At the same time, more books are being sold in shrink-wrapped bundles with supplements that a student may not need but must pay for, such as a study guide, dictionary or CD-ROM. But more and more, students are fighting back, finding ways to reduce the costs.”

The BBC is best known as a broadcaster. But it is also one of the biggest publishers in the UK. “BBC Magazines, now the third biggest publisher in the UK behind IPC and Emap, employs 550 staff and publishes 35 titles, usually linked to successful television programmes such as Top Gear and Top of the Pops, and the many lifestyle shows.”

Margaret Atwood and newcomer Monica Ali head up the shortlist for this year’s Booker Prize. Martin Amis and JM Coetzee didn’t make the cut, but Zoe Heller, Damon Galgut and debut writers Clare Morrall and DBC Pierre did. Three of the nominations are for first novels. The winner is announced October 14.

With publishers getting out of publishing e-books, some wonder if e-publishing is dead. “E-books may find their niche with tech-savvy youth unfazed by the notion of browsing literature on a screen, and the growing legion of retirement-age readers, according to Richard Doherty, research director at Envisioneering Group. Two audiences that will benefit best are young people who loathe the idea of a library … and aging people who want the convenience of large type on demand or freedom from lugging heavy hardcover tomes. For now, e-books are an afterthought in the publishing world.”

Amazon is digitizing nonfiction books to create an online database that can be searched by keywords. Publishers are wary but going along so far. “The plan, first reported about in the New York Times in July, is seen as a way to draw more traffic to the Amazon site as it competes with search engines such as Google and Yahoo.”