Category: publishing

The Harry Potter series has been banned again, this time in Australia, where a Christian college is concerned that “the books promoted wizardry as normal – not a message to which students should be exposed.” Since Harry’s wizardry is not only not normal, but, in fact, fictional, one might be tempted to dismiss the Maranatha Christian College as a bunch of fundamentalist yahoos, but the school is only the latest in a long string of institutions worldwide which have discerned some grave threat to followers of Jesus in the works of J.K. Rowling.

A new books examines Hitler’s aesthetics. “Adolf Hitler wanted to be the greatest patron of the arts in history. ‘It was a pity,’ he observed, ‘that I have to wage war on account of that drunk [Winston Churchill] instead of serving the works of peace’.”

Right after Saddam Hussein was toppled, a flurry of new newspapers and magazines began publication in Iraq. But last week the US threatened to “fine or close down any newspapers that incite violence or endanger the security of coalition troops or any ethnic or religious group. The Americans defend their decision and consider it necessary for keeping Iraq safe and free of violence. They say the new papers lack responsibility and professionalism, and that they fabricate information. For example, one paper accused a coalition soldier of raping a woman and wrote that troops can see women naked through their night vision goggles.”

Bookforum magazine has relaunched with a new high-minded editor. Eric Banks is “an extremely smart and informed editor who we thought would re-emphasize Bookforum’s coverage of scholarly and art books.” And Bookforum? “Bookforum is one of those high-minded enterprises whose bills are paid by a wealthy benefactor—in this case, the profitable Artforum. Total circulation for Bookforum is about 40,000, with about 10,000 copies sold on the newsstand and about 30,000 subscriptions. (Bookforum is sent free to all Artforum subscribers.)”

For the first time ever, an English book has topped the French best-seller lists. Yes, it’s Harry Potter, and the French version doesn’t come out until December. But “this did not stop more than 16,000 copies in English flying off the shelves in France, where it topped sales for all categories, not just children’s listings.”

This is turning into a record sales summer for the book business. “The impressive sales totals partly reflect the growing power of big discounters like Wal-Mart and price clubs like Costco. In a sea change for the publishing business, those outlets accounted for as much as half of the early sales of the three books and can claim as large a share as traditional bookstores and online outlets, according to the publishers and an analysis of sales of figures. The power of the price clubs and discounters to move huge numbers of certain books is giddily unnerving for book publishers. The good news is that millions of consumers bought books last month. The bad news is that a lot of them skipped a trip to the bookstore, where they may have bought even more books. For a growing number of consumers, however, the nontraditional outlets simply mean cheaper books.”

When a small neighborhood bookstore in San Francisco announced it was closing, neighbors banded together, pledging to buy a book a month and raising money to keep the store open. “This is probably not the sort of investment your accountant would suggest as a sure thing or, for that matter, even a longshot. Even if the store gets back on its feet, the investors won’t make money. Instead of interest, they get a 25 percent discount on all books they buy there. The loans will be repaid over six years.”

Why has it been so difficult for writers to capture the identity of Los Angeles? “Although it is the second-largest city in America, in the literary imagination it is still a colony. Instead of speaking for itself, the city is spoken about. Our classic descriptions of Los Angeles were written by visitors who spent only a few weeks or months in the city; or by imported slaves of Hollywood, who act out their rebellion against the city at large; or even by natives writing mainly for an audience somewhere else. What is missing, with a few notable exceptions, is a Los Angeles literature unconcerned with the outside world, intent on explaining the city to itself—as Dickens did with London, or Balzac with Paris.”

Why do so many interviews with authors seem so stupid? “Part of the problem,” writes Gene Weingarten, “is caused by the publishing industry itself, which caters to the laziness of the media. Here at The Washington Post, we constantly get promotional packets for new books in which the publicity departments declare that their authors are available for interviews, and then actually suggest questions to ask. As you might guess, these are not Mike Wallace-type questions…”