Category: publishing

“The popularity of books tends not to cross borders as easily as movies and pop music. Many readers prefer homegrown writers and resist what could be called literary globalization.” Still the Book of the Month Club is planning to launch a “global marketing initiative” for its selections. “For the first time, it’s offering an International Book of the Month, recommending the same title to readers around the world.”

When superstore bookseller Borders came to Carlton Australia, local independent bookstores feared business would go down 15-30 percent, as it has elasewhere where Borders entered the market. But after a few months business is down only one percent. Why? One theory is that there’s a new kind of customer developing – the “neo-consumer.” These are people who are looking for public spaces to connect with. “Many people are seeking a home away from home, a place to hang out, and they are finding it in cosy bookshops, cafes and bars.”

“One of Russian literature’s most famous houses, where the writer Boris Pasternak lived and composed his best work, including Dr Zhivago, will soon be ‘ruined’ by the construction of an estate of holiday homes opposite it, according to his relatives.”

“The Iraq crisis, following on from 11 September, has set off an unprecedented explosion of anti-war poetry. A bad time for the world has turned into a boom time for people with an itch to express themselves in lines which don’t quite reach the edge of the page. The internet is much to blame, of course.”

“Book sales, particularly fiction, have been suffering since 11 September, and the impending war is prolonging the depression. You wouldn’t know it from a glance at the New York Times bestseller list – John Grisham, James Patterson, Michael Crichton, Jeffrey Archer – but the thriller market especially seems to be suffering. One publisher estimates that submissions of thrillers from agents are down by 30 per cent on previous years. Some agents fear that if publishers are not making the expected returns on their guaranteed big-hitters, the first casualty will be the debut novels and literary fiction that represent more of a gamble. Not everyone agrees, however.”

Elite British fighters in Afghanistan have some action-packed stories. “Publishers and agents calculated that an action-packed book by one of these heroes would be worth £1 million, more if Hollywood bought the rights. But none of them wanted to write a book. Since 1996, members of the Regiment, as the SAS is known to special forces’ cognoscenti, and the SBS had been ordered to sign confidentiality agreements, prohibiting them from discussing their time as elite soldiers without official sanction. If they refused to sign, they were thrown out. New recruits had to sign as a condition of service.”

Nominees for this year’s Orange Prize – which goes to the best work of fiction by a woman writer – have been announced. “Carol Shields, who won the prize in 1998 with Larry’s Party, is chosen for Unless. The other frontrunners are Zadie Smith’s The Autograph Man, an examination of our modern obsession with celebrity and individualism which received mixed reviews; an Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend, about the aftermath of a murder in the deep south as seen through a child’s eyes. Also chosen are Alice Sebold’s US bestseller The Lovely Bones, narrated from heaven by a murdered girl; Siri Hustvedt’s complex saga of art and love, What I Loved; and Shena Mackay’s unshowy study of ageing Bohemians, Heligoland.”

Modern studies of the brain suggest that Shakespeare had an intuitive understanding of how the brain works. “Modern studies have shown the more a word is used in conversation, the less the brain responds to it. Our neurones get tired of hearing it. You can see this effect in the electrical activity of the brain’s word centres. They stop sparking so much. ‘Shakespeare knew that intuitively. Hence the rich variety of his vocabulary and his use of unexpected words or odd combinations of them – for instance, comparing mercy with rainfall to keep us on our toes and interested and involved in what he was saying. Other examples include the use of phrases such as ‘a muse of fire’ or ‘a quintessence of dust’. They are startling and unanticipated and keep us stimulated.”

When Book magazine made a deal with Barnes & Noble three years ago, its fortunes soared. “Over the next 18 months, circulation of Book rose to 1.2 million from 100,000.” Its ad rates tripled. But the cost of putting out the magazine outstripped its success, and B&N reconsidered the venture. Now the magazine will be relaunched as Barnes & Noble Presents Book and its circulation will be drastically cut to 150,000.