Russian publishing has been hit with a double dose of trouble this year, from the economic crunch to an excess of published titles. At the beginning of the recession, 100,000 new titles were being published a year, many with inflated print runs. Russian news site polit.ru reports the 2008 estimate of the size of Russia’s…Continue Reading
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Tagged ARCA Publishers, Azbooka-Attikus Group, Bukva, Bukvoyed, Elizabeth van Lear, Goumen & Smirnova Literary Agency, Innostranka, Julia Goumen, KoLibri, Makhaon, McGraw-Hill, Moscow, Olga Borodyanskaya, Ozon, Russian publishing, Snark, St. Petersburg, Synopsis Literary Agency, Top-Kniga, Yulia Borodyanskaya
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When the sudoku craze swept the country in 2005, AdAge questioned whether it was the “Rubik’s cube for the 21st century” but also pointed out that it had been around in various versions for thousands of years. Its modern guise was invented by an American architect, Howard Garns; his “Number Place” ran in Dell Pencil…Continue Reading
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Tagged AdAge, Amy Worley, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Berkley, crossword puzzles, Esther Margolis, games, Hasbro, Karen Corvello, Kaye Morgan, KenKen, Lisa Senz, Marcia Burch, Matthew Shear, Mensa, Newmarket Press, Nextoy, Nikoli, Overlook Press, Peter Gordon, Peter Mayer, Posh Puzzles, puzzles, Puzzlewright Press, R. J. Julia, Random House, Random House Information Group, Running Press, Shelley Freydont, Simon & Schuster, St. Martin's, Sterling, sudoku, The Crossword Puzzle Book, Tom Russell, Touchstone/Fireside, Will Shortz
Though the Google Book Search settlement has been in the news quite a bit, we admit we were glad to get a gloss from the panel of participants in the negotiations at the New York Public Library, “Expanding Access to Books: Implications of the Google Books Settlement Agreement,” on July 28. While the main points…Continue Reading
In 1995, Disney’s then-CEO Michael Eisner created the Disney Institute, his commercial homage to the Chautauqua Institution, a 135-year-old center of learning and recreation in western New York that comes alive for nine weeks every year. Disney Institute, which is located on the periphery of Disney World, never became as successful as Eisner had hoped,…Continue Reading
While the rest of the world suffers the economic squeeze, the government-run Chinese publishing industry has counterintuitively managed to cultivate opportunity for expansion both for local entrepreneurs and international publishers. Talk of less state interference and mounting interest from foreign markets is encouraging some publishers to brave the censors, fears of piracy, and the cultural…Continue Reading
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Tagged Association of American Publishers, Baensch International Group, Bamboo Goalposts, Barnes & Noble, Bernhard Schlink, Big Apple Tuttle-Mori, Book City Beijing, Book City Shanghai, Cecelia Ahern, censorship, China, Chinese publishing industry, Daniel Watts, Donald Trump, Frankfurt Book Fair, HarperCollins Beijing, Jiang Rong, Jo Lusby, John Nesbitt, Luc Kwanten, Michael Crichton, My Name Is Red, Nobel Prize, Orhan Pamuk, Pan Macmillan Asia, Paper Republic, Patricia Judd, Patrizia van Daalen, Penguin China, piracy, Robert Baensch, Rowan Simmons, Shanghai 99, Stella Cho, Taiwan, The Da Vinci Code, The Kite Runner, Tiananmen Square, Tibet, Toby Eady, Tony Parsons, Twilight, Wolf Totem, Yang Hung Ying
A much-anticipated panel on children’s books at NYU‘s Summer Publishing Institute brought out an amazing array of publishing talent, with newly minted literary agent Brenda Bowen moderating. Included in the lineup were Ellie Berger, President of Scholastic Trade Publishing; Megan Tingley, Publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Don Weisberg, President of Penguin’s Young…Continue Reading
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Tagged 39 Clues, Babysitters Club, Brenda Bowen, children's publishing, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Don Weisberg, Ellie Berger, Felicia Frazier, goosebumps, Hunger Games, J. K. Rowling, Jay Asher, Jean Feiwel, John Green, Little Brown, Macmillan, Megan Tingley, NYU, Penguin, Random House, Rick Riordan, Scholastic, Summer Publishing Institute, Suzanne Collins, Thirteen Reasons Why, Twilight
Last year’s “Black Wednesday” was a dark day for publishing, and plenty of dark days have followed. But with the challenge has come opportunity, and some of those who found themselves out of office jobs suddenly had the chance to recognize dreams of working for themselves. “It was the first time I’d ever been laid…Continue Reading
Colin Robinson, former Publisher, Verso Press and The New Press, and Scribner senior editor; John Oakes, former Grove Press Editor and founder of 4 Walls, 8 Windows ORBooks The Model Sell books directly to the customer, or through independent bookstores, in either print-on-demand format or as e-books. No returns, so selling and buying on a…Continue Reading
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Tagged 4 Walls 8 Windows, Amazon, Baker & Taylor, Colin Robinson, Grove Press, Ingram, John Oakes, layoffs, ORBooks, POD, publishing model, Scribner, The New Press, Verso Press