By Edward Nawotka Russia is taking several star turns at book fairs as “guest of honor” — first in London earlier this month and next year at BookExpo America. The country’s literary reputation overseas is largely based on classic texts and a handful of translated authors who have broken through — Boris Akunin, Viktor Pelevin, Tatyana [...]
A “living classic,” Sorokin pushes boundaries by writing about a Russia rife with violence, coprophilia, violence, rape, violence, aliens, violence, clones and more violence. He makes his American debut in New York this weekend at the PEN World Voices Festival. By Daniel Kalder At the London Book Fair earlier this month, Russia was featured as Guest of Honor. [...]
By Edward Nawotka The PEN World Voices Festivals has an extraordinary line up of writers this year. In case you weren’t able to make it to New York, the Festival organizers are offering free e-books summarizing some of the writing from each day’s participants and tailored to that day’s programming. Instructions: click on the version you want [...]
–>From the Press Release: Los Angeles, CA — Three-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee and Gold Dagger Award-winning crime fiction writer Val McDermid will be special honorees at the 23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards ceremony to be hosted by comedienne Lea DeLaria on Thursday, May 26 in New York City at the School of Visual [...]
by Edward Nawotka Google is the arguably the single most powerful media force on the planet. The company has long hosted discussions with authors in a program called Authors@Google. Talk about a marketing opportunity. Many of their sessions are archived online at YouTube. Here’s one of their latest Authors@Google sessions — a conversation between comedian and TV [...]
By Edward Nawotka Buenos Aires has been named World Book Capital for 2011 by UNESCO. UNESCO began the practice of naming World Book Capitals in 2001. Cities so honored include Madrid (Spain), followed by Alexandria (Egypt), New Delhi (India), Antwerp (Belgium), Montreal (Canada), Turin (Italy), Bogotá (Colombia), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Beirut (Lebanon), and Ljubljana (Slovenia). In 2012 [...]
In Buenos Aires, there are books for sale on what seems to be every corner and may be more books per sale per capita than perhaps any other city in the world. By Edward Nawotka BUENOS AIRES: We’re currently in the midst of the Buenos Aires International Book Fair — better known to Spanish-speakers as the Feria [...]
By Siobhan O’Leary A new initiative backed by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels was announced earlier this month in Berlin, the goal of which is to provide stronger representation for the creative industries in politics and beyond. The Deutsche Content Allianz was outlined in a joint declaration to the public and calls for a fair business [...]
Could extra effort put into personally interacting with readers with the public pay off for publishers? By Edward Nawotka Today’s feature story offered anecdotal evidence that publishers general lack of willingness to engage the public is likely to have long-term, detrimental effects on their readers. Whether you agree with the assertion that publisher’s lack intra-personal PR skills [...]
Publishers are too used to saying “no, no, no” and barring the gates of the industry from the public. That has got to change if publishers ever hope to develop another life-long customer. By Amanda DeMarco BERLIN: Some book fairs are exclusive to publishers and professionals, while others are open to the public. In Germany, the Leipzig [...]
