By Edward Nawotka This week Publishing Perspectives looked at a scary situation for an author in Mexico, considered the state of affairs at the Cape Town Book Fair, was impressed with the business plan of Berlin’s TXTR, and considered how Arabic language e-books break down borders. Next week, look for a paean to paper-over-board printing, a talk with Nigerian author …
Kotobarabia’s Arabic E-Books Extend Borders
By Chip Rossetti CAIRO: Most of the difficulties faced by Arabic-language book publishing stem from two basic problems: government censorship and very limited distribution. But with e-books, Ramy Habeeb, founder of the Egypt-based publisher Kotobarabia, has managed to bypass both seemingly intractable problems. As the first e-publisher devoted exclusively to Arabic-language titles, www.kotobarabia.com now offers over 8500 books in 31 …
Berlin’s TXTR Aims to Fight the E-Powers That Be
Berlin-based e-book platform and e-reader txtr will launch in Germany at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2009.
Cape Town Book Fair Attracts Crowds, Questions Role
By Edward Nawotka SOUTH AFRICA: “Sustainability of the Fair is a challenge, if you measure it against what it intends to be as a trade event, then we have significant challenges ahead of us,” said Vanessa Badroodien, director of the Cape Town Book Fair, which has been running since June 13, and ends today. “It’s simply hard for publishers to …
Weekly Recap: Digitalizing Europe, Chinese Opportunities, Israel On Sale
By Edward Nawotka This week Publishing Perspectives brought you news from an increasingly digitalized Europe, overpublished US, burgeoning China and bargain hunting Israel. Next week, you can look foward to more fresh and enlightening stories from across the globe, including a the challenges faced by the Cape Town Book Fair as it enters its third year, yet another new E-reader …
Israel’s Bookstore War
By Edward Nawotka ISRAEL: Hebrew Book Week started yesterday and — not unlike the Jewish holiday of Chanukah, where oil meant for a single day burned for eight — will miraculously last for ten days. Festivities are spread out across nine cities, while forty smaller towns will be hosting smaller three day events. Established in 1926 in Tel Aviv, it …
Harper UK’s Lucy Vanderbilt on Chinese Opportunties
By Roger Tagholm LONDON & BEIJING: At a time when ‘flat’ is the new ‘up’ in the UK, publishers are eager, some might event say desperate, to find new markets – and as relatively untapped markets go, none comes bigger than China. HarperCollins has been quick to realise this and is already reaping the benefits. At last week’s British Book …
Douglas Rushkoff Dissects Publishing Inc.
By Edward Nawotka NEW YORK: “About half to two-thirds of the publishing industry needs to disappear,” says Douglas Rushkoff, professor of media studies at the New School in New York City and author of eight books, including novels, nonfiction and comics. “There is an oversupply in the market. What we’re learning is that publishing is an industry that doesn’t scale-up …
EBF/IBF Director Dubruille on Bookselling’s Future
by Edward Nawotka BRUSSELS: “The problem in Europe is that booksellers don’t know what strategies to use when coping with digitization,” says Françoise Dubruille, director of the European Booksellers Federation and the International Booksellers Federation, “There are 25 languages for 27 countries, there are 27 national cultures and literatures, and not all have the same challenges.” She adds, “One thing …
Weekly Recap: BookExpo America, Google, UK’s Hay Festival
By Edward Nawotka (Read the recap in Chinese here) This week marked the official start of summer in North America, and it couldn’t have come a moment too soon for the tens of thousands of American publishing people who were undoubtedly still recovering their voices from the four day extravaganza known as BookExpo America. The consensus on BEA was…no consensus. …