Editorial by Edward Nawotka Ever since the controversy surrounding the appearance of Chinese dissidents Bei Ling (貝嶺) and Dai Qing (戴晴) at the symposium “China and the World – Perceptions and Realities” last month, the media has pilloried the Frankfurt Book Fair, suggesting that the organization is compromising its values and support of free speech. What is disheartening to observe …
Young Publishers to Unite at Frankfurt
By Jon Slack At Frankfurt Book Fair this year I will be heading up a major initiative to establish an International Society of Young Publishers. The idea stems from a UK-based non-profit group called The Society of Young Publishers (SYP), for which I’ve volunteered for three years now. We run speaker meetings, conferences and other networking (social) events for publishers, …
Let’s Go to the Mall (For a Book Fair)
By Edward Nawotka AL AIN: In the United Arab Emirates book fairs have traditionally been held outdoors in what amount to open air bazaars, so in 2006 when the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair was moved indoors to the city’s new high tech exhibition hall, it was a break from the norm. Today, KITAB — the organization responsible for the …
French Women Just Aren’t Into It (Self Help, That Is)
By Debra Ollivier When the American self-help mega bestseller He’s Just Not That Into You was published in France last year, co-author Liz Tuccillo made a shocking discovery: French Women Just Weren’t That Into Her Book. France was the last Western country to buy the rights to her book, and when it was published in French, few seemed to care …
How to Turn Video Gamers into Readers (Millions at a Time)
By Siobhan O’Leary BERLIN: It might seem counterintuitive for a video game company to set up shop in a bookstore, but as we reported last month, Nintendo Germany has now established its own 40 sq. meter “shop within a shop” in the Mayersche Buchhandlung in Cologne. They have been selling consoles at the bookstore (and at German book chain Hugendubel) …
Frankfurt on a Shoestring
By Olivia Snaije With the Frankfurt Book Fair looming, UK independent publishers hard hit by the economic crisis are trimming and pruning wherever they can for the upcoming Book Fair. While the Book Fair is considered vital, a general trend is that publishers will be sending fewer people to Frankfurt this year. Juliet Mabey, publisher and co-founder of Oneworld based …
Can Sina’s Chinese Twitter Clone Succeed Where Others Have Failed?
By Lilian Feng BEIJING: For years, Chinese businessmen have copied various internet ideas from the US, and modified them for the local market. They have YouTube. We have Youku. They have Facebook. We have Xiaonei…and Kaixin and 51 and Sohu Bai, and Sina Space, just to name a few. Some launches have worked and many have failed. Today, the hot …
Could EC Digitzation Debate Pave the Way for a Competitor to Google?
By Liz Bury LONDON: Deep in the Bodleian Library, the scholarly heart of Oxford University, England, is a locked room emitting, I imagine, a low hum. This is Google’s digitization suite, the control center of its scanning operation at the library, into which no Bodleian staffer may enter. That, at least, is the story doing the rounds among British librarians, …
Hugo Chávez’s Color Coded “Revolutionary Reading Plan”
By Emily Williams No friend to publishing (see our earlier coverage here) Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has nevertheless started to implement his four-part color coded “Revolutionary Reading Plan.” Announced in May, the goal of the project as stated by the Venezuelan government, is “the democratization of books and reading, with a new conception of reading as a collective act under …
A Year After the Meltdown, Iceland is Hot
By Chad W. Post Although Iceland has had some very notable cultural exports — Halldor Laxness, Bjork, and Sigur Ros among them — last fall’s spectacular economic collapse probably brought more attention to this island nation than any other event in its modern history. One year later, the financial sector may still be recovering, but its literary scene is thriving. “Our goal is …