By Edward Nawotka Fat from Thanksgiving, I’m attending Guadalajara Book Fair to spend a few days visiting booths and talking with publishers, which should surely take the pounds off (unless I gorge on the amazing Mexican food I hope to find down here -– any suggestions?). The event kicked off on Friday, but due to holiday, I only arrived this …
Size Doesn’t Matter, At Least When it Comes to Book Awards
By Edward Nawotka While we were at the Frankfurt Book Fair, we ran a cover story on one of our Show Daily asking: “Does Size Matter?” The suggestion was that that the changes wrought by digital publishing have begun to the level the playing field between small and conglomerate publishers. Sure, sales volumes may never be equal, but when it …
Why Int’l Pub News Matters: 70 Million Americans Have Foreign-Born Parents
By Edward Nawotka Sometimes when talking to American publishers about Publishing Perspectives, and mentioning that our focus is on covering international publishing, I get the reaction — “Oh, that isn’t for me then.” Well, of course it is silly — American publishing is part of international publishing. Yes, we Americans can be parochial at times (aren’t we all, at times?). …
Publishing Synergy that Works: Marvel/ESPN’s Amazing NBA Mashup
By Ed Nawotka This is synergy we can get behind. Last year, Disney, the parent company of ESPN, bought Marvel. For it’s NBA preview issue, ESPN Magazine enlisted the help of Marvel’s editors to put create 30 original piece of work riffing on classic Marvel characters and themes. It makes sense: if you’re ever stood next to an actual NBA …
Articles We Like: David Rakoff on Subway Reading
By Ed Nawotka Writer David Rakoff offers a bagatelle about reading the November issue of GQ magazine. Titled “I Only Wear Jonathan Franzen,” he looks at the way in which people judge others by what they’re reading, particularly on the subway. He breaks it down like this: “It’s like pairing wines with food: You can break it down by subway …
Publishing Perspectives Editor-in-Chief Ed Nawotka Interviewed
By Edward Nawotka This past summer I spoke to Jason Allen-Ashlock of the Movable Type Literary Group for Galleycat’s “The Book Futurists” series of video interviews. I spoke about our mission here at PP (“Don’t repeat what everyone else is doing and be interesting.”) and shared my thoughts on the impact of digization on publishing (I use the words “exponential” …
“I’m a Writer, Not a Spokesperson” says Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
By Edward Nawotka This weekend is the 15th annual Texas Book Festival in Austin, the highlight of the literary calendar here in Texas where I live. I had the privilege to serve in 2004 as the fellow who booked the 200+ authors for the event that year. It was an unforgettable experience that gave me real insight and appreciation for …
Does Size Matter?
Editorial by Edward Nawotka One of the most popular panels yesterday at the fair and sparked a lot of discussion concerned the release of the list ranking the largest publishers in the world (see our story in today’s issue). Are you shocked to hear that the biggest is Pearson? Size is important, but perhaps not quite as much as it …
Obscene in the Extreme: Talking about Banned Books
By Edward Nawotka Yes, it still happens…and not just in Texas. Books continue to get banned in the United States. Believe it. As a teenager in Detroit I remember the consternation that filled a librarians face when I requested a copy of Lolita to read and was duly informed that it was deemed “inappropriate” reading material for the citizens of …
Sample Todd Sattersten’s Everything I Know About Business Books
By Ed Nawotka In today’s lead story, author and book scout Todd Sattersten mentions that in preparation for going to this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair he’s published a 150-page custom book entitled Everything I Know About Business Books. He’s generously offered to give Publishing Perspectives a free 33-page sample, which includes the chapter “How to Read a {Business} Book” and …