By Hannah Johnson The best of the blogosphere and social media… Well, it looks like publishers are having another go at next year’s South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas next year. The festival is currently accepting panel suggestions for the Interactive conference, and the good news is that a number of panels have been suggested by people in …
German Buch News: No E-book for Dan Brown; Der Club Opens to Non-members
By Siobhan O’Leary Despite the announcement in the US that Doubleday will release an e-book edition of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol simultaneously with their hardcover edition, Buchreport notes that Brown’s German publisher Lübbe has no plans to release an e-book version of the German translation. However, Lübbe Audio will be releasing an abridged audio edition for the same price as the …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: UK’s Orion Sets Bestseller Record, Random Goes Greener
By Edward Nawotka In London, The Bookseller is reporting that the publisher Orion has set a record by landing three consecutive books at #1 on the bestseller list in the past five weeks. “Thanks to a 37,450 seven-day sale, Ian Rankin’s Doors Open is this week’s new number one. It means that publisher Orion has enjoyed three consecutive number ones (over …
German Buch News: Hosseini Tops 2.5 mil., New €35,000 Translation Prize
By Siobhan O’Leary Following Berlin Verlag’s May release of the paperback edition of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini’s books have now sold more than 2.5 million books in the German-speaking world. Even Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave the book a little boost when he recommended A Thousand Splendid Suns during a German Bundestag debate. He also lists The Kite Runner …
What’s the Buzz: Lit Sites Add Ads; Seeking Sustainable Arts Journalism
By Edward Nawotka GalleyCat is reporting that some of our favorite literary Web sites are adding advertising to the mix, including The Rumpus (created by the inimitable Stephen Elliott), The Millions, and HTMLGIANT. The change, says GalleyCat, is so they can pay their contributors. Recent essays posted on The Millions and The Rumpus addressed the very idea of writing for …
German Buch News: Bookstores Give Classical Music a Boost
By Siobhan O’Leary Sales of classical music products increased by 23% in the first half of 2009 and it’s booksellers who are partially responsible. According to figures published by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie, and reported in BuchMarkt, classical music generates about 100 million euros in sales in Germany each year, with about 10% of that sold in bookstores. Could this be an …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: HMH Parent Dodges Bankruptcy; Rent a Textbook
By Edward Nawotka The Financial Times reports that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s parent company Education Media & Publishing Group (which is registered in the Cayman Islands) has refinanced its debt, once again avoiding bankruptcy, possibly for the next year or so. “The agreement will cut EMPG’s long-term debt, now standing at about $7.6bn, by more than $1bn and reduce annual interest …
German Buch News: Berlin’s Students Launch Virtual Bookstore
By Siobhan O’Leary A new virtual academic bookstore/library has been founded by Berlin students for students. The platform, called PaperC.de, provides free access to academic texts and can be searched by key word, author, title or ISBN. BuchMarkt reports that users can pay extra for certain services, like copying and pasting, printing pages, or marking certain passages. What’s more, it’s all completely …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: Bookstore Sales Up for First Time in 09
By Edward Nawotka “For the first time this year, bookstore sales rose in June, increasing 3.4% compared to June 2008, to $1.10 billion,” but “for the first six months of 2009 were down 2.7% compared to the first half of 2008, with sales falling to $7.41 billion,” reports Publishers Weekly. Sony has announced it will convert its e-bookstore to the ePub format …
German Buch News: Monetizing Online Content; Twitter Poetry
By Siobhan O’Leary Newspaper publishers could learn a thing or two from reference book publishers about getting people to pay for online content, or so says Sandra Schüssel, editor of the Börsenblatt in a recent editorial. Newspaper circulation is decreasing at a rate of 300,000 copies per year in Germany. The solution, according to Schüssel, lies in creating and monetizing …