The world book publishing industry’s spring conference season moves this weekend to Sunday evening’s opening of the Jerusalem International Book Forum with Israel’s president, Ruvi Rivlin.
Germany’s Bestselling Books of 2018: Crime, Politics, and Big Questions
In fiction, thriller writer Sebastian Fitzek tops the list of Germany’s bestselling books in 2018. In nonfiction, the top-selling title is Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming.’
Rakuten Kobo’s 2018 Bestselling Ebooks and Reading Trends in Canada
They’re reading an average 73 hours per year, says Canada’s big ebook and audiobook service, and Rakuten Kobo sees a lot of US politics on its most-read lists in 2018.
Amazon Reportedly Opts for New York and Crystal City, and Names 10 Top Books of 2018
The 14-month wait is ending with an announcement expected today that Amazon’s HQ2 second hub will be divided between New York City and Northern Virginia.
At Göteborg and Frankfurt: Kristenn Einarsson on the Freedom To Publish
Two events, one this week at Sweden’s Göteborg Book Fair and the other at Frankfurter Buchmesse’s Weltempfang Salon in October, spotlight challenges to the freedom to publish.
Political Publishing in the US: Forthcoming Titles and an Authors Guild Statement on First Amendment Freedoms
As Simon & Schuster prepares to release new political books, the Authors Guild condemns Trump’s assaults on the news media.
Romancing the Readers in Poland: BookBook and the Bookstore Battles
The shakeout continues in Polish book retail, as the closure of bookstore chain Matras opens chances for competitors BookBook, Mole Mole, and Świat Książki to expand.
Google Play Store Now Selling Audiobooks and Boosting Content on Voice-Activated Devices
While hardly a shock that Google Play has started selling audiobooks, it’s a moment to look at aspects of the format’s sales-building prominence: the other way of ‘reading.’
In Germany, IPA Chief Slams SciHub, Argues for Unity Against Copyright Threats and Piracy
‘Not a viable or trustworthy Open Access solution,” Michiel Kolman says, ‘piracy is simply not the answer to our challenges as an industry’ and SciHub, he says, is ‘not the answer’ to goals of Open Access.
Freedom To Publish: The Prix Voltaire 2018 Shortlist Honors Figures from Asia, Europe, and Africa
Publishing and literary figures from Bangladesh, Sweden, Hong Kong, Iran, the UK, Hungary, and Cameroon are on the shortlist for the 2018 Prix Voltaire from the International Publishers Association’s Freedom To Publish committee.