By Roger Tagholm To the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden – where the British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) were held at the weekend – for the Orion Group’s annual Author Party. Just as the highly successful British film The King’s Speech was on everyone’s lips at the BAFTAs, so at the party on Tuesday night …
€100,000 Dublin IMPAC Shortlist Includes Three Brits, Two Debuts, One Irish Dutchman
by Ed Nawotka The shortlist for the annual Dublin IMPAC award was announced in Dublin today and includes eight titles (though the judges may nominate as many as ten). The list includes three Brits, two debuts (Bakker, Raisin), and O’Neill, whom the Irish are claiming as their own (though he spent as much, if not much more of his life …
How to Become a Bestseller in Europe: Write in English, German, French and…Swedish?
By Rüdiger Wischenbart This may sound like an odd question to ask: Are books diverse? Sure! With hundreds of thousands of new titles published every year in the US, over 90,000 in Germany, and a “Long Tail” of millions of titles available to readers and buyers online, there are more books distributed and, arguably, read than ever before in history. That …
Who Controls African Literature?
Editorial by Tolu Ogunlesi LAGOS: The literary world is once again shining a spotlight on Africa. There are new prizes: the South Africa-based PEN Studzinski Literary Award for short stories, and the Penguin Prize for African Writing, a pan-African prize covering both fiction and non-fiction genres. There’s a new book series, the “Penguin African Writers Series,” which will include not …
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 …
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 …
Hay Festival Panel Ponders Our Digital Future
by Tolu Ogunlesi HAY-ON-WYE, WALES: While many in the publishing industry were in New York last week for BookExpo America, other book lovers gathered on the Welsh border for the annual literary extravaganza known as the Guardian Hay Festival. This year, amid the author presentations featuring figures as diverse as Desmond Tutu and Stephen Fry, a publishing panel entitled “Brave …