By Rachel Aydt New York writer Rachel Aydt is traveling through Europe this summer, and has been filing occasional posts on her bookish adventures. Today, she visits an English-language bookshop in Rome. We headed to Rome for a few days after spending two days with my mom and stepdad, who’d done an apartment swap in Anzio (despite its somber WWII …
Want More Rights Deals and Translations? Try Taking Editors and Publishers Overseas
By Chad Post TURIN: “Let me tell you something: the U.S. market is closed to Italian books,” said Italian literary agent Marco Vigevani on a panel about translation at the Turin International Book Fair last month. “It may sound crazy,” he continued, “but I want you to face the facts. Yes, it used to be different. There were editors like …
Review: The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
By Gwendolyn Dawson Physicist Paolo Giordano’s debut novel, The Solitude of Prime Numbers, won Italy’s premier literary award, the Premio Strega, in 2008. Now available in the U.S. in an English translation, The Solitude of Prime Numbers explores the poignant relationship that develops between two misfits, Alice and Mattia. Alice, an anorexic with a limp left over from a childhood skiing accident, resists …
Vitamins 2.0: How Children’s Books Can Change the World in the Digital Age
What type of illustrated kids’ books are most valuable? Perhaps those of most importance are the books done with manual, as opposed to digital artistry.
Google to Scan Rome and Florence Libraries
By Siobhan O’Leary Google’s international march continues, this time straight to Rome. The firm has announced an agreement with the Italian culture ministry to scan up to a million books from the national libraries of Rome and Florence. Similar to its deal with the city of Lyon’s library (covered earlier by Publishing Perspectives), Google will cover the cost of scanning …
Building the World’s Biggest Book Club
By Kathy L. Patrick JEFFERSON, TEXAS: They say everything is bigger in Texas…and it’s true. When I opened Beauty and the Book in January 2000 — the ONLY hair salon/book store in the world — in January 2000, one of the first things I did was start my book club, The Pulpwood Queens of East Texas. We started with six complete strangers …
Call for Stories: Bologna Children’s Book Fair
By Edward Nawotka Our lead story today by Arthur Japin concerns a particularly intense physical, emotional and spiritual journey in Italy. We plan on going to Italy in March, but hope to have a much more pleasant time. Publishing Perspectives will be covering the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and we hope to hear from each and every one of you …
Writing As Detective Work of the Soul
Editorial by Arthur Japin UTRECHT: In the mid-1980s, two actors went to Rome, hoping to land a part — any part — in a movie by the creator of La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini. I was one of those actors. The other was my lifelong friend Rosita. Fellini fell in love with her, and in doing so changed the course …
Going to the Bologna Book Fair? What Trends do you Foresee?
By Edward Nawotka In our lead story today, Grazia Gotti of the Bologna Book Fair urges US publishers to take President Barack Obama as an inspiration to change the way they approach the international marketplace. This year, in particular, she says there is an opportunity for US and other publishers who want to come to Bologna to mine the Fair …
Obama’s Example Should Inspire US Kids Pubs to Change
By Sharon Glassman Today’s hard times could inspire better book times for US kids’ imprints, says Grazia Gotti, co-founder of the Giannino Stoppani cultural cooperative and children’s bookshop in Bologna and one of the organizers of the Bologna Book Fair. The secret? Arrivaderci isolation and “big marketing.” Buon Giorno dialogue, “long-sellers” and European-style cooperation. In a chat with Publishing Perspectives, Gotti, a self-confessed …