By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story looks at life at a prison library. Numerous institutions — prisons, hospitals, law firms, magazines, intelligence agencies — have their own libraries and archives. Increasingly, these are eliminated to save office space and a eliminate what are seen as unnecessary expenses, particularly in an era when seemingly everything can be found via a simple …
Are There Too Many “Middle Men” in Publishing?
By Erin L. Cox Today’s lead story by Douglas Rushkoff describes his move from Random House to the much smaller OR Books. Among the advantages of working with OR Books he mentions in the story is the speed at which the publisher was able to bring the book to market and his ability to work closely with the actual publisher. …
Hachette Dominates UK’s Bookseller Industry Awards
By Edward Nawotka Last night in London the first annual Bookseller Industry Awards (which combines the Bookseller’s own trade awards with the old Nibbies) were given. Hachette, still reaping rewards for publishing Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, took home three prizes and saw its Little, Brown imprint take home “Publisher of the Year.” Foyle’s won “General or Trade Bookseller of the …
Santillana Launches Interactive eTextbook Platform in Catalonia
By Emily Williams Tuesday at the Seville Book Fair, leading Spanish educational publisher Santillana announced the launch of a new “web-book” model of textbooks. The online textbooks are enhanced with images and links and interactive features, and are designed to display on electronic blackboards and laptops in the classroom. Students will be able to access the web-books online from home …
Is There a Digital Talent Emergency in Book Publishing?
By Hannah Johnson In today’s feature story, we talk about tips to improve your online presence. The success of conferences like O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 Expo prove that book publishing is not the only industry that needs to more digitally literate employees. Shortly after the iPad was released, Lynne Seid of Heidrick & Struggles, a leadership advisory firm, said, “there is …
Is Asia Underrepresented in World Literature?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story by Miguel Syjuco discusses changes to the Man Asia Literary Prize, an award that was designed to bring more attention to writers from Asia. Considering that some 60% of the world’s population lives in Asia, many of them eager to learn English and exchange cultural ideas, it brings up the question: Is Asia underrepresented …
Asian Prize Changes Seem Puzzling, But Perhaps For the Better
Editorial by Miguel Syjuco, Winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize MONTREAL: When news arrived this week that the Man Asian Literary Prize would no longer be accepting unpublished manuscripts, and instead only published novels, dismay broke out among writers. On blogs, newsgroups, email, and networking sites, the communal shock developed into debate. On one side, the door through …
Have Passport, Will Publish: Publishing Expats in Prague and West Australia
By Daniel Kalder In part two of Publishing Perspectives’ series on publishing professionals working abroad, Daniel Kalder, himself a Scot transplanted to Texas via Moscow — talks to two Americans who discuss their experiences working in publishing abroad and how it has enhanced their careers. Walnut Liquor to Warm You Up Erin Ferretti Slattery is managing editor at Channel V …
Why Publishing Cannot Be Saved (As It Is)
Editorial by Richard Eoin Nash The book business is a tiny industry perched atop a massive hobby. But rather than celebrate and serve the hobbyists, we expect them to shell out ever more money for the books we keep throwing at them (a half million English-language books in 2008 in the U.S.). Cutting back might work for individual companies, but …
Douglas Rushkoff Dissects Publishing Inc.
By Edward Nawotka NEW YORK: “About half to two-thirds of the publishing industry needs to disappear,” says Douglas Rushkoff, professor of media studies at the New School in New York City and author of eight books, including novels, nonfiction and comics. “There is an oversupply in the market. What we’re learning is that publishing is an industry that doesn’t scale-up …