Follow the link below to hear LACE READER author Brunonia Barry on NPR’s Morning Edition. Part of the story focuses on her successful adventure in self-publishing. “Barry’s husband, Gary Ward, encouraged her to self-publish; she says if it had not been for him, the book might still be sitting in a drawer. Barry and Ward have their own software publishing business, which served as a base for the venture. “We thought, ‘We can do this, we’re already publishers,’ Barry remembers. ‘It’s kind of a laugh now, because you run into so many things you never anticipated.'” Manager of the Spirit […]
Archives for August 2008
Amazon.com to Buy AbeBooks
Amazon can lay ever-bigger claim to being the largest independent bookseller in the world with today’s news that the etailer has agreed to acquire AbeBooks. The online marketplace says it offers “over 110 million primarily used, rare and out-of-print books listed for sale by thousands of independent booksellers from around the world.“ Amazon vp of books Russell Grandinetti says, “As a leader in rare and hard-to-find books, AbeBooks brings added breadth and expanded selection to our customers worldwide. AbeBooks provides a wide range of services to both sellers and customers, and we look forward to working with them to further […]
Dickerman Leaves Bloomsbury; Gibson Moves Up; Krauss to Rodale, Too
Just promoted to publisher of the Bloomsbury after the departure of Karen Rinaldi for Rodale as general manager and publisher of the books division, Colin Dickerman is now leaving the house to join Rinaldi again and serve as vp, publishing director at Rodale Books, overseeing the narrative non-fiction list, starting September 2. Dickerman was at Bloomsbury for 8 years. Walker & Company publisher George Gibson will take the position of publishing director for all of Bloomsbury USA. President Richard Charkin comments, “George has the experience and publishing skill to build further our author roster and our market position in the […]
Richard and Judy Look for New Writers
The British book trade is worried that talk-show hosts Richard and Judy will draw a significantly smaller audience (and move fewer books) when they move this fall to UKTV. But at least they will have this new partnership with a newspaper: starting in October, their Daily Mail New Writers Book Club will feature one “new writer” every month, on air and in print. While production company Cactus TV head Amanda Ross told publisher she thought it was “scary to attempt to discover 12 new writing stars in a year,” they’ll do it anyway (clearly publishers don’t find it scary, since […]
Issues of the Week: Reviews & Blogs, Again
The quickening dissection and/or disappearance of newspaper book reviews (and newspaper book-focused staff) produced a couple of pieces of commentary this week. First Da Capo senior director of publicity Lissa Warren wrote at the Huffington Post on “will blogs save books?” She criticizes blog coverage of books with a broad brush for, well, not being more like the traditional take-it-from-the-approved-and-salaried-experts reviews that are being eliminated. “I think book reviews on blogs — particularly those of the Blogspot variety — tend to be self-indulgent. Book reviewing bloggers need to move away from opinion in favor of judgment. How does the book […]
Issues of the Week: Pre-Bookers
As conveyed in my original listing of the “Booker Dozen” that actually comprises 13 books, I’m baffled by the UK’s ability to generate attention and debate over a list of non-nominees for the Booker prize (or any other award). Longlists are no measure of distinction and are never remembered so it’s hard to imagine how they can “mean” anything, even as the UK press ascribes all kinds of attributes to the books selected (and not). And they’re designed to give judges cover to experiment and provoke–in the long term, how can you be irate over a book that was closely […]