Author Iain Banks reported in a statement that he has inoperable late-stage metastatic gall bladder cancer and is “extremely unlikely” to live for more than another year. “So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last…. Meanwhile my heroic publishers are doing all they can to bring the publication date of my new novel forward by as much as four months, to give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves.”
At Little, Brown Children’s, Pam Gruber has been promoted to associate editor.
At McGill-Queen’s University Press, Susan McIntosh has been promoted to associate director.
Berlin-based academic publisher De Gruyter is experimenting with the platform Unglue.it, which “unlocks” books under a creative commons license that makes the titles available for free if the publisher’s stated funding requirement is met through crowdsourced pledges. De Gruyter is offering 100 titles from its e-dition series, published between 1958 to 2003 and no longer commercially available. They will make available any title for which $2,100 is pledged.
Missed in Tuesday’s catalog of bookstore is initiatives was children’s store Spellbound in Asheville, NC. They are looking to raise $18,500 or more via indiegogo to fund the opening of a new location that customers have been requesting.
The UK’s Independent Bookseller Awards shortlist was announced. Their adult award combines fiction and nonfiction:
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
HhHH, Laurent Binet
Bring Up The Bodies, Hilary Mantel
Capital, John Lanchester
The Etymologicon, Mark Forsyth
Flight Behaviour, Barbara Kingsolver
The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller
Walking Home, Simon Armitage
A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo
Children’s candidates:
Wonder, R J Palacio
The Sacrifice, Charlie Higson
Gangsta Granny, David Walliams
White Dolphin, Gill Lewis
Oh No, George!, Chris Haughton
Dear Scarlett, Fleur Hitchcock
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff Kinney
Maggot Moon, Sally Gardner
WARP: The Reluctant Assassin, Eoin Colfer
The Secret Hen House Theatre, Helen Peters
Matilda’s Cat, Emily Gravett
Socks, Nick Sharratt & Elizabeth Lindsay