WH Smith still has not restored service to their website in the wake of controversy over some of the Kobo ebooks they were offering for sale. In New Zealand, retailer Whitcoulls “has suspended the sale of eBooks through our website.” They write in a site note: “This suspension will remain in place until we can guarantee that any inappropriate material, that has been available through self published eBooks, has been removed from the Kobo eBook catalogue.” But Australian partner Angus & Robertson is still selling what appears to be the full and unexpurgated Kobo catalog (at least judging by a […]
International News
Catton Wins the Booker
Eleanor Catton’s 848-page second novel THE LUMINARIES won the Booker Prize, awarded in London on Tuesday night. At 28, she is the youngest Booker winner ever. Little, Brown just published the book in the US earlier in the day, though it was issued previously in the UK (Granta) and her home of New Zealand (Victoria University Press). Little, Brown published her debut novel The Rehearsal as well. In thanking her publishers, Catton noted wryly that it “was a publisher’s nightmare,” since “the shape and form of the book made certain types of editorial suggestions…not only mathematically impossible, but also astrologically impossible.” (A […]
Attendance Slides At the Still-Giant Frankfurt Book Fair
The Frankfurt Book Fair is a mammoth show by any measure, though by the organizer’s own numbers trade visits continue to decline modestly year over year. FBF officials say that 142,921 people were present during the first three trade show days, and a total of 275,342 visitors were logged over all five days (with the German public attending the final two days). Both counts are slightly below last year’s numbers, and the fair’s attendance peaked in 2008 — with just under 300,000 total visitors, and a claim of 186,240 trade visitors for the entire fair. It’s a little confusing lining […]
Tonight’s Booker
The Booker Prize will be awarded this evening in London. Jim Crace’s HARVEST has been the bettors’ favorite from the start and remains so today, albeit by a small margin. Based on historical trends, that makes it highly likely Crace will not actually win, since except for Hilary Mantel, the Booker “favorite” almost always loses. Eleanor Catton’s 848-page The Luminaries is a close second in the betting, and is finally on sale in the US today. There’s some question as to how much is actually wagered on the prize, though. The Telegraph says that “a mere £24” has been bet on […]
Self-Publishing Takes Down WH Smith
On Saturday the UK’s Mail on Sunday ran a sensational article focusing on the “disturbingly graphic content” available in abundance through major online bookstores, including WH Smith, Amazon, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble, generally as ebooks. The prime focus of their piece was WH Smith, where children’s ebooks and pornography were freely mixed under the first page of results for a search for “daddy.” (The story appears to have begun with a tweet during the week and an article in The Kernel that focused on Amazon.) In response, WH Smith took their entire website offline, and it remains still closed […]
People, Awards, Etc.: Munro, Charkin, Levinson, Potter Postage, and More
Vintage is reprinting a total of 100,000 copies across their backlist of 14 story collections by Nobel laureate Alice Munro. Random House Canada ceo Brad Martin told the Globe and Mail, “As far as we know, we have stock of all of Alice’s active titles,” though booksellers were light on copies and ran out quickly. Indigo placed “nice, substantial orders” for fresh inventory. You can read (or hear) Munro’s short phone call interview with the prize organizers here. She said in a written statement Thursday: “This is so surprising and wonderful. I am dazed by all the attention and affection that has […]