They weren’t just closing the New York office as reported last month, but rather Virgin sold their interest in their comics joint venture to management, which has renamed the company Liquid Comics. Variety notes: “The brand was stymied by low sales of its comicbooks, which were short on major names in the comicbook biz (with the exception of writer Garth Ennis) and sported concepts centered mostly around Indian mythology and thus struggled to find readers in the US…. Liquid didn’t comment on plans to actually continue publishing comicbooks, instead opting to focus on digital versions of its various characters.”Variety The […]
Uncategorized
Lively Classics Lines
The LAT runs an appreciation of reprint lines published by the New York Review of Books, Europa Editions, Hard Case Crime, and Persephone Books. There are no actual facts here, but the conclusions are grand: “The publishers specializing in reprints have become increasingly important to the people who haunt bookstores searching for the next great read. For some, these reintroduced books are as eagerly awaited as any mainstream house’s seasonal list.” True to journalistic formula, it remains impossible to admire the small without indicting everyone else, as specious conclusions abound: “Whether the increasing number of reprints is because of reader […]
Multi(ple) Media
Penguin UK’s blog has two audio clips “announcing” their Eoin Colfer Hitchhiker’s Guide acquisition. One is from Colfer; the more amusing one comes from a character in the book. Separately, the Village Voice “reviews” Philip Roth’s Indignation in a nine-panel cartoon slide show (via Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind).
Possible Lexicon Appeal
It sounds as if RDR Books will at least try to keep its options open on finding a way to publish Steve Vander Ark’s HARRY POTTER LEXICON. The Detroit Free Press says they “expect their attorneys this week to file a notice of appeal preserving the right to continue the legal battle for their Harry Potter book.” As we pointed out in our coverage of the case, much of the Judge’s decision rested on excessive copying of the two slim tie-in companion books Fantastic Beasts and Quidditch Through the Ages (along with excessive copying of JK Rowling’s descriptive language from […]
NavPress's Growth By Pulling Back
Michael D. Miller, who took over as executive publisher a year ago at Christian publisher NavPress, tells the local paper the company is changing its focus: “We drifted too far toward seeking best-sellers,” Miller said. “When you follow the trade model, you have to put a lot of material out to satisfy the needs of customers. We decided that is not in our best interest.”He adds, “I am trying to pull us back to remember that we are distributors of spiritual messages that God has given to people through the body of Christ to share.” They say the company had […]
Roth TV
Philip Roth rarely appears before cameras or in stores to promote his work but on Tuesday when INDIGNATION is published, “fifty bookstores will show a live, closed-circuit interview between Roth and novelist and essayist Benjamin Taylor. Some are using larger venues, including the Chicago Public Library and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA,” USA Today report. Houghton has a pdf of stores posted here.