Outgoing ABA president Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore convened this year’s annual meeting by saying “I probably don’t have to tell you that this has not been a easy year. It’s been a tough one for everyone in this association and we have done what we can to adjust.” And she underscored that both the organization and its members “have no intention of giving up the good fight, maintaining our market, and our place in the community’s heart.” In reviewing the year’s activity, Shanks discussed the search for a new ceo to replace Avin Domnitz and noted “we interiew […]
It Looks Like BEA
If you didn’t know that it was supposed to be a smaller show, with fewer attendees and fewer giveaways I think you wouldn’t notice any difference (except for the size of what’s left of the Random House booth). It’s always hard to know when to push out the e-mail during the show. The following stories simply appear according to the order in which they were posted. As promised, we’ll have more at PublishersMarketplace during the day and over the weekend, though we may or may not mail again until Monday (true to our motto). Despite some unexpected technical trouble, we […]
World's Richest Children's Prize Launched, for Arabic Books
The new Etisalat Prize for Arabic Children’s Literature, worth approximately $275,000, was announced this morning at BEA. It is backed by the ruler of Sharjah and sponsored by the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation. The announcement sas the prize is “designed to preserve Arab children’s culture in the third millennium. The first winner will be named in November.
The Problem with Statistics: BISG's New Method Still Inflates the Unknown
It’s that time of year again, when we all try to reckon with a wave of imprecise measures of our increasingly complex and nuanced business. The need for true data seems to increase in direct proportion to the supply of inadequate evaluations. In recent weeks, we’ve looked a little bit at the confusingly broad distinctions in the Bowker counts of new titles published last year and tried to reckon with Amazon’s unsubstantiated glimpse into rising Kindle sales. Discerning readers already know that on a standing basis, we very consciously do not report periodic numbers from the AAP, Census Bureau, and […]
WSJ's Summer Read Selections
In their traditional look ahead at top summer books, the WSJ recommends these titles: NonfictionThe Food of a Younger Land, by Mark KurlanskyAmerican Heroes, by Edmund MorganYoung Woman and the Sea, by Glenn StoutThe Snakehead, by Patrick Radden KeefeThe Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, by J. Randy Taraborrelli FictionThe Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg LarssonSouth of Broad, by Pat ConroyThe Secret Speech, by Tom Rob SmithThe Angel’s Game, by Carlos Ruiz ZafonMy Father’s Tears, by John UpdikeRavens, by George Dawes GreenLet the Great World Spin, by Colum McCannDo No Deny Me, by Jean ThompsonA Happy Marriage, by Rafael […]
The CEO Whisperer
Unfortunately Tina Brown’s questions were as wispy as her voice at the CEOs panel at BEA on Thursday, with Brown suffering from laryngitis that led her to eventually leave the stage as her husband Harry Evans took her place. Evans produced a brief spark when he came on by declaring “the publishers seem to me to be extremely weak about Google” and asking about the pending legal settlement. Macmillan’s John Sargent underscored that “you shouldn’t focus on Google as the danger point; the danger is what Google enables in making a copy and giving it to libraries,” whose mission to […]