Last year, Bookreporter.com‘s Carol Fitzgerald had the novel insight that if there isn’t an audience for a book, perhaps it shouldn’t be published. The publishing palooza has subsided a bit (Bowker recently reported that total titles were down to 172,000 last year – an 18,000 title drop from 2004), and Chris Anderson mania has everyone…Continue Reading
Youths Kick-Start Japanese Market, China Makes the Grade, French Teacher Explores Afterlife When 19-year-old Hitomi Kanehara and 20-year-old Risa Wataya recently became the youngest authors ever to win the coveted Akutagawa Prize (which helped launch the careers of greats like Kenzaburo Oe and Ryu Murakami), the Japanese literary scene received just the spark it needed…Continue Reading
As Publishing Trends rolls out its bestseller lists for the Czech and Slovak Republics, we herewith offer a brief survey of this modest but dynamic literary landscape, as sales rise in Wal-Mart-esque chains, and pivot sharply toward nonfiction. Though Czech readers have long lapped up the likes of Stephen King, Danielle Steel, and Tom Clancy,…Continue Reading
MP3 Audio Is the Next Big Thing. Unless It’s Audiobook Suicide. The average Los Angeles motorist now spends 136 hours per year sitting stock-still in traffic, according to the landmark Texas Transportation Institute study, and audiobook publishers are thrilled. Indeed, the apocalyptic fate of our nation’s highway infrastructure is rehearsed by audio industry brass with…Continue Reading
PT’s Savvy Commentators Ponder the Fallout from Another Year in Publishing As we surveyed the smoking turf from another twelve months in the book business, it struck us that this year’s pinnacles and pratfalls were decidedly in the eye of the beholder. We asked a number of savvy publishing personalities to offer their take on…Continue Reading
While much of the literary world mopes about sluggish trade book sales and a flat-lined readership, an industry group in Holland has jettisoned their melancholy and mounted a frontal assault on blasé book buying. Aggressively luring readers and making bestsellers in the bargain, this Dutch treat just might be a model for other nations in…Continue Reading
Not surprisingly, 1999 — a year which occurred in that surreal interlude before anyone could imagine the impact of April 2000’s dot-com dump — was a year when everything came up “e”. And, as we glance at our prognostications of last year, we find that Publishing Trends exhorted publishers to embrace the opportunities that were…Continue Reading
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT INSIDE.COM (12/6/00) When Stephen King pulled the plug last week on his online serial story The Plant, citing a dwindling base of readers willing to pony up a buck for the latest installment, pundits rushed to declare electronic self-publishing dead on arrival. But many of them failed to notice that King’s supposed…Continue Reading
