Category: Link

• BAM Picks CoverCake to Track Social Media Book Data – PW

  Posted at 5:57 pm by Laura, on February 2, 2012

  BAM Picks CoverCake to Track Social Media Book Data – Publisher’s Weekly – Calvin Reid

  Books-A-Million is teaming up with CoverCake, a startup venture focused on title discovery and analytics that can track book trends and overall online interest in titles and publishers across multiple social media platforms. CoverCake will be used by BAM in its internal and external systems to enhance its merchandising and shopping experience.

  …

  Costello said that using CoverCake, publishers and marketers can track individual titles and get specific data on how many people are posting about a specific title on Twitter, say, on any other social media site. Users can track the online discussion around genres—biography, fiction, travel, romance and so on—the gender of readers for a specific title or specific publishers and authors.

  Posted in Link | 0 Comments | Tagged bookstores, magazine, news, technology

• B&N Will Not Stock Titles Published by Amazon – PW

  Posted at 11:30 pm by Laura, on January 31, 2012

  Barnes & Noble Will Not Stock Titles Published by Amazon – Publisher’s Weekly

  THIS JUST IN. Short, sweet, to the point.

   

  Posted in books, Link, publishing | 1 Comment | Tagged bookstores, news, newspaper, publishing

• Why to Read Dickens Now – TimeEntertainment

  Posted at 7:15 pm by Laura, on January 31, 2012

  Why to Read Dickens Now (Or Watch Him on TV) – TIME Entertainment – Radhika Jones

  When Charles Dickens began writing his first novel—in 1836, the year before Victoria took the throne—the literacy rate in England was less than 50 percent. By the end of her reign, in 1901, it was 97 percent. More than any writer of the time, Dickens helped close that gap. He did it by publishing stories that people desperately wanted to read and creating a market for thousands of other writers to do the same.

  It’s only fitting that so many of Dickens’ novels, which I’ve been reading and rereading in advance of his Feb. 7 bicentenary, involve plots or subplots or scenes that pivot on learning and literacy.

  …

  Nobody writes like Dickens anymore. There are authors who write as well or better, but they do it differently. Tastes change, and a truly Dickensian 21st century novel would be as weird a cultural experience as a sudden rash of non-ironic Mondrians. But a lot of the expectations contemporary readers have when we pick up a novel are the ones the great 19th century novelists — Austen, Dickens, Eliot — established for us. Perhaps the most important one is that, even after all the dissonances of modernism and post-modernism, the majority of readers still expect a novel to be satisfying, whether it’s a mystery or a romance or science fiction, whether it ends with a birth, a marriage or a death.

  Really fascinating piece on Dickens and his work!

  Posted in books, Link | 0 Comments | Tagged authors, books, genre: adult fiction, genre: classics, genre: fiction, news, newspaper

• B&N, Taking on Amazon in the Fight of its Life – NYTimes

  Posted at 2:21 pm by Laura, on January 29, 2012

  Barnes & Nobel, Taking on Amazon in the Fight of its Life – New York Times – Julie Bosman

  Like many struggling businesses, book publishers are cutting costs and trimming work forces. Yes, electronic books are booming, sometimes profitably, but not many publishers want e-books to dominate print books. Amazon’s chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, wants to cut out the middleman — that is, traditional publishers — by publishing e-books directly.

  Which is why Barnes & Noble, once viewed as the brutal capitalist of the book trade, now seems so crucial to that industry’s future. Sure, you can buy bestsellers at Walmart and potboilers at the supermarket. But in many locales, Barnes & Noble is the only retailer offering a wide selection of books. If something were to happen to Barnes & Noble, if it were merely to scale back its ambitions, Amazon could become even more powerful and — well, the very thought makes publishers queasy.

  “It would be like ‘The Road,’ ” one publishing executive in New York said, half-jokingly, referring to the Cormac McCarthy novel. “The post-apocalyptic world of publishing, with publishers pushing shopping carts down Broadway.”

  I laughed at that last comment, but it really is a Doomsday approach. B&N v Amazon, with publishers siding a chain bookstore. Oh, so complicated. What do you think? Be sure to read the whole story – it’s pretty extensive.

  Posted in books, Link, publishing | 1 Comment | Tagged books, bookstores, ebooks, ereaders, news, newspaper, publishing, technology

• Lee & Low Acquires Children’s Book Press – PW

  Posted at 9:44 am by Laura, on January 27, 2012

  Lee & Low Acquires Children’s Book Press – Publisher’s Weekly – Wendy Werris

  Children’s Book Press, founded in 1975 by Harriet Rohmer for the specific purpose of creating a line of bilingual and multicultural books, ceased operations at the end of September and has sold its backlist inventory of 90 titles to Lee & Low Books in New York.

  Dana Goldberg, former executive editor for Children’s Book Press, attributes the demise of the press to “a perfect storm of systemic things. We were a niche publisher for the institutional market, and 80 percent of our business came from schools and libraries. With the nationwide budget cuts, the last two years were really tough.” Goldberg also points to the challenge inherent in running a nonprofit publishing company. “We didn’t have to rely solely on book sales because of the fundraising side of the business, but in recent years our fundraising efforts didn’t meet expectations.” Children’s Book Press was distributed by Publishers Group West.

  Business was led by two different groups, causing major issues with the company overall. Thankfully, L&L will keep the multicultural / bilingual tradition.
  Posted in Link, publishing | 0 Comments | Tagged genre: children, genre: contemporary, magazine, news

• Children’s Books Get 21 Oscar Nominations – PW

  Posted at 9:38 am by Laura, on January 27, 2012

  Children’s Books Get 21 Oscar Nominations – Publisher’s Weekly – Liz Hartman

  Hugo, based on The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, leads the pack with the most – 11– nominations, including Best Picture. War Horse, based on Michael Murpurgo’s 1982 novel, is not far behind, with six nominations (also including Best Picture). Both books were published by Scholastic. Only The Artist garnered more nominations than War Horse, with 10, while Moneyball is tied with it at six.

  In addition to the Best Picture category, Hugo and War Horse will compete head to hoof for awards in Art Direction, Cinematography, Music (Original Score), Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing. Hugo also nabbed nominations for Costume Design, Visual Effects, and Writing (adapted screenplay).

  The Adventures of Tin Tin and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 also received nods, as many of you may already know, but none in categories most people pay attention to, such as Best Actor/Actress, Best Picture, Best Director, etc.  Even still, it’s extremely exciting to see how well books-turned-movies are doing.  I like to think of it as proof that books are especially valued for their stories. PW ends on a hopeful note: that since books-turned-movies are so big now, there should be an Oscar category for this as well. It’s in the Golden Globes, why not the Academy?

  Posted in books, Link | 0 Comments | Tagged books, genre: children, genre: fantasy, genre: fiction, genre: history, genre: young adult, magazine, movies, news

• Indie Bookstores Growing—and On the Move – PW

  Posted at 11:03 am by Laura, on January 25, 2012

  Indie Bookstores Growing—and On the Move – Publisher’s Weekly – Judith Rosen

  Just weeks after the start of the new year change is afoot at a number of indie bookstores, including going permanent (Word Up pop-up community bookstore in Washington Heights in New York City), moving (Newtonville Books in Newtonville, Mass.), and expanding (Idlewild Books in New York City).

  On the other end of the spectrum, communities are working to keep independent bookstores in place! Permanence, moving, and expanding are all great things to hear. Find out if you have an independent bookstore near you that you can help out!

  Posted in books, Link | 1 Comment | Tagged books, bookstores, magazine, news

• Wary but Determined, Publishers are Preparing for the Digital Future – PW

  Posted at 10:59 am by Laura, on January 25, 2012

  Wary but Determined, Publishers are Preparing for the Digital Future – Publisher’s Weekly – Calvin Reid

  While publishers may be a bit daunted, they are rapidly organizing their firms for digital: 75% of publishers have an executive level person responsible for digital; 63% report that digital skills are formally integrated into all departments; 69% of the publishers expect to increase digital staffing in 2012, while 22% expect overall company staffing to go down in 2012.

  For the statistically inclined.

  Posted in books, Link, publishing | 1 Comment | Tagged ebooks, magazine, news, publishing, technology

• An excellent review of ‘Jane Eyre’ tribute!

  Posted at 6:26 pm by Laura, on January 23, 2012

  In my first “Upcoming Books!” post, I had mentioned a book out tomorrow/Tuesday that all Brontë lovers would hopefully enjoy. “The Flight of Gemma Hardy” by Margot Livesey received a great review from The Boston Globe, and it has calmed my classic literature fears. Normally I veer away from rewritings, adaptations, offsprings, and homages to classic works, but apparently this particular novel is up to par! Read on to see what Meredith Maran has to say about the book.

  Posted in books, Link, publishing | 0 Comments | Tagged books, genre: adult fiction, genre: classics, genre: fiction, news, newspaper, publishing

• Publishers and Booksellers See a ‘Predatory’ Amazon – NPR

  Posted at 6:21 pm by Laura, on January 23, 2012

  Publishers and Booksellers See a ‘Predatory’ Amazon – National Public Radio – Lynn Neary

  Publishers have long complained about Amazon’s pricing policies; it sold e-books at cut-rate prices in order to win customers for the Kindle. Now, explains Joe Wikert, general manager and publisher at O’Reilly Media, Amazon is undercutting competitors by selling e-readers, like the new Kindle Fire, at a loss.

  Amazon has power, yes. What we don’t know is how long they can hold that power.

  Posted in Link | 2 Comments | Tagged news, publishing, radio, technology

• 

• Hello, I’m Laura!

  I'm a bookish bookworm and book hoarder. By day I'm a literary agent, and by night I'm forever rearranging my bookshelves. I could talk your ear off about Gothic literature, and in my past life people thought I'd become a professional musician. I have a fluffy black cat named Rossetti, I love to travel, tea is my drink of choice, British TV is the best, and I'm always down for chips-and-queso nights. Welcome to Scribbles & Wanderlust! Grab your favorite hot beverage and let's chat books!

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