Tag: news

• Philly’s First Poet Laureate – The Inquirer

  Posted at 5:06 pm by Laura, on December 29, 2011

  Philadelphia Selects Sonia Sanchez as its First Poet Laureate – The Inquirer – John Timpane

  Siobhan Riordan, president and director of the Free Library of Philadelphia and a member of the selection committee, said, “The mayor really wanted this, and our conversations around Sonia were so easy and so natural. Philadelphia is a city passionate about the things it loves, and she personifies that passion in her poetry and her teaching.”

  A neat article on the exciting news for a massive artistic city. It’s great to hear that literature in all forms is still honored and appreciated!

  Posted in Link | 0 Comments | Tagged news, newspaper

• Best-Selling Book in the US

  Posted at 11:03 am by Laura, on December 29, 2011

  According to USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is No. 1!

  Other books that made the Top Five list include The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Help.

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

• Reading 55 Books in 2011: What I Learned – PW

  Posted at 1:45 pm by Laura, on December 28, 2011

  Reading 55 Books in 2011: What I learned – Publisher’s Weekly – Gabe Habash

  This isn’t publishing news, per se, but it is an excellent and detailed account of what goes on across the year when setting a goal to read x-many books. Nearly everything Habash states (forgetting certain details of books that moved you at the beginning of the year, doing the math, pushing for x+ books once the goal seemed attainable) is similar to what I went through during the 50 Book Challenge. That, and he promotes GoodReads!

  At the time of this writing, I have a beard and I’m finishing up The Colossus of New York. It’s the last book I’ll read this year, which started off innocently enough in January, but by winter became something of a maddening ascetic bender. This is what I learned from reading 15,000 pages in 2011.

  He discusses poor memory and the pros and cons of reading goals. Cool blog post!

  What will your goal be for 2012?

  Posted in books, Link | 0 Comments | Tagged 50 book challenge, books, goodreads, magazine, news

• Publishers vs Libraries: An E-Book Tug of War – NYTimes

  Posted at 8:08 pm by Laura, on December 26, 2011

  Publisher’s vs Libraries: An E-Book Tug of War – The New York Times – Randall Stross

  To follow along with the library/publisher/ebook trend today…

  …we can also guess that the number of visitors to the e-book sections of public libraries’ Web sites is about to set a record, too.

  And that is a source of great worry for publishers. In their eyes, borrowing an e-book from a library has been too easy. Worried that people will click to borrow an e-book from a library rather than click to buy it, almost all major publishers in the United States now block libraries’ access to the e-book form of either all of their titles or their most recently published ones.

   

  Posted in library, Link, publishing | 0 Comments | Tagged ebooks, library, news, newspaper, publishing

• When Borrowing Isn’t Free – PW

  Posted at 8:00 pm by Laura, on December 26, 2011

  When Borrowing Isn’t Free – Publisher’s Weekly – Peter Brantley

  Wheeler’s is a private company developing an e-book platform that enables libraries to charge for e-book lending. And, another critical feature, it also offers support for the outright purchase of e-book titles from book distributors, versus licensing. In addition to clarifying the legal status of e-books in a library collection, “purchasing” the e-book also permits libraries to be more flexible with their funding, in comparison to paying recurring license fees. Further, the ability to charge patrons for e-book rentals generates friction in lending, and helps to compensate libraries for the costs of ebook purchasing.

  Could an experiment in New Zealand help US libraries and publishers come together on ebooks?

  Posted in library, Link, publishing | 0 Comments | Tagged ebooks, library, magazine, news, publishing

• How Dickens changed Christmas forever…

  Posted at 9:26 pm by Laura, on December 25, 2011

  Barnes & Noble shared an interesting history behind Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

  Since its publication, A Christmas Carol has been adapted into countless plays, films, and television productions. But many scholars believe it also fundamentally changed the way we view the holiday season. In a few short pages, Dickens managed to create a vision of old-fashioned good cheer and secular morality. But what’s most remarkable about the story is what it leaves out.

  Read on for the full story!

  Posted in books, Link | 0 Comments | Tagged books, history, holiday, news

• The great ebook price swindle – The Guardian

  Posted at 1:15 pm by Laura, on December 23, 2011

  The great ebook price swindle – The Guardian – Dan Gillmor

  Publishers have two major distribution methods. One is traditional wholesaling: sell the book to a middleman, who typically adds a mark-up to customers, but sometimes discounts a book below cost as a “loss leader” to attract more business for items that aren’t discounted in this way.

  The other model is called the “agency” system. In this case, publishers set the price and the bookstore merely handles the sale to the ultimate customer, for a set fee or percentage of the transaction.

  The “big six” US publishers all sell their physical books via the wholesale model. After years of wholesaling digital editions as well, they moved to the agency model for ebooks, with Random House becoming the final publisher to switch early last year.

  …An ebook priced like a physical book is a terrible deal for the customer. Among other drawbacks, you can’t resell – or even give away – an ebook in most cases. You don’t really own an ebook; you’re just renting it, even if the company you rent from says you can keep it, because that depends on the life span of the seller.

  Read on to see why “publishers are facing an uncertain time in the digital world – but increasing the prices of their ebooks is a retrograde step.”

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

• Blogging once again!

  Posted at 10:52 am by Laura, on December 22, 2011

  I have another blog on WordPress that detailed my trip to England a few years ago. I am at a point in my life where blogging may benefit my own education as well as any other readers’ who stumble across this page.

  Over the course of 2011, I participated in the GoodReads 50 Books Challenge, wherein one reads a certain amount of books across 12 months. I had set my goal to 50, because I would typically read 15-25 per year and wanted to challenge myself – however, a few friends have set a goal of 75, 25, and prettybooks set 100. I finished 50 books a few weeks ago, and am working on my next 50 books right now! Currently on Book #4.

  This goal was incredibly fulfilling. So now I’m setting another goal for 2012: to write book reviews. I’m not sure how to go about this, but I am willing to learn and improve! I will be attending graduate school in the fall of 2012 to receive a Masters in Publishing, and I think understanding book reviews and the publishing industry beforehand would be incredibly beneficial. This blog will contain my reviews as well as links and information regarding the publishing industry today. Once again, this is mostly a learning experience for myself, but readers are more than welcome to join in!

  Posted in books, publishing, Update Post | 1 Comment | Tagged 50 book challenge, book review, books, goodreads, news, publishing, review

• 

• 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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