Ann Bagnall, publisher of historic cookbooks – obituary
telegraph.co.uk – Wednesday December 27, 2017
Ann Bagnall, who has died aged 90, made a lasting contribution to the world of food literature and social history when, aged 60, she set up a publishing company specialising in historic cookbooks and guides to household management.
The fantastic fiction app Great Jones Street is shutting down
theverge.com – Sunday December 24, 2017
2017 has been notoriously difficult for digital publishers, and the year has claimed a new victim: Great Jones Street, an app-based fiction magazine that curated a ton of great stories that spanned genres. In a post on Facebook, the app’s publisher, Kelly Abbott says that he will shut the publication down at the end of the year, saying that he ultimately “failed to convince enough readers to support it.”
US trade publisher sales flat in first half of 2017, reports AAP
thebookseller.com – Friday December 22, 2017
US publishers' trade book sales were flat for the first seven months of 2017, holding steady at $4,440.2m versus $4,442m for the same period (January - August) in 2016, according to statistics released by the Association of the American Publishers (AAP).
Talking audiobooks
thebookseller.com – Wednesday December 20, 2017
Audio is the "heatseeker" within publishing, and the recent FutureBook Conference was a watershed moment in championing the category. But many issues also surfaced. Expensive recordings, different marketing from print and a new supply chain are just a few; the consequence is that there are as many publishers losing money from audio as there are profitably growing.
Literary fiction under threat, ACE report concludes
thebookseller.com – Sunday December 17, 2017
Arts Council England has pledged to engage with more bookshops, fund more writers and lobby the government to provide tax relief to independent publishers following a report finding that “the general trend for literary fiction is a negative one”.
Literary fiction writers can no longer live off their books as sales slump
inews.co.uk – Friday December 15, 2017
The idea of the penniless artist shivering and starving in gloomy cellar for years as they pen another great tome has become a reality for the writers of literary fiction, according to research by Arts Council England. The average author now earns less than minimum wage with an annual salary of just £11,000.
Fan sends 80s Nobel prizewinning book to modern publishers to make an important point about the book industry
independent.co.uk – Wednesday December 13, 2017
A literary fan has conducted a damning experiment.
Writer Serge Volle sent 50 pages of French author Claude Simon's 1962 novel The Palace, set during the Spanish civil war, to 19 French publishers under the guise of being fresh material.
12 outright rejected the book, while seven never replied, despite the fact that Simon won the Nobel prize for literature in 1985, Volle told French public radio on Monday (via The Guardian).
Christmas sale - 25 per cent off the Writers' Handbook 2018
firstwriter.com – Tuesday December 12, 2017
For a limited time only, firstwriter.com is offering copies of the 2018 edition of its acclaimed Writers' Handbook in ebook format at a 25% discount.
Every year, the period between Christmas and New Year is the busiest ebook selling week of the year, as people with lovely new ereaders from Santa look for content to load onto them. This year, the online ebook retailer Smashwords is aiming to make this a little easier on everyone's strained post-Christmas bank accounts, by running an End of Year sale: and the firstwriter.com Writers' Handbook 2018 will be among the titles available at a discounted price.
Easy listening
thebookseller.com – Friday December 8, 2017
Agents are on my mind. At last week’s AudioBook Revolution conference, a number of agents raised concerns about how publishers are demanding audio rights when they also buy print. The charge was led from the podium by Curtis Brown agent Alice Lutyens, backed from the floor by her colleague Cathryn Summerhayes, and informed by agent Ivan Mulcahy. It was a debate I had been told no-one wanted to have. Now it feels urgent.
Hachette UK buys Jessica Kingsley Publishers
thebookseller.com – Friday December 1, 2017
Thirty years after it was founded, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (JKP) has been bought by Hachette UK for an undisclosed sum.
The indie publisher specialising in social and mental health sciences is set to become an imprint of John Murray Press under Nick Davies. Its founder Jessica Kingsley will work with the company on a consultancy basis until mid-2018 when she will retire.
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