London Book Fair 2013

Special link: London Book Fair 2013

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

BETT Awards 2010 winners

"The Bett Awards announced its list of winners and the best in educational technology solutions at London's Hilton Hotel on January 13, 2010. The BETT Awards is an annual scheme that highlights exemplar digital products intended for the education marketplace. The BETT Awards is produced by Emap Connect, the organisers of the largest educational technology show in the world - BETT. The BETT Awards is made possible by working in association with Becta, the Government's lead agency for ICT in education, and BESA, the trade association representing the educational supply industry"

Three jobs publishing houses need to fill in 2010

"In this era of layoffs and pay freezes across the industry, it might seem silly to talk about new positions that publishing houses should be looking to fill. I can hear you all groaning from here: with what time, exactly, should we be interviewing these people, and which pile of doubloons should we cash in to make payroll? But instead of thinking of these roles as expenses now, they should be seen as investments from publishers in their digital future, ones that will pay off in dividends in the years to come" - The New Sleekness

New urgency for Australian publishers to provide e-books

Australian publishers have been given until May to get their e-book houses in order if they want to join the digital revolution. A partnership between Canadian digital book wholesaler Kobo and REDgroup - owner of booksellers Angus & Robertson and Borders - has brought new urgency to Australia's race to go digital - Digital Life

Japanese publishers join forces to defend copyright against ebooks

Twenty one book publishing companies in Japan are joining together to form one organization to re-negotiate book copyright law with the Japanese government. The publishing companies are afraid of losing income from Digital E-books. The creation of the group has come about in response to rumors of Amazon planning to sell a Japanese version of the Kindle, with E-books from Japanese novels and magazines - Next Web

HarperCollins Publisher in talks with Apple over tablet

"HarperCollins Publishers is negotiating with Apple Inc. to make electronic books available for the introduction of a new tablet device from Apple, according to people familiar with the situation, posing a challenge to Amazon.com Inc. HarperCollins is expected to set the prices of the e-books, which would have added features, with Apple taking a percentage of sales. Details haven't been ironed out" - WSJ

Monday, January 18, 2010

Digital Book World - January 2010

"Digital Book World is the first-ever conference to address the radically changing commercial publishing environment from near-term challenges to long-term opportunities. Leading publishers of consumer books and their trading partners will leave the event armed with ideas and insights to drive new revenues and adapt their business models to the new digital landscape. It' the only conference of its kind by book publishers, specifically for book publishers. Other conferences focus on new technologies as they relate to content creation, but only Digital Book World speaks directly to book publishers - addressing their immediate needs and future goals to not only survive, but thrive in the changing world of book publishing" - January 26-27, New York, USA

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Twilight leads boost in children's book sales

The Twilight series of vampire books by Stephenie Meyer has boosted the sale of children's books and sales of picture books are also up. Children's books are looking healthy in a market which is shrinking slightly in the recession. Annual figures from Nielson BookScan show children's book sales in 2009 were up 4.9% in volume and picture book sales were up by 13% on 2008. Children's Laureate Anthony Browne says he is incredibly pleased and surprised. Latest figures for the book sector as a whole from Nielson BookScan show UK book sales are down 0.5% in terms of volume and down 1.2% in terms of value. More than 60 million children's books were sold in the UK last year (excluding text books), bringing in £293m to the book industry. The Twilight books of modern-day vampires (various editions) by Ms Meyer take the five top slots in a list of the 100 children's best sellers for last year

Publishers, sellers bet on which winter books will break through (USA)

A debut novel about the Vietnam War, a memoir by a Bush White House insider and a comprehensive biography of an iconic black baseball player are among the titles that booksellers and publishers are hoping will draw consumers into bookstores this winter. Last fall's roster was a hit parade of big names such as Stephen King, Sue Grafton and Michael Crichton, but early 2010 "includes some people who aren't as well known, which is great," says Elaine Petrocelli of Book Passage in Corte Madera, California - USA Today

The Alex Dual Screen eReader

The Alex Dual Screen eReader"Alex gives you easy access to more than a million books from eBook vendors today to read online or download to build your personal offline library. Alex expands, enriches and personalizes your reading experience anywhere you go. Alex is giving birth to a new industry of multimedia publishing and delivering new opportunities to authors by enabling readers to use their Alex eReader to explore the Web through hyperlinks embedded in online books"

BookSneeze from Thomas Nelson

Book publisher Thomas Nelson has created a program – Book Sneeze – for bloggers worldwide who maybe interested in reviewing books. You pick one of the books from their catalog and they will ship you a complimentary copy of that book for free. In return, you'll have to post a review of that book on your blog and on Amazon.com or another online bookstore such as Barnes & Noble, Borders or Wal-Mart

Thursday, January 14, 2010

USA Today's Winter Books Calendar

"In a sure sign that a new publishing season is upon us, USA Today has posted its interactive calendar of the major titles coming out through April. It includes covers, annotations and pub dates - great for reminding yourself of what's upcoming. You could think of it as flashcards for readers advisory work" - EarlyWord

Waterstone's chief pays the price for poor Christmas sales

The boss of Waterstone's has left with immediate effect after the book chain suffered a plunge in sales over the Christmas period. Parent company HMV reported that like-for-like sales at Waterstone's tumbled by 8.5% in the five weeks to 2 January. The poor results took the shine off a record performance at HMV's entertainment stores. Waterstone's managing director, Gerry Johnson, has paid the price for the poor sales. He left with immediate effect today, to be replaced by HMV group development director Dominic Myers

New Gormenghast novel found in attic

New Gormenghast novel found in atticA new Gormenghast novel, which was written by Mervyn Peake's wife based on notes left by the author, is to be published by their son after being discovered in an attic. Titus Awakes was written by Maeve Gilmore shortly after her husband's death from Parkinson's Disease in 1968. She decided to write the book, which runs to 210 pages, after he left her a page and a half of fragmented notes about how he might have continued the story

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

"Woodhead Publishing Limited in Cambridge UK has acquired the list of Horwood Publishing in Chichester. The deal was done just before Christmas, the second year running that Woodhead has completed an acquisition on Christmas Eve. The Horwood list comprises about 90 books in the fields of mathematics, engineering, biochemistry, chemistry and the environment. Commenting on the acquisition, Martin Woodhead of Woodhead Publishing said, 'The Horwood list fits very neatly with our existing strengths in engineering, materials science, food science and environmental technology but also brings with it a superb mathematics list of 30 titles including bestsellers such as Fundamentals of University Mathematics. We are delighted to add such a high quality list to our business.'"