London Book Fair 2013

Special link: London Book Fair 2013

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Harlequin acquires Heartsong Presents

Harlequin has acquired the book club assets of Heartsong Presents Book Club, the inspiration book club owned by the Christian publisher Barbour Publishing. Heartsong Presents provides its members with four Christian romance novels a month, with a focus on inspiration, hope and faith, written by leading inspirational authors

ProPublica partners with Open Road to publish E-Books

Digital publisher Open Road has partnered with award-winning journalistic outfit ProPublica to release a series of e-books

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Bloody Scotland

Bloody Scotland is an innovative festival which will showcase Scottish crime writing and place it in an international context. We will shortly be announcing a stellar cast of leading crime writers - September 14-16, 2012 - Stirling, Scotland

The first annual Discover Mystery Award

Poisoned Pen Press would like to announce the first annual Discover Mystery Award, a first book contest for unpublished writers trying to break into the mystery genre. This spring, join us by entering your mystery manuscript of 60,000-90,000 words in an effort to win a $1000 prize, the Discover Mystery title, and a publishing contract from Poisoned Pen Press

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Waterstones to open Russian mini-store (UK)

Waterstones is to launch a Russian bookshop in London, UK

Friday, January 27, 2012

Lee & Low acquires Children's Book Press

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

The British Science Fiction Association Awards 2011 shortlist

The British Science Fiction Association Awards 2011 has announced its shortlist:

Best Novel

Cyber Circus by Kim Lakin-Smith (Newcon Press)
Embassytown by China Mieville (Macmillan)
The Islanders by Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
By Light Alone by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
Osama by Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)

Best Short Fiction

The Silver Wind by Nina Allan (Interzone 233, TTA Press)
The Copenhagen Interpretation by Paul Cornell (Asimov's, July)
Afterbirth by Kameron Hurley (Kameron Hurley's own website)
Covehithe by China Mieville (The Guardian)
Of Dawn by Al Robertson (Interzone 235, TTA Press)

Best Non-Fiction

Out of This World: Science Fiction but not as we Know it by Mike Ashley (British Library)
The SF Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition ed. John Clute, Peter Nicholls, David Langford and Graham Sleight (Gollancz website)
Review of Arslan by M J Engh, Abigail Nussbaum (Asking the Wrong Questions blog)
SF Mistressworks, ed. Ian Sales (website)
Pornokitsch, ed. Jared Shurin and Anne Perry (website)
The Unsilent Library: Essays on the Russell T. Davies Era of the New Doctor Who (Foundation Studies in Science Fiction), ed. Graham Sleight, Tony Keen and Simon Bradshaw (Science Fiction Foundation)

Best Art

Cover of Ian Whates's The Noise Revealed by Dominic Harman (Solaris)
Cover and illustrations of Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls by Jim Kay (Walker)
Cover of Lavie Tidhar's Osama by Pedro Marques (PS Publishing)
Cover of Liz Williams's A Glass of Shadow by Anne Sudworth (Newcon Press)

The Dilys Award 2012 nominees

The Dilys Award has been given annually since 1992 by IMBA to the mystery titles of the year which the member booksellers have most enjoyed selling. The Dilys Award is named in honor of Dilys Winn, the founder of the first specialty bookseller of mystery books in the United States. This year's nominees are:

* Faithful Place by Tana French - Penguin Books
* Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet - Minotaur (e-book available)
* Tag Man by Archer Mayor - Minotaur (e-book available)
* A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny - Minotaur (e-book available)
* Ghost Hero by S. J. Rozan - Minotaur (e-book available)

The winner will be announced March 31

Thursday, January 26, 2012

An interview with Amanda Hocking, author of the Trylle trilogy

An interview with Amanda Hocking, author of the Trylle trilogy at Foyles

2012 Indie Awards shortlist (Australia)

The shortlist for the 2012 Indie Awards has been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category are:

Fiction

* Caleb's Crossing (Geraldine Brooks, HarperCollins)
* The Street Sweeper (Elliot Perlman, Random House)
* Foal's Bread (Gillian Mears, A&U)
* Five Bells (Gail Jones, Random House)

Nonfiction

* Worse Things Happen at Sea (William McInnes & Sarah Watt, Hachette)
* Notebooks (Betty Churcher, MUP)
* After Words: Post Prime Ministerial Speeches (Paul Keating, A&U)
* A Private Life (Michael Kirby, A&U)

Debut fiction

* Past the Shallows (Favel Parrett, Hachette)
* All That I Am (Anna Funder, Penguin)
* The Roving Party (Rohan Wilson, A&U)
* Watercolours (Adrienne Ferreira, HarperCollins)

Children's

* The Jewel Fish of Karnak (Graeme Base, Penguin)
* The Little Refugee (Anh & Suzanne Do, illus Bruce Whatley, A&U)
* The Coming of the Whirlpool: Ship Kings 1 (Andrew McGahan, A&U)
* The 13-Storey Treehouse (Andy Griffiths, Macmillan).

The Indie Awards recognise independent booksellers' favourite Australian authors from the past 12 months. Category winners are chosen by 'expert panels' of readers and independent booksellers. Independent booksellers from around the country then vote on the 'Book of the Year'. The category and overall winners will be announced on 10 March at the Leading Edge Books conference in Melbourne

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Cairo International Book Fair now open (Egypt)

The Cairo International Book Fair is now open until 7 February, 2012

NBC News creates NBC Publishing

NBC News is getting into the publishing business with a new imprint called NBC Publishing, which will focus on digital publishing and eBooks with videos. Looking to tap into the popularity of eReaders, NBC Publishing will release both eBooks and digital singles based its news coverage including current events, documentaries, trends, biographies and profiles. The imprint will also publish independent authors who source their stories with NBC's resources

350,000 textbooks downloaded from Apple’s iBooks in three days

Within days of its debut, Apple's iBooks textbook store had already racked up a significant number of downloads. Same thing with the company's textbook authoring tool. According to Global Equities Research, which monitors Apple's iBook sales via a proprietary tracking system it doesn't much care to discuss, more than 350,000 textbooks were downloaded from the company's iBooks Store within the first three days of availability

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to publish and distribute print editions of titles from Amazon Publishing

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will publish the print versions of all of the adult titles from Amazon Publishing's New York-based division (run by publishing industry vet Larry Kirshbaum), and will distribute them everywhere in North America outside of Amazon.com

Andrew Miller has won the 2011 Costa Book of the Year

Novelist Andrew Miller has won the 2011 Costa Book of the Year, his first major literary award, for his sixth novel, Pure. Set in pre-revolutionary Paris in 1785, Pure is the story of Jean-Baptiste Baratte, an ambitious young engineer, who is assigned the task of emptying the noxious, overflowing Parisian cemetery Les Innocents, and of demolishing its church. The announcement was made Tuesday 24 January at an awards ceremony held at Quaglino's in central London

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Black Project wins graphic novel prize

Gareth Brookes' The Black Project has won Myriad Editions' first competition for a graphic novel in progress, with judges including novelist Ian Rankin choosing Brookes' work from a shortlist of seven

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Pan Macmillan launches first phase of new website

Pan Macmillan has launched its new website designed for consumers, trade and the media. The new site delivers a web infrastructure on which to build and develop a growing range of direct-to-consumer platforms to support Pan Macmillan's established and evolving brands, including picador.com and mykindabook.com

E-Reads acquires Brian Aldiss backlist

E-Reads, the backlist digital publishing house, has acquired U.S. print and digital rights to 15 titles by British science fiction author Brian Aldiss. John R. Douglas at E-Reads brokered the deal with agent Robin Straus, and the deal includes the purchase of such titles by the Hugo award winner as Greybeard, Galaxies Like Grains of Sand and the Helliconia series

UK Government throws weight behind World Book Capital bid

The UK Government has put its weight behind Oxford's attempt to become the World Book Capital in 2014. Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has written to the steering committee behind the plans, confirming the Government's full support for the bid for the Unesco title

Grand Central announces new digital-only imprint

Grand Central Publishing is diving into the digital-only pool with a new imprint. Forever Yours launches next month and will publish two to four e-books a month. The first two in the launch are novellas, listed on Amazon at 99 cents each

Apple reinvents textbooks with iBooks 2 for iPad

Apple® has announced iBooks® 2 for iPad®, featuring iBooks textbooks, an entirely new kind of textbook that's dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. iBooks textbooks offer iPad users gorgeous, fullscreen textbooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more. iBooks textbooks can be kept up to date, don't weigh down a backpack and never have to be returned. Leading education services companies including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson will deliver educational titles on the iBookstore℠ with most priced at $14.99 or less, and with the new iBooks Author, a free authoring tool available today, anyone with a Mac® can create stunning iBooks textbooks

Thursday, January 19, 2012

NetGalley

NetGalley delivers secure, digital galleys to professional readers. If you are a reviewer, blogger, journalist, librarian, bookseller, educator, or in the media, you can use NetGalley for free to read and request titles before they are published

Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award winner

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America have announced that Connie Willis will be honored with this year's Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award for her contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy. Willis is the author of 15 novels and more than 50 short stories and novellas. Her many prizes include seven Nebulas, eleven Hugos and four Locus awards. Willis will be honored during the Nebula Awards Weekend in Arlington, Va., May 17-20

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Publishers to use digital textbooks to kill resale market

The benefits of ebooks (and etextbooks by extension) are clear. But publishers will flock to digital textbooks for one simple reason: they'll kill the resale market

Jon Appleton appointed Editorial Director, Hodder Children's Books

Hodder Children's Books has announced that Jon Appleton will be joining as Editorial Director (Fiction) on lst February 2012

Deutscher Krimi Preis (German Crime Novel Prize) 2012 winners

The Deutscher Krimi Preis (German Crime Novel) awards for 2012 have been announced. The winner of the German-language crime novel is Wer das Schweigen bricht by Mechtild orrmann.

Runners Up:
Süden by Friedrich Ani
Zeugin der Toten by Elisabeth Herrmann

The winner of the international crime novel is Truth (Warheit) by Peter Temple.

Runners up (a Tie):
Savages (Zeit des Zorns) by Don Winslow
Started Early, Took My Dog (Das vergessene Kind) by Kate Atkinson

2012 Sydney Taylor Book Awards Announced by AJL

Michael J. Rosen and Robert Sabuda, author and artist of Chanukah Lights, Susan Goldman Rubin, author of Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein, and Robert Sharenow, author of The Berlin Boxing Club, are the 2012 winners of the prestigious Sydney Taylor Book Award. The awards were announced at the mid-winter meeting of the School, Synagogue and Community Center Division of the Association of Jewish Libraries

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Ian Rankin wants tax incentives to help new authors

Ian Rankin, Inspector Rebus creator, fears for new writing talent as publishers cut advances and internet transforms industry

Academic publishers have become the enemies of science

The Guardian: "The US Research Works Act would allow publishers to line their pockets by locking publicly funded research behind paywalls"

Bloomsbury e-book sales up nearly 40% in final quarter of 2011

Bloomsbury has said it had a "strong" final three months of 2011, with e-book sales growing by 38% year on year in the quarter from 1 September to 31 December 2011

50 new publishers adopt MetaMetrics's Lexile Measure in 2011

MetaMetrics®, developer of The Lexile® Framework for Reading, has announced that 50 new publishers signed on to provide Lexile measures for their books in 2011. Lexile measures offer valuable information about a book's text complexity that helps readers select fiction and nonfiction titles that best match their unique ability level and reading goals

Parts of Mein Kampf to be published in Germany

Starting in two weeks Albertas Press, a London based publishing house, will print sections of the book in German with critical commentaries printed alongside. The company plans to print three 15-page editions, each with a print run of 100,000

Sunday, January 15, 2012

KindleGen from Amazon.com

KindleGen is a command line tool which enables publishers to work in an automated environment with a variety of source content including HTML, XHTML or EPUB. KindleGen converts this source content to a single file which supports both KF8 and Mobi formats enabling publishers to create great-looking books that work on all Kindle devices and apps

Canadian publishers dismayed by M&S's loss of independence

The Canadian publishing community is reacting to Tuesday's announcement that Random House of Canada has taken over full ownership of the century-old Canadian house McClelland & Stewart. Many see it as a sign that the Canadian government is no longer enforcing a long-standing policy of restricting foreign ownership within cultural industries

U.S. publishers rush out books about Edwardian and wartime Britain to cash in on American success of Downton Abbey

It has already won the hearts of viewers in both Britain and the U.S. But now Downton Abbey is inspiring a resurgence in publishing in America with a wave of releases to cash in on the trend. Dozens of 20th century novels about the British aristocracy are being promoted by New York-based publishers to capitalise on the TV series

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Reginald Hill, Dalziel and Pascoe creator Reginald Hill dies

The writer Reginald Hill, who created the Yorkshire detective duo Andrew Dalziel and Peter Pascoe, has died aged 75

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Chandos Publishing Online

Chandos Publishing has announced the launch of its e-book platform Chandos Publishing Online. MetaPress is the host provider for the site. Chandos Publishing Online is a new electronic resource of library and information science, knowledge management and business information trends comprising over 200 e-books

Michael Cart looks at some recent award winning writers & books

In this podcast, Infopeople's indefatigable book reviewer Michael Cart looks at the 2011 Nobel Prizewinner for literature, Sweden's Tomas Tranströmer. He also takes a look at the National Book Awards and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, and some other odds and ends (a Mister Ed movie?!)

War Horse author Morpurgo at centre of row over deal to give away millions of his books at McDonald's

Michael Morpurgo, the best-selling children's author, is at the centre of a row over plans to give away millions of his books with McDonald's Happy Meals. The former children's laureate, whose book War Horse has just been made into a blockbuster film by Steven Spielberg, is the figurehead of the fast-food promotion. The deal, arranged by publisher HarperCollins and backed by the National Literacy Trust, will see McDonald's hand out nine million copies of Morpurgo's Mudpuddle Farm series. In the past, McDonald's gave away toys, often linked to children’s films, to encourage children to eat its Happy Meals. However, children’s food and health campaigners accused the U.S. food chain of adopting a cynical marketing ploy

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Roald Dahl's best-loved novels celebrated with new set of stamps

He is one of the best-selling authors of all time and his books are loved by children the world over. Now six of Roald Dahl's most popular tales are being celebrated by the Royal Mail with a special set of stamps. The stamps feature drawings by illustrator Quentin Blake who collaborated with Dahl on much of his work

Monday, January 9, 2012

Rare Malvern independent bookshop to shut (UK)

A store described by its owner as the only independent bookshop selling new books in a Worcestershire town is to close in a fortnight. Stuart Phillips-Broadhurst, from Beacon Books, Malvern, said e-books and online booksellers had had "a very adverse effect" on it in the last two years. The shop, which has traded for nearly 25 years, will shut on 21 January. Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce said it was "sad news for local independent retail"

Penguin Group USA has plucked its first author from its new electronic slush pile

Ace Books, an imprint of Penguin, has signed the debut novelist Kerry Schafer to a two-book deal, only weeks after Ms. Schafer posted writing samples on Bookcountry.com, a Web site Penguin introduced in April that invites writers of genre fiction to share their work. Penguin created Book Country as a site where aspiring authors could post their writing and receive critiques from other users - with the hope that some of the writers might be good enough to publish under the Penguin name

Sir Elton John secures a deal for book on Aids epidemic

Sir Elton John's first book, detailing his personal experiences of the global Aids epidemic, is set to be published. Proceeds from the sale of Love Is The Cure will go to the Elton John Aids Foundation (EJAF). Sir Elton said: "This is a disease that must be cured not by a miraculous vaccine, but by changing hearts and minds." The book will be released in July to coincide with an international Aids conference in Washington DC.

2012 Frost Medalist

The Poetry Society of America has announced that Marilyn Nelson is the 2012 recipient of the organization's highest award, the Frost Medal, presented annually for "distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry." Previous winners of this award include Wallace Stevens, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Moore, and Charles Simic, who was the 2011 recipient

2011 Indie Lit Awards Mystery shortlist

2011 Indie Lit Awards Mystery shortlist:

* Missing Daughter, Shattered Family by Liz Strange (MLR Press)
* The Cut by George Pelecanos (Reagan Arthur/LIttle, Brown)
* A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (St. Martin's Press)
* The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey (Dutton)
* Fun & Games by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland Books/Little, Brown)

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Six University Presses sign with Ingram's CoreSource® for digital asset management and distribution

More university presses are now spending more time on creating new and relevant content for their readers, while leaving the distribution of their e-books to Ingram Content Group Inc. through its digital content distribution system, CoreSource. "The digital age provides new opportunities for the publication and distribution of scholarly works," said Marcus Woodburn, Vice President of Digital Products, Ingram Content Group. "At Ingram, we are pleased to collaborate with university presses nationwide on the creation of a program that supports their publications. We continue to develop comprehensive print and digital solutions to help content reach educators, students and researchers in the formats they choose." The most recent university presses that have selected CoreSource for their digital asset management and distribution needs are The University of New Mexico Press, University of South Carolina Press and Indiana University Press. The presses have also elected to use Ingram’s CoreSource Plus option – an Ingram service that manages the business relationship with re-sellers in addition to asset distribution. The University Press of Florida, University of Virginia Press, and Wesleyan University Press recently enhanced their CoreSource relationship with the CoreSource Plus option

Thursday, January 5, 2012

E-book sales top 5 million for James Patterson

The Hachette Book Group announced Wednesday that e-book sales for the prolific novelist now top 5 million, with 2 million coming in just the past seven months

Editors defend choice of former Israel Police officer as publishing house CEO

Editors at the Am Oved publishing house said they hoped concerns surrounding the controversial appointment of the firm's new CEO, police Brig. Gen. (ret. ) Yaakov Brei, would turn out to be groundless

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Czech emigre writer and publisher Josef Skvorecky dies

Czech emigre writer Josef Skvorecky, who published the works of former President Vaclav Havel and other authors persecuted by the communist government at home, died of cancer in Toronto on Tuesday aged 87, Czech and Canadian media reported. Skvorecky and his author wife Zdena Salivarova set up the Sixty-Eight Publishers in Toronto after leaving Czechoslovakia in the wake of the 1968 Soviet invasion that crushed hopes of the "Prague Spring" reforms. He published 227 titles in total

Penny Jordan, bestselling romantic novelist, dies of cancer at 65

Penny Jordan died on 31st of December 2011

Ronald Searle, St Trinian's creator, dies aged 91

One of the UK's most beloved cartoonists, Ronald Searle, creator of the tearaway girls' school St Trinian's, has died aged 91, his publisher Penguin has announced

James Franco sells his first novel to Amazon Publishing

James Franco is publishing a novel with Amazon. The book is called Actors Anonymous and was acquired by Amazon's fiction editor Ed Park from Mr. Franco's agent, Richard Abate

Apple event to focus on publishing and iBooks

Apple is reportedly holding an event in New York City this month that will focus on publishing and iBooks

Category winners for the 2011 Costa Book Awards

Category winners for the 2011 Costa Book Awards, which honor books by writers in the U.K. and Ireland, include:

Novel: Pure by Andrew Miller
First novel: Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson
Biography: Now All Roads Leads to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas by Matthew Hollis
Poetry: The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy
Children's book: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

The category winners each receive £5,000 (US$7,819) and are eligible for the £30,000 Costa Book of the Year award, which will be announced January 24

Jo Shapcott wins Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

Jo Shapcott wins Queen's gold medal for poetryThe poet Jo Shapcott, who began the year by winning the Costa book of the year award for her collection Of Mutability, has ended 2011 by being named the latest recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

Caitlin Moran's How To Be A Woman has won the Galaxy book of the year award

Caitlin Moran's How To Be A Woman has won the Galaxy book of the year awardCaitlin Moran's How To Be A Woman has won the Galaxy book of the year award. A public vote crowned the journalist's semi-autobiographical tome the winner ahead of titles by Dawn French, Claire Tomalin and seven others. Moran's title was named most popular non-fiction book at the National Book Awards last month

Monday, January 2, 2012

EU copyright on James Joyce works ends

As of January 1st, writings published during James Joyce's lifetime – Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake – are available for publication and quotation without reference or payment to the James Joyce estate

Stephen Kelman interview

Stephen Kelman interview by Claire King - Stephen Kelman is the author of the critically acclaimed Booker shortlisted novel Pigeon English and was shortlisted for Lutonian of the Year 2011. He always types out text messages using full words

ACHUKA Books

ACHUKA Books will be an exclusively digital imprint of titles carefully selected by us for publication (under the ACHUKA imprint) on the Kindle store. In simple terms we will be selecting (from submitted material) titles of high quality and varied tone and subject matter and then publishing them to the Kindle Direct Publishing platform. The books will be instantly available as digital downloads and readable on a wide range of devices (not just Kindles) including laptops and smartphones. ACHUKA will promote its titles and grow and nurture our 'list' in a manner very similar to a traditional publisher