Archive
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
Tags
Links
May 2010
20 May 2010
Judge a cover by its book
"When browsing, we rely on a jacket's visual clues to tell us what kind of book we're looking at, and whether we are likely to enjoy it. The importance of this was debated at the Vintage Classics Day at Foyles bookshop last month, and the discussion, though lively and informative, described a depressingly familiar tale of sales over substance. Jonathan Ruppin, a bookseller at Foyles, put the problem in stark relief: on average, book buyers spend just 0.8 seconds looking at a jacket – a phenomenally short sales pitch. Getting it right is vital. The question is, who knows best?"
15 May 2010
The Secret Life of Your Home
"Words were created or adapted to describe all the new room types: study, bedchamber, privy chamber, closet, oratory (for a place of prayer), parlour, withdrawing chamber and library (in a domestic as opposed to institutional sense) all date from the 14th century or a little earlier. Others followed soon after: gallery, tiring (for attiring) chamber, salon or saloon, apartment, lodgings and suite. One new room, a boudoir, literally "a room to sulk in", was from its earliest days associated with sexual intrigue. It is within these new rooms that our domestic history played out; so let us enter the house and begin our tour."
15 May 2010
Literary agent to stand trial for robbing authors
"A literary agent based in North Devon is due to stand trial next year, facing allegations that he stole more than £500,000 from budding authors. According to thisisnorthdevon.co.uk, Robin Price has pleaded not guilty to six counts of theft at an initial hearing at Exeter Crown Court, and was released on bail. The claims go back as far as 1999, and involve sums ranging from £646 to around £293,000 from six different people."
13 May 2010
The Lovereading Book of the Decade
"In February 2010 Lovereading began the search for 'the readers Book of the Decade'.
To begin with Sarah Broadhurst, Lovereading's Editorial guru, chose her 50 favourites from the last 10 years and then it was over to the readers.
The first stage, which attracted nearly 20,000 votes, took the top 50 to a shortlist of ten. Then, in April, the voting reopened to allow readers to choose the overall winner..."
10 May 2010
A Beautiful Mind
Kate Long's engaging description of her grandfather and how he affected her life.
05 May 2010
Steve Wasserman on the Qualities of a Good Literary Agent
"We as a species, are the storytelling animals. That's not going to change. So a literary agent--whether working in the vineyard of fiction or the republic of nonfiction--has to have a nose for a good story, for a writer who will know how to tell that story, and for some sense of the commercial prospect of such a story might bear. The trick--if it is a trick--is to discover such stories that might actually sell well in one's lifetime as well as the author's lifetime."
05 May 2010
Buyers of E-Books Still Like Print Too, Survey Shows
"Owners of Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle are still buying more print-format books than e-books, according to a survey by the Codex Group, a book-market consultancy. Kindle owners bought only 37% of their books in the Kindle format and 50% of their books in print, while iPad owners bought 46% of their books in either Apple’s iBookstore or in the Kindle store, which also allows books to be read on the iPad."