Blogs
Publishing's selfie
Bookseller editor Philip Jones on the how Frankfurt can reflect the industry
Tue, 30/09/2014 - 09:20Advanced style
Indie author Polly Courtney on the changing role of author's advances in publishing
Once upon a time, an advance was key to securing the relationship between author and publisher at the start of a lifelong journey. It was an indication of how much the publisher valued their author and how much they were likely to spend down the line. It was also a handy lump sum that prevented an author going hungry while they crafted their masterpiece.
Thu, 25/09/2014 - 14:46Better together
Bookseller editor Philip Jones looks ahead to the BA Conference
Just ahead of the Booksellers Association Conference, which kicks off at Warwick University this Sunday, there are plenty of reasons to feel cheerful. The book trade has just recorded its best week of the year after the arrival of those big titles in advance of Super Thursday next month and the long run up to Christmas has begun. The mood music has also been positive: summer was better than predicted, the general market more robust than expected, and the e-book sector continues to be less vigorous than anticipated.
Fri, 19/09/2014 - 14:20Listen and learn
The Kew Bookshop's Anna Zammit on how bookshops and schools can work together
Earlier this year, Kew Bookshop was faced with an uncertain future following a planning application to redevelop the site that would have seen the retail space double in size, which would have priced the bookshop out of the equation, as well as changing the unique aesthetic of the area.
Thu, 18/09/2014 - 15:31A fair shout for fees
Author and festival organiser Freya North on paying author fees
John McLay, founder of the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature, wrote in The Bookseller that when authors attend a festival, they enter into an unspoken agreement with the festival organisers not to expect a fee. I don’t agree.
Thu, 18/09/2014 - 15:07Another country
Bookseller editor Philip Jones on the Scottish independence referendum
Next week, residents of Scotland will have the opportunity—for the first time in more than 300 years—to decide whether to remain part of the United Kingdom or become an independent nation. The book business is not a disinterested party. A “Yes” vote will have implications for anyone working in the book sector and, as our coverage in recent weeks has shown, the trade is—perhaps rightly—split.
Wed, 17/09/2014 - 14:25A fine balance
Society of Authors chief executive on the balance between authors, publishers and readers
Publishing is the process of getting an author’s thoughts and ideas to the mind of a reader. Book publishing was carried out in the traditional manner for so long that everyone began to believe that publishers, agents, publicists and bookshops were essential to the process. The multiplicity of options brought about by the digital age remind us that there are only two constants in the publishing process – the author and the reader.
Tue, 16/09/2014 - 12:10Shake a legacy
Tim Walker on the impact of the upcoming Booksellers Association conference
As we stand on the cusp of another huge autumn selling season for our trade, I am optimistic, albeit cautiously, for the future. This year, I am honoured to be able to build on the legacy of Books Are My Bag and there are some really exciting plans for BAMB in October. We want to highlight that books are more than just consumer products, they are cultural artefacts; and bookshops are more than just retailers, they are cultural oases at the heart of communities.
Thu, 11/09/2014 - 17:43Fighting talk
Bookseller editor Philip Jones on how the industry will have to fight its corner on copyright
In a “Newsnight” interview thriller writer Lee Child conducted in the middle of August, the bestselling author—and current UK Top 50 number one—was challenged about his view that the e-book market was flattening out.
Mon, 08/09/2014 - 17:27Silly season
Digital Science m.d. Timo Hannay on digital conference, Sci Foo.
What did you do this summer? I spent some of it with a cyborg cockroach. Not to mention some computing devices constructed entirely of Lego, a Nobel Prize-winning cosmologist, the head of the European Human Brain Project, the director of the NASA Ames Research Center, a group of scientists searching for extrasolar life, another group trying to bring back woolly mammoths, the creator of a human-powered helicopter, a microbiologist who takes photos with bioluminescent bacteria, and the founders of Google.
Tue, 02/09/2014 - 11:38Dancing solo
Former MP and author Ann Widdecombe explains why she decided to self-publish her latest novel
My autobiography, Strictly Ann, was in The Times bestseller lists when I told my editor, Alan Samson of Orion, that I was writing a detective novel. He responded enthusiastically but these days it is the sales team which seems to decide the merits of a book and the Orion sales department thought that, having published four novels and an autobiography, a third strand of writing would be difficult to sell.
Illustrating the point
Rachel Rawlings describes how illustration and publishing can go hand in hand
As I sit to write this, I am surrounded by paints and pencils, text books and picture books, drawings and essay notes; in many ways, this jumbled clutter is a fairly accurate representation of me, my academic life in particular.
Wed, 27/08/2014 - 16:16The Renaissance Bookshop
Douglas McCabe looks at how bookshops can stay relevant in the face of Amazon
Given the “perfect storm” that has engulfed UK bookshops in the past 20 years, we should be a good deal more surprised by how many shops have survived—and opened—than by how many have closed.
We hardly need reminding of every challenge that has emerged to feel their restraint in aggregate, particularly for independents threatened by waves of disruption from the rise of the chains, discounting, the intrusion of supermarkets, the coming of Amazon and the e-book explosion.
Wed, 27/08/2014 - 16:06Planning PR
Clare Hall-Craggs on how everyone has to work together to make a book a PR success
Publicity and marketing departments are being crunched with demands from all sides to generate sales, secure columns, tweet all night and run sell-out events. The nature of the job has completely changed. Once, an outdoor campaign would run itself for a fortnight. Now, content plans cover the pre-publication weeks and the post-publication months, with new content needing to be generated, tweaked and probably tweeted about on a daily basis.
Wed, 27/08/2014 - 15:56Author vs author
Agent Orange asks how indie authors will cope when Amazon turns its attention on them.
If we are learning anything from the Amazon/Hachette spat, it is about how divided the global community of authors (inasmuch as there is such a thing) has become. The schism is between the comparatively tiny percentage of successful, published “legacy” authors (Authors United) and the great, largely submerged rump of “self-published” authors.
Fri, 22/08/2014 - 15:00Doors of perception
Bookseller editor Philip Jones on the transition to digital
There is a common perception in the book business that the trade has had a soft transition to digital. An equally common perception outside of the business is that we are all just about to drown in it. As the veteran FT columnist John Kay wrote this week, “publishers are ill-placed for the new environment”, and while “some existing publishers will thrive on the basis of their strengths in author support services . . . most will not”.
Fri, 15/08/2014 - 13:32The golden age
Danny van Emden on choosing age appropriate books for teens
The moment a regular customer switches from prefacing reading queries for their child with “she/he is an awfully advanced reader” to “is the content age appropriate?”, I know that little Hermione or Harry is ready to make the leap from children’s reading to Young Adult.
Here at West End Lane Books in north London, our YA books live on the shelves above their younger cousins, the logic being that after years of browsing your Blytons and Rowlings, our young customers’ gazes will naturally drift upwards sooner or later.
Thu, 07/08/2014 - 16:58Tell your own story
Pluto Press office manager Solomon Lamb on how an independent publisher can tell its own story and connect with readers
Following the recent Foyle’s Great Bookshop Debate, I was hoping to feel reassured about the future of publishers and bookshops that are independent. But this “future” is far from certain. Theories about the demise of print and the bookshop are certainly far-fetched, but the demise of the truly independent bookshops and publishing houses is almost a reality and we need to act with speed and determination if we are going to prevent it.
Wed, 06/08/2014 - 15:53United colours
Bookseller editor Philip Jones on the how authors ad the rest of the book trade can work together
If there is any good to have come out of the bad situation that is the Amazon/Hachette dispute in the US, then it is the growing recognition that authors—as a group—are not bystanders, and they should not be made into victims by disagreements between the super-powers that rule over this trade.
Fri, 01/08/2014 - 13:12Prize fights
Man Booker Prize literary director Ion Trewin on the controversies of this year's prize
Fri, 01/08/2014 - 10:24