Skip to Content

Internet shopping

Daunt on bookselling

19 March 2018

It's unusual to find a book chain boss who went into bookselling because he liked reading, but James Daunt, founder of Daunts bookshop chain in London, and CEO of the Waterstones chain in the UK, is that rare animal. Encouragingly, he still maintains that: 'Books still work and always will'.  Read more

J K Rowling ditches agent and sells ebooks direct

4 July 2011

Rather to the amazement of the publishing world, J K Rowling, long a bye-word for her loyalty to her agent and publishers, has cut out her publisher Bloomsbury and set up a new site to sell ebook versions of her books direct to her readers.  Read more

'Content is being devalued by technology'

3 May 2010

Mike Shatzkin is well-known in the publishing business on both sides of the pond for his visionary and often uncomfortable views of the future.  Read more

Downloads lead the audio revolution

28 May 2007

Audiobooks are finding a new market amongst the iPod generation. Last week News Review looked at recent developments in audio, including rental, but it is downloads which offer the biggest growth opportunities.  Read more

Amazon goes for broke

1 January 2007

The Christmas figures are not yet out, but it's a racing certainty that customers will once again have flocked to Amazon and further increased its grip on gift sales. Just in the UK, volume purchases from the Internet increased by 151% between 2002 and 2005 and Amazon's international divisions have all been growing fast.  Read more

'Direct, personal communication with potential readers'

21 August 2006

It is getting harder and harder for new authors to find a publisher. The explosion in the number of writers, as shown by the rapid growth in creative writing courses of all kinds, the large number of writing books being published, and the success of sites such as WritersServices, have all demonstrated that there is a huge thirst for publication.  Read more

Now you can download your audiobook

15 May 2006

The audiobook market is set to jump into the new world of downloadable sound to meet the demands of the iPod generation. Audiobook sales have been growing gradually over the years and there are now a great many books available in audio form, mostly the standard three-hour abbreviated version.  Read more

Web sales take off

30 May 2005

Last month figures were released which showed that in the UK internet shopping overtook purchases from mail order catalogues for the first time. Last Christmas web sales in Britain rose by 20% over the previous year to £3 billion. In the US the trend is changing even faster and the comparative figure was 28%.  Read more

Syndicate content

Linked items...

4 January 2021 - What's new

January 2021
  • ‘The thing I like about novels is that they are a more forgiving form. You can make missteps. It's harder to write a really good short story - I'm more aware of the flaws in my short stories.
  Read more

The 2021 International Book and Pamphlet Competition

Information

Closing date: 
1 March 2021
Entry: 
Open internationally. Entry fee £28, £25 to subscribers to The North
Prize: 
Publication by Smith|Doorstop Books; a share of £2,000 cash; a launch reading; publication in the North magazine; book vouchers from Inpress Books

The 2021 International Book & Pamphlet Competition is now open for entries

Judged by Daljit Nagra & Pascale Petit

DEADLINE: last post on Monday 1st March 2021, or midnight on Monday 1st March 2021 for online entrants.

ENTRY FEE: £28, or £25 for North subscribers, Friends of the Poetry Business and members of the Poetry Society.  Read more

'People have many cruel expectations from writers. People expect novelists to live on a hill with three kids and a spouse, people expect children's story writers to never have sex, and people expect all great poets to be dead. And these are all very difficult expectations to fulfill, I think.'

— C. JoyBell C.

'I have to know where I'm going'

4 January 2021

‘When I'm putting together a novel, I leave all the doors and windows open so the characters can come in and just as easily leave. I don't take notes. Once I start writing things down, I feel like I'm nailing the story in place. When I rely on my faulty memory, the pieces are free to move.  Read more

28 December 2020 - What's new

December 2020
  • ‘No one reads your book as closely as a translator does, which is something you learn very quickly. I'm in such awe of them. They also read beneath it and around it. They make me consider things I thought I knew the meaning of because I use those words in everyday dialect and that's how the characters express themselves.
  Read more