2 April 2012 - What's new
- 'The launch of the Harry Pottter books in ebook form last week was described by the Bookseller’s Philip Jones as ‘digital publishing's Beatles moment’. He said ‘These will be huge – they are a game changer because of the power of the Potter brand.’ (The Harry Potter series has sold 450m print copies worldwide to date.)' News Review reports.
- Links to stories of the week Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world: The lost history of Fifty Shades of Grey - Galleycat delves into the origins of E L James's bestselling book as Twilight fan fiction in a fascinating tracking of its origins. What's the greatest fear for publishers, Amazon or piracy? Mike Shatzkin on the wider implications of Pottermore's approach to selling the Harry Potter ebooks.
- Finally we have the winner of this year's Diagram Prize.
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'I think there are probably some writers who are more cine-literate than in the past and there are many who write, thankfully, in a very un-cinematic way. What's also the case is that the market for books into films has increased and the awareness of the possibility of a book being turned into a film is much greater than it used to be. David Heyman, producer of the eight Harry Potter films, in the Bookseller, quoted in our Comment column.
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In Latest changes in the book trade 7 Chris HolifieldManaging director of WritersServices; spent working life in publishing,employed by everything from global corporations to start-ups; track record includes: editorial director of Sphere Books, publishing director of The Bodley Head, publishing director for start-up of upmarket book club, The Softback Preview, editorial director of Britain’s biggest book club group, BCA, and, most recently, deputy MD and publisher of Cassell & Co. She is also currently the Director of the Poetry Book Society; During all of this time aware of problems faced by writers, as publishing changed from idiosyncratic cottage industry, 'occupation for gentlemen', into corporate business of today. Writers encountered increasing difficulty in getting books edited or published. Authors create the books which are the raw material for the whole business. She believes it is time to bring them back to centre stage. looked at the subject of Creative Commons and how these special licenses might transform authors' capacity to the license use of their books for all sorts of purposes. The rest of the series covers Bookselling, Publishing, Print on Demand and the Long Tail, Self-publishing - career suicide or 'really great', Writers' Routes to their audiences and Copyright.
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'The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can't help it.' Leo Rosten in our Writers' Quotes.
