Because we love to point out how right we are, there is this: In a deal that will substantially increase its presence in the conservative Evangelical market, Simon & Schuster has acquired Howard Publishing for an undisclosed price. S&S Buys Howard Publishing
If one is paying attention, one would realize that religion and sex remain the hottest gotta-have publishing imprints. Today we bring you sex — Avon has entered the erotica market with a new imprint called Avon Red. Give us a moment while we resist an urge to make a bad lipstick joke. Okay, we’re back. In addition to all the other stuff (sex sells! erotica is hot!), there’s an interesting comment in PW’s article, one we’d like to spend a moment on: Following other romance publishers like Kensington, which announced its own erotica-dedicated line called Aphrodisia in October (PW Daily
GalleyCat takes a look at this quarter’s self-publishing success story. In this installment, hard work, perseverance, and, well, a natural link to what is being touted as the hottest movie of the summer lead to success. Kathleen McGowan just happened to be writing about Mary Magdalene and other topics covered by The Da Vinci Code . . .first volume will be republished by Touchstone/Fireside this August, while foreign rights have been sold to Bruna in Holland (in a pre-empt), Editions XO in France, Piemme in Italy, and Damm in Sweden. Walking the Magdalene Line
As you might have suspected, the publishing industry continued to work very hard this week. We anticipate, barring any unforseen circumstances, that this torrid pace of productivity will continue through approximately next Tuesday with a sharp drop-off around Friday and absolutely nothing happening the following Monday. Anything we missed this week, we’ll catch next week. Duty got in the way of duty or something like that. Lagardere to Buy Time Warner Books: As has been widely reported throughout the blogosphere (and, apparently, traditional media), French giant Lagardere (surely there’s an accent or two we’re missing) purchased Time Warner Books. This
Do not think that we are opposed to reading — if we could not read, we would likely go mad. And, yes, we’ve already heard that joke. It wasn’t funny the first million times. Yet we do enjoy these regularly timed “Why Kids Won’t Read” stories, if only because they reinforce the idea that making reading a chore — and one must consider that unlike many of the other subjects studied in school, reading is one that lives on a pleasure activity after the final exams* — turns kids away from the task. But that, you see, is the point:
Far be it for us to name names (Jill), but there are people out there who don’t take the serial comma seriously (Jill). They see it, at best, as something redundant (Jill). They see its omission as a way to raise the blood pressure of perfectly nice people (BS). Some people see its absence as no big deal (Jill). Like we say, we’re too classy to name names. Leaving that third or fourth comma out is failed experiment in reworking the punctuation rules — sort of like new math, whatever that was. Brenda Coulter takes her serial commas seriously. So
In some ways, it’s a natural fit. Like the French, book editors enjoy languorous lunches and batting ideas around. Like the French, some U.S. publishers and editors (viz. l’affaire Frey) seem to have adopted Derrida-esque attitudes toward the nature of truth. The French work 35-hour weeks. Ditto for publishers. France is a one-time giant that, having lost its status in the world, is fighting a rear-guard action against 21st-century capitalism. Check. Das Book: Why German, French, and British companies are devouring American publisher
We encountered a bit of radical and bit of paranoid this morning. Naturally, that intrigued us. A theory that not all books need to be put into book form coupled with the worry that digitizing content might lead to controlling access. How much fun is that? Publishers, someday, you are going to look back at those words and see the beginning of the beginning. Why do all books have to be in printed, bound format/ Especially those books designed to capture the pop personality of the moment? These are not books designed to sit on shelves, to be picked up,
It is probably safe to say that if you haven’t yet heard the word “podcast”, you are not paying attention. If you are not paying attention, do not worry. You’re missing out on lots of other things, too. If you are paying attention, you might be getting antsy, worrying as you did during the blog explosion, if you should be leaping on the bandwagon. If all the cool kids are doing it, shouldn’t you be doing it? As we often do when faced with certain topics, we turn to Jill as an example. We like hanging out with Jill because
Sometimes we look beyond the world of publishing. It’s a surprisingly big planet, all things considered. Yet in all corners of the globe, we find people just like us: An instant later, Mr Flynn’s 6ft, 13st frame was hurtling towards the first of the vases, all of which were displayed on a windowsill. “Although [I knew] the vase would break I didn’t imagine it would be loose and crash into the other two,” he said. “I’m sure I only hit the first one and that must have flown across the windowsill and hit the next one, which then hit the
