Bloomsbury

Rowling snubbed for dubious literary award
November 20, 2012

Has J K Rowling has been "snubbed" by a rather dubious literary award? Rowling's "The Casual Vacancy" is not on the shortlist for the Literary Review's Bad Sex award. The "prize" is given to “draw attention to the crude, badly written, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it."

As per The Bookseller:

The judges said that after a “flood” of nominations they had considered Rowling’s book, but: “ultimately concluded that the book’s sins were venal compared with the competition."

—Brian Howard

 

And so I bid Penguin a sad farewell
October 29, 2012

Champagne corks are not popping in the book world at news of the Penguin-Random House merger. There is no celebrating among competitors or authors, and the atmosphere at Penguin Towers and Random HQ is apparently one of deep gloom. Only the Mergers & Acquisitions lawyers will be happy.

Such mergers of titans are always accompanied by job losses so it’s hardly surprising that employees at Penguin and Random House are worried.

J K Rowling: The Curse of the Publisher's Hype
October 1, 2012

And so, this was it, the publishing event of the century: J K Rowling and the Publisher's Hype. The story had everything. The one million pre-orders. The profile in The New Yorker. The adulation! The vilification! You'd never guess that all Rowling did was write a book.

Reviews of The Casual Vacancy were strictly embargoed until its publication on Thursday, and, in the absence of a book, much of the criticism focused on Rowling's politics, her refusal to give interviews, her giving too many interviews, and the embargo itself.

Bloomsbury launches Indian arm
September 21, 2012

 Bloomsbury is expanding internationally, with the launch of Bloomsbury India today (21st September).

The New Delhi-based company will publish both Indian and international authors, in fiction and non-fiction.

In November 2012, it will release the first Wisden India Cricketers' Almanack 2012, which will be followed in December by Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan by William Dalrymple, whose previous book Nine Lives was a number one bestseller in India, according to the publisher.

idpf's Digital Book 2012 Monday Recap: DRM, Digital Revenue and Data (oh, my!)
June 5, 2012

One of the concurrent conferences under the BookExpo America umbrella, the International Digital Publishing Forum's (idpf) Digital Book 2012 has, for the last two days, tackled the digital reading from a multitude of angles, and with specific emphasis on Business & Marketing, Technology & Production, and Education & Professional.

As we eagerly anticipate Book Business blogger extraordinaire and general man-on-the-scene Eugene G. Schwartz to weigh in with his detailed conference recap and analysis, we'll provide some quick takes from the two-day conference.

Survey of Authors Reveals Widespread Dissastisfaction with Publishing Industry
May 24, 2012

A major survey of professional authors has revealed serious levels of dissatisfaction with traditional publishers. One third of authors report that they were not consulted about marketing plans. Asked about marketing campaigns, 38.7% of authors chose the answer, ‘What marketing campaign? I never noticed one.’ Almost one-half of authors (45.8%) say that their publisher has never asked them for feedback. When asked, ‘With your next book, if some other publisher offered you the same advance as your current one, would you move to the new house or stay where you are?’, just 37.3% of authors chose, ‘I’d stay.’ That

Bloomsbury Acquires Fairchild Books
April 3, 2012

Bloomsbury Publishing has acquired Fairchild Books. This New York-based publisher specializes in textbooks and educational resources on visual arts-related topics such as fashion, merchandising, retailing and interior design. Kathryn Earl will serve as the head of Fairchild Books while Jonathan Glasspool will serve as the managing director. Here's more from the release: "Through its Berg imprint, Bloomsbury has been ex-North American distributor for Fairchild Books since 2006. Growth has been particularly strong in the Indian market, where Bloomsbury has recently announced it is setting up a new subsidiary company. With this acquisition, Bloomsbury will significantly expand its US presence

Bloomsbury Concludes Sale of German Business
March 29, 2012

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing plc (LSE:BMY) has completed the sale of its German subsidiary, Bloomsbury Verlag GmbH, the company announced today. The German publishing business was purchased for EUR2.574m in cash by a subsidiary of Swedish media group Bonnier AB and a strategic publishing partnership in Germany with Piper Verlag, a company in the Bonnier AB Group. In addition to the purchase price Bloomsbury received EUR0.8m for the German language rights in publications from the Bloomsbury trade divisions and a further EUR1.0m for use of the Bloomsbury Berlin and associated brands. These contracts