Iran

Iran is among the top 10 most censored countries, next to Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and China. However, the digital age is creating a new challenge to Iran's censorship apparatus. An increasing number of writers and translators are turning to the internet to publish their work, instead of going through the tormenting line-by-line scrutiny required for print publication. A rise in paper prices has concomitantly driven more readers to buy ebooks. State TV has started labelling digital books as a new threat that should be taken seriously.

“Fair Use” Takes Centre Stage at Google Books Appeal (Paid Content) Businessman Closes Product, Community Enraged! The Death of Tools of Change (Scholarly Kitchen) Smashwords Releases Data from eBook Sales Study (Good e-Reader) The Year of the Bookstore (Kristine Kathryn Rusch) Kindle Daily Deals: Captive in Iran by Maryam Rostampour (and 3 others)  

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As hundreds of thousands of bookworms converge on this capital, Iranian writers are pleading with the government to loosen its grip and allow a banned publisher into the Tehran International Book Fair.

The 10-day book fair, which kicks off Tuesday at the Grand Mosque Mosalla, bills itself as "the most important publishing event in Asia and the Middle East," drawing an average of 550,000 visitors a day. Though most publishers come from the Islamic world, the festival also welcomes Western companies

From AfterDawn: Google co-founder Sergey Brin has said the entertainment industry is “shooting themselves in the foot, or maybe worse than the foot” by trying to push anti-piracy legislation. Brin said the recently killed PIPA and SOPA legislation would have led to the U.S. becoming more like Iran and China, who censor their people. Even [...]

Children’s books may be about finding the kid in all of us, but everyone in the children’s publishing business agrees that they have to grow up when it comes to taking advantage of profitable opportunities. The Internet is clearly not going away, yet with the need to protect children from cyberspace predators, publishers have to go through parents to get through to their young audiences. Once you reach them, however, it can’t hurt to be as multidimensional as possible. Jason Wells, publicity and marketing director for New York-based Harry N. Abrams Inc., says kids are looking for books that are not just self-contained