So Much for the Granta
Where's Soft Skull headed now that Denise Oswald has taken over for Richard Nash? Over at The Quarterly Conversation I talk to her about the press's future, which, Oswald says, will definitely include translations.
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The End of Oulipo? My book (co-authored with Lauren Elkin), published by Zero Books. Available everywhere. Order it from Amazon, or find it in bookstores nationwide.
Lady Chatterley's Brother. The first ebook in the new TQC Long Essays series,
 called “an exciting new project” by Chad Post of Open Letter and Three Percent. Why can't Nicholson Baker write about sex? And why can Javier Marias? We investigate why porn is a dead end, and why seduction paves the way for the sex writing of the future. Read an excerpt.Available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and direct from this site: Ever wonder what English is missing? Called "a fascinating
 read" by The New Yorker, Translate This Book! brings together over 40 of the top translators, publishers, and authors to tell us what books need to be published in English. Get it on Kindle.
 The Quarterly Convers- |
A group read of the book that either "engenders awe and despair" or "[goads] the reader with obscenity and bigotry," or both. Info here. Buy the book here and support this site.
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Congratulations to the citizens of Utah and Louisiana. You are one step closer to having the power to decide which books are appropriate for minors and which books are not:
Over the weekend I noted the immeasurably sad news that Black Oak Books has become the latest Berkeley institution to be killed by Bush's economy. To be fair, in this case our ongoing economic nightmare was given a big assist by Amazon. As I've discussed ad nauseum on this blog, Amazon's incredibly efficient business model makes it hard for other bookstores to compete on things like price and availability. To the extent that Amazon competes fair and square, however, this is a sad but ultimately completely appropriate part of our economic system. That said, there is at . . . continue reading, and add your comments Barnes and Noble CEO Steve Riggio claims that B&N Recommends is a major factor in sale of books selected for the program:
NYT:
Bryan Gilmer generated some instant publicity for his novel Felonious Jazz by radically discounting the Kindle edition:
Publishers Weekly confirms something I've long suspected: Currently, publishers make as much money on Kindle editions as print editions, since Amazon, the largest e-book retailer, pays the same discount for e-book editions as it does for print—off the same list price, whether bound book or e-book. (An Amazon spokesperson would not comment on the discount issue, but a number of publishers confirmed that Amazon pays the standard discount—which is, with some fluctuation among houses, about 50% off list price—for Kindle editions.) Amazon, which sets the price for everything it sells, is, as many people . . . continue reading, and add your comments The Mail & Guardian reports that U.S. and U.K. publishers bowing beneath recession at home are using the great popularity of English-language books worldwide to sell in other markets: The US market was worth about$24.3-billion in 2008 while sales in Britain were about £3-billion. Last year, book sales by volume in the US dropped 6% on 2007, although in value terms the drop was 2.5%. In Britain the volume of books was down 4% and value down 6%. In contrast, overseas English language markets are booming. India is the world's third largest English language . . . continue reading, and add your comments PW reports on BISG’s Making Information Pay conference. Interesting stuff: The publishing industry, along with the rest of the economy, is being dramatically transformed by the recession, speakers at BISG’s Making Information Pay conference agreed. Trends that were already occurring–moving from a mass market marketplace to a long tail market and going from an industrial-based economy to knowledge-based are accelerating because of the recession, said Leigh Watson Healy, chief analyst at Outsell. While “flat is the new up,” has become a cliché, it is today’s headline, Healy said. And later on: Top threats include free content . . . continue reading, and add your comments It's no secret that newspapes have hastened their own downfall with poor decisions and some ridiculous, even illegal ideas (like massive price collusion). But, they might now be getting into the act. The Wall Street Journal reports that they're exploring a Kindle knock-off designed to read newspapers and magazines:
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The Names by Don DeLillo (1982)
The Box Man by Kobo Abe (1973, English 1974)
Head in Flames by Lance Olsen (2009)
Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk (2006, English 2010)
The Weather Fifteen Years Ago by Wolf Haas (2006, English 2009)
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