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Welcome
to the Vol. 7, No. 12 December 2009Index (scroll down for stories)
1. Palin launches new book with Interview on Oprah Winfrey Show 1. Palin launches new book with Interview on Oprah Winfrey Show Former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin launched her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, with a pretaped appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Nov. 16, a day before the book was officially released. Audience for the worldwide broadcast of the interview was estimated to be in the hundreds of millions. The scope and depth of the interview included Palin discussing what life has been like for her and her family since she was rocketed into the national spotlight. Before the scheduled appearance on Oprah, Palin spoke on Nov. 7 at a Right to Life event in Milwaukee, Wis. At that appearance, her team mandated that no reporters were allowed. According to CNN, laptops, cell phones, cameras, and anything else that could potentially be used as a recording device were banned from the auditorium. Tickets to the event were $30. Palin reported in financial disclosures made public on Oct. 28 that she received $1.25 million from publisher HarperCollins as a "retainer for book" before she resigned as governor in July. If sales of the book permit her to earn back the advance, she could profit further. Initial press run for the book is 1.5 million copies.
For the former Alaska Governor, the interview with Oprah afforded her the
opportunity to show her doubters that she is intellectually engaged in current
affairs both domestic and international, events that could certainly test her
stature as a world leader. Palin's spokeswoman, Meg Stapleton, commented on the financial disclosure of Palin’s initial $1.25 million advance by saying, "The Governor has complied with Alaska disclosure law by her filing (on Oct. 27). Now, as a private citizen, her business dealings, including her publishing agreement, are confidential." Palin's disclosure report also lists her as owner of "Pie Spy LLC," described as a marketing business. It's referred to as "Services for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities" in the state's corporation database. The address of the business is listed as the office of Thomas Van Flein, Palin's lawyer in Anchorage, . In her final disclosure report, Palin also listed several gifts, including $4,250 in Yankees tickets in June from Rudy Giuliani for herself, her husband and her daughter, Willow. Palin reported receiving $1,664 from evangelist Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse for “airfare to Russian Mission and Marshall” as part of an effort to deliver food aide to the Western Alaska villages last spring. Her husband Todd reported a $2,000 gift from the teen abstinence advocacy group Candie's Foundation for a May trip to New York. Their daughter, Bristol, was a spokesperson for the group. Palin reported that she received $73,000 in salary and $6,370 in per diem during her final months before resigning as governor. Todd Palin reported receiving $34,086 during that time as a production operator for oil giant BP. He also reported $32,260 from his commercial setnet fishing operation in Bristol Bay, under the business name "Todd's Fisheries." Todd Palin also reported $3,500 in winnings from the Iron Dog snowmachine race. He disclosed a $3,252 snowmachine discount from his sponsor, Arctic Cat. 2. Associated Press reviews copy of Palin’s ‘Going Rogue’ The Nov. 17 embargo on the Sarah Palin book was broken easily as the Associated Press purchased an early copy on Nov. 12 and issued a story on the contents widely printed by U.S. Daily newspapers and other news outlets. Among the claims cited in the AP story:
3. Carrie Prejean goes on Larry King to promote book, then won’t talk Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean scheduled an appearance on the “Larry King Live” show on CNN on Nov. 11 to promote the book that was ghost-written for her, then pitched a fit and refused to talk when she didn’t like a King question or the listener call-in that followed. Prejean, who is about as intelligent as a pile of rocks, has been at the center of a number of controversies since her title was taken away, an event she blames on liberal opposition to her belief in Christianity. She threatened to leave the interview with Larry King on Veterans Day, going so far as to remove her mic and sit in silence on her satellite set in Washington. Prejean was on the show to promote her (ghost-written) new book, Still Standing, which she told King was for Americans who believe their beliefs are under attack and was written to address the double standard that she believes conservative women face from liberal media who “get away” with targeting them. After discussing the book’s slant, and whether she disclosed the solo sex tape she’d made as a teenager for her then-boyfriend, the subject turned to why she settled a lawsuit she had filed with the pageant when the issue of religious discrimination was so important to her. Prejean said she was not allowed to speak about the confidential mediation and agreement. King pressed her to explain why she couldn’t talk about her motive for the settlement, and she said he was being “inappropriate.” King then went to a caller, at which point Prejean turned to someone off-camera and whispered “We’re gonna have to leave,” and began removing her mic so she could not hear the caller - a gay pageant fan from Detroit. “I think that you are being extremely inappropriate right now, and I’m about to leave your show,” Prejean said, as King tried to figure out what was happening. She eventually put her mic back on, and he cut to commercial. She said she threatened to leave because she was told she would not be taking calls from viewers – although call-ins are a major part of all Larry King Live shows. Flashing back in time, Prejean spent the eve of losing her Miss California crown talking to Dr. James Dobson about how Satan tried to tempt her with the question about gay marriage at the Miss USA pageant. Prejean told Dobson, “…I felt as though Satan was trying to tempt me in asking me this question. And then God was in my head and in my heart saying, ‘Do not compromise this. You need to stand up for me and you need to share with all these people… you need to witness to them and you need to show that you're not willing to compromise that for this title of Miss USA.’" In another controversy, TMZ revealed how badly she had lied about the topless photos she had allowed. She took not only more than one, but when she was older than 17, despite her claims to the contrary. Web site thedirty.com keeps finding more semi-nude photos of Prejean. The site found old photos of her with alleged hook-up Michael Phelps, whom she supposedly met in Las Vegas. Phelps denied a relationship Here's a sample image of Phelps and Prejean from thedirty.com :
Officials from the Miss California pageant sent a blunt message to Prejean
before she settled the lawsuit filed on her behalf. The production company filed
a cross complaint against Prejean, demanding, among other things, that she
return the $5,200 the pageant fronted her for her breast augmentation (boob
job). In her new "tell-all" book, Prejean dedicates an entire passage to "pornography," writing: "Unfortunately, pornography has become mainstreamed - it rushes at us through big screens, portable screens; soft-core porn is on mainstream TV cable stations, hard-core porn is just a mouse click away on the internet, and the envelope of what seems acceptable seems to get pushed farther and farther as more and more people are exposed to this material. The result is that girls grow up in a culture where it is hard to have an innocent, healthy, normal view of themselves, how they should behave, how they should act, and how they should dress." 4. Agassi reveals that he used crystal meth 'for a year or so' Andre Agassi used crystal meth periodically for "a year or so," the eight-time Grand Slam champion revealed in an interview with People magazine to publicize his forthcoming book. In his upcoming autobiography, Agassi admits he used crystal meth in 1997 and failed a drug test - a result he says was thrown out after he lied by saying he "unwittingly" took the substance. "If you're going to tell your story, you owe it to yourself to tell it honestly," Agassi told the magazine. New excerpts published in advance of the book’s release also reveal Agassi wore a hairpiece that nearly fell off at the 1990 French Open (the tennis star's brother was sent running around Paris to find bobby pins to keep Agassi's disintegrating spiked-mullet weave from coming off his head before the match in the 1990 French Open); became jealous during ex-wife Brooke Shields' appearance on "Friends"; and how Shields put a photo of Steffi Graf - now married to Agassi - on the refrigerator for motivation to get in better shape before their wedding. Agassi also explains how he and Shields begin dating shortly after Christmas 1993 and connected by sharing their experiences with pushy parents. He also reveals that he stormed off the set of "Friends," because he became jealous when Shields had to lick actor Matt LeBlanc's hand. "Have some more hand. I'm out of here," wrote Agassi, who said he consulted Shields on the book.
5. NPR gives Kingsolver’s 'The Lacuna' less than stellar review According to Maureen Corrigan of National Public Radio, Barbara Kingsolver’s first new novel in nine years, The Lacuna, “feels altogether vacant.” Prepublication interest in the book was unusually fierce for a work of literary fiction. Wal-Mart, Amazon and Target engaged in a price war against booksellers over the blockbuster fall/early winter releases, including the Kingsolver book. Almost all of the blockbuster books in question are works of genre fiction - suspense and horror stories by the likes of James Patterson, Stephen King, Dean Koontz and John Grisham. The Lacuna is the only literary novel caught in the sales skirmish. According to Corrigan, “Kingsolver deserves kudos, if only because she seems to be single-handedly keeping consumer zest alive for the literary novel. I wish I could say she also deserves kudos for writing a spectacular work of fiction, but to tell you the truth, it's just - at best - so-so.” "Lacuna" refers to a gap or something that's absent. The thing missing from the book, says critic Corrigan, is an engaging main character. The book’s hero, Harrison Shepherd, is an accidental onlooker to history buffeted by other people's plans and passions. The novel’s passive protagonist, Harrison, is born in the U.S. to a Mexican mother who is eternally on the prowl for a richer husband. In 1929, when Harrison is 12 years old, his mother snags a big Mexican landowner, and she takes her son to live on her lover's estate. Adrift, Harrison spends his days swimming and learning how to cook. When he runs into the artist Frida Kahlo at the local market, Harrison goes home with her and puts his dough-rolling skills to use by mixing plaster for Kahlo's husband, the muralist Diego Rivera. Eventually, Lev "Leon" Trotsky moves into the household, and Harrison becomes his secretary as well as a witness to Trotsky's assassination by one of Stalin's agents. Later, as a young adult living back in the States, Harrison is targeted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities because of his past association with revolutionaries. Harrison keeps a diary of all this, which is published posthumously and composes the novel. 6. Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi denies sex scandal in new book Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi caused a buzz all over Italy with the October release of a new book about him. Excerpts from Donne di Cuori (Queens of Hearts), written by Italian journalist Bruno Vespa, appeared in Italian papers, making headlines with Berlusconi's comments on the sex scandal that led his wife to seek a divorce. Vespa is the host of Italy’s most popular TV talk show, "Porta a Porta," on which Berlusconi often appears. It was on that show that Berlusconi first talked about his alleged affair with an 18-year-old and how it had affected his marriage. "I've never had a relationship with her," Berlusconi says of the teenage Neapolitan model, Noemi Letizia. "It is only slander." The billionaire media mogul has said the Italian media are the reason his second wife and mother of three of his five children, Veronica Lario, asked him for a divorce. Lario cited Berlusconi's attendance at a birthday party for the 18-year-old, as the reason for seeking a divorce. Berlusconi, Italy's longest-serving prime minister, told CNN that his friendship with the young woman and her family were "relationships which have a right to privacy." Lario also accused Berlusconi of choosing starlets and showgirls as European parliament candidates and of consorting with young women. About those female parliamentary candidates, Berlusconi says in the book he chose "only women with a career profile that was of morally, intellectually, and culturally high standards." There have also been widely reported allegations that Berlusconi went to parties with paid “escorts.” The book's author interviewed Gianpaolo Tarantini, the businessman accused of hiring the escorts. He said the premier never knew who the girls really were. "That those girls were escorts, Silvio Berlusconi didn't know," Tarantini says in the book. "The president was in the dark about everything. It was the farthest thing in his mind to think that I could pay the girls." The scandals have done little damage to Berlusconi's political standing in Italy. Polls have shown his popularity has dipped only slightly, mostly among women, since the scandals broke in the spring. Berlusconi, who controls almost half of Italy's television stations, was elected in 2008 to his third term. 7. Breaking news from the book barons A recent mediaIDEAS report forecasts that six million e-paper display-based e-readers will be sold in 2010. That’s nearly six times the 1.1 million sold in 2008. By 2020, the report predicts, global annual e-reader sales will reach 446 million units with a value of more than $25 billion. Another study, by research company DisplaySearch, says that e-paper display revenues will reach $9.6 billion by 2018. The book business currently generates about $32 billion in revenues annually… Thomas Nelson Fiction has announced a new line of “first novels” available for a short time exclusively through Christian-retail accounts at $2.99 each. Billed as an ideal way to sample an author, each of the selections is the first in a bestselling series - titles that typically retail for $14.99. The first four in the promotion are: Chosen by Ted Dekker, Surrender Bay by Denise Hunter, Without a Trace by Colleen Coble and Plain Perfect by Beth Wiseman. Four more titles will release in March 2010. 8. Price war between Walmart, Amazon may bode ill for book business The price war over books that broke out in October between Walmart.com and Amazon.com bodes ill for publishers and bookstores On Oct. 15, Walmart.com dropped the price on their top 10 online pre-order titles to an even $10, with free shipping included. More broadly, Walmart is offering their top 200 books at discounts of 50 percent or more in a program called America's Reading List. Titles in the “Top 10” included:
Going Rogue: An American Life
by Sarah Palin If there is any doubt that Walmart was declaring war on Amazon, Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazuez told the Wall Street Journal, "If there is going to be a 'Wal-Mart of the Web,’ it is going to be Walmart.com."
Next to enter the fray was Target Stores, which slashed the prices of seven
highly anticipated books available for pre-order on its website" to $8.99.
Wal-Mart, to undercut Target, lowered the price of several of the books on its
website by a penny to $8.98." "If readers come to believe that the value of a new book is $10, publishing as we know it is over," said David Gernert, John Grisham's agent, in the New York Times. "If you can buy Stephen King's new novel or John Grisham's Ford County for $10, why would you buy a brilliant first novel for $25? "
A few days after the price war broke out, Wal-Mart, Amazon and Target began
rationing the number of copies customers can buy of the deeply-discounted
best-sellers. "The limits will stop other booksellers from scooping up cheap
copies in large quantities and reselling them," the Wall Street Journal
noted. For online customers, Wal-Mart's limit is "two copies each of certain
bargain books," while Amazon has a three-copy maximum and Target a five-copy
limit. Best-selling author John Grisham, whose books have sold more than 250 million books around the world, is among the authors worried about the future of the printed word in the wake of deep discounting of best-sellers by major retailers and the advent of e-book readers like Amazon’s Kindle. Grisham’s latest book, Ford County, a collection of short stories, is among those being deep-discounted at Amazon.com, and it is also deeply discounted at Wal-Mart and Target as part of the price war. “Truthfully it doesn’t affect me - in the short term,” Grisham told Matt Lauer on “Today.” “But it’s a disaster in the long term.”
9. ABA asks Justice Department to look into bookselling price wars The board of the American Booksllers Association has written to the U.S. Department of Justice asking for a meeting to the discuss the deep-discounting of high profile books. ABA suggests in the letter that the price wars constitute “illegal predatory pricing that is damaging to the book industry and harmful to consumers.... We believe that Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target are using these predatory pricing practices to attempt to win control of the market for hardcover bestsellers."
ABA blames Amazon for starting it all with e-books, and notes "we believe the
loss-leader pricing of digital content also bears scrutiny." Wal-Mart is blocking Wisconsin orders by sending a note stating "This order cannot be shipped to the address you entered due to state restrictions," while Target's corporate office in Minneapolis told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that book orders from Wisconsin for below-cost titles won't be honored. Amazon, however, was accepting orders from Wisconsin. 10. News about bookstores, publishing, marketing and promotion After closing 35 to 40 B. Dalton stores annually for years, Barnes & Noble is preparing to shutter the last remaining group of 50 Dalton outlets. "These are small-format, low-volume stores in malls and their leases are expiring," according to spokesperson Carolyn Brown. All but two B. Dalton stores will be closed within the next few months. The last B. Dalton survivors, located in Washington, D.C., and Roosevelt Field, Long Island, will only remain open until their leases expire. 11. CBA president steps down, and board chairman follows suit CBA President and CEO Bill Anderson stepped down from his position on Oct. 30.
Anderson joined CBA, formerly the Christian Booksellers Association, in 1978
from Moody Publishing as the association's first full-time convention manager.
He became president in October 1985.
The CBA board under the leadership of Chair-Elect George Thomsen, along with the
board executive committee and the staff leadership team, will continue the work
of the association. 12. HP will offer print versions of 500,000 out-of-copyright titles Hewlett-Packard is stepping up its out-of-print book publishing business. The company announced that it has teamed with the University of Michigan to offer print versions of more than 500,000 out-of-copyright books in the school's library. HP, based in Palo Alto, Calif., said it will make high-quality print copies from high resolution scans of books in the university collection. "People around the world still value reading books in print," said Andrew Bolwell, HP director for new business initiatives. The books will be available for purchase through online retail giant Amazon and other outlets including HP's BookPrep.com, which already offers public domain volumes for print-on-demand and purchase. HP said it is "collaborating with the university to eliminate barriers and increase access to content as part of an ongoing effort to make the concept of 'out of print' a thing of the past." Paul Courant, dean of libraries at the University of Michigan, said the partnership with HP is part of an effort to "provide broad access to works that have previously been hard to find outside the walls of our library." Google, which is making digital copies of millions of books, announced its own partnership last month with On Demand Books, the company behind the Espresso book-printing machine. On Demand is offering more than two million books in the public domain to be turned into instant paperbacks via Espresso.
13. Florida publisher enlists Kirk Cameron to promote Darwin critique Former child actor Kirk Cameron is partnering with an Alachua, Fla., publisher to distribute altered copies of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species to university students across the country in November. Cameron, best known for his role in the 1980s sitcom “Growing Pains,” announced in a September YouTube video his plans to distribute the book with Living Waters Ministry at the 100 top U.S. universities. The special edition will include a 50-page introduction by author, minister and evangelist Ray Comfort that discusses the history of evolution, Darwin’s life and how his ideas have been used to support racism, misogyny and Nazism.
The books, more than 150,000 copies of which have been printed to date, are
being published by Bridge-Logos Pu Cameron and Comfort’s Christian reality show, “The Way of the Master,” is in its fourth season on Trinity Broadcasting Network. Lloyd Hildebrand, Bridge-Logos CEO, said that Comfort has a long history with the company. His other titles include God Doesn’t Believe in Atheists, How to Win Souls & Influence People and Intelligent Design vs. Evolution. Cameron recently defended the plan in People magazine, saying, “Atheism has been on the rise for years now, and the Bible of the atheists is The Origin of Species. We have a situation in our country where young people are entering college with a belief in God and exiting with that faith being stripped and shredded. What we want to do is have students make an informed, educated decision before they chuck their faith.” This year (2009) marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin. In 1960, biologist Sir Julian Huxley predicted the death of religion, which spurred a counter-movement. The Genesis Flood by John C. Whitcomb was published a year later, and is considered the start of the modern evangelical movement. While Cameron is not a credible source on evolution, he is being held up as a spokesperson for the evangelical movement. 14. Books to Movies Department Release of the movie version of Where the Wild Things Are in October boosted Maurice Sendak's 46-year-old children's picture book up to No. 9 on the USA Today best-seller list. The story of a mischievous boy who becomes king of a band of wild and furry creatures has sold more than 10 million copies. To exploit the buzz, Sendak's publisher launched a "Read It Before You See It" Web site at Harpercollinschildrens.com/wildthings, in cooperation with Warner Bros. Dave Eggers, who co-wrote the screenplay with director Spike Jonze, has written The Wild Things, which he calls an "expanded novel for readers of all ages."… “New Moon,” the second movie based on Stephenie Meyer's best-selling Twilight series, hits theaters on Nov. 20. Meanwhile, fans are gobbling up copies of New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion. Twilight journals and a movie tie-in board game went on sale in mid-October. 15. How bad is it – and what is the book business doing to cope? In August, net book sales rose 0.9 percent to $1.55 billion as reported by 91 publishers to the Association of American Publishers. For the year to date, net book sales are up two percent to $6.837 billion. E-book sales soared 189.1 percent to $14.4 million… Sales continued to drop at HarperCollins for the fifth consecutive quarter, but the rate of the decline has abated, sliding only $5 million in the third quarter 2009 (Harper’s first fiscal quarter) to $310 million. The company cites "higher sales at the children's and general books divisions, as well as reduced operating expenses from restructuring efforts in the prior year" as the major positive factors. 16. The publishing revolution: News of e-books and other new media Publishing house Macmillan, which owns imprints including Farrar Straus & Giroux and St. Martin’s Press, is using a new contract with authors that gives them a standard royalty rate of 20 percent of net proceeds on e-book sales, a rate that is five percent lower than most other mainstream publishers. According to a story in the New York Times by Motoko Rich, Macmillan has sent a letter to agents stating that a new standard contract sets a “single royalty rate, based on the amount received by the Publisher” for “all exploitation of the content of the book in digital form.” Macmillan will pay authors 20 percent of the proceeds it receives from retailers for each book, generally half of the list price of a book. Other publishers, including Random House and Simon & Schuster, pay authors 25 percent of net receipts on e-books. Agent Richard Curtis, who first reported the new Macmillan contract on his blog, owns an e-book publishing company, e-reads, that gives authors a 50–50 split on net receipts.... All told, about 1.2 million e-readers are expected to be sold in the last three months of 2009. By the end of 2010, industry experts predict, 10 million people will be carrying e-readers. According to Bowker, the average price of an e-book this year is $8.30. The average cost of a hardcover book is $14.55… LCD panel maker AUO aims to ship one to two million e-book reader panels in 2010, taking as much as almost one third of the global market for the segment, with total projected global shipments at six to seven million units… Members of the Association of American Publishers report that sales of electronic books by members jumped 68.4 percent last year and skyrocketed 177 percent to $96.6 million for the year 2009 through August. However, that represents only 1.5 percent of the $6.8 billion in AAP member sales this year, about on par with audiobooks. Overall book sales in 2009 are estimated at $32 billion, with AAP members accounting for about 21 percent of that… The specific technology that has led to the boom in new e-reader models is E-Ink. Most of the new e-readers use this technology or something similar. E-Ink is not a perfect technology by any stretch, but for better or worse, it is bringing the linear, written word into the digital world. Among the drawbacks of the technology: The devices are highly non-interactive, mainly designed for passive reading of text; They only offer grayscale viewing of text and images, but this may change soon as e-Ink is rumored to have color screen technology in their labs and other readers may use color non- e-Ink screens; they don't integrate or play well with other media and are not well integrated into the web yet; they are specialized devices that basically do only one thing... Stephen King publisher Scribner, a Simon & Schuster imprint, has announced that it will not issue the e-book version of the author’s forthcoming new hardcover Under the Dome, set for release on Nov. 10 at $35.00, until Dec. 24. Speculation is that the e-book version may be priced at parity with the hardcover… In addition to selling the Nook e-book reader (see story below), Barnes & Noble will be selling the QUE proReader from Plastic Logic in its stores and on its website after the device is introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 7, the retailer said. The QUE is 8.5 x 11 inches and about 1/3 inch thick. The device offers access to a range of documents, including more than a million e-books available through the QUE store, powered by Barnes & Noble. The device is being positioned by Plastic Logic as "the first e-reader designed to support the lifestyle of modern business professionals." An earlier partnership between the two companies had arranged for Barnes & Noble to support QUE's online store. Under the new agreement, QUE will be sold in Barnes & Noble stores nationwide, displayed near the retailer's own new device, the Nook e-reader, as well as via BN.com.
17. AAP statistics understate e-book sales According to the Association of American Publishers (AAP), , e-book sales grew at a compound annual rate of 58 percent between 2002 and 2008, compared to a 1.6 percent compound growth rate for the overall book industry. In July 2009, the most recent data reported by the AAP, e-book sales increased 214 percent. Yet despite this growth, according to AAP, e-books accounted for only one percent of book sales. However, AAP statistics underestimate the overall market share for e-books. AAP collects its data from a handful of large publishers. Thousands of smaller independent publishers, as well as self-published authors, don't report data to AAP. Consumer purchase surveys provide more perspective. Bowker's PubTrack consumer survey reported e-books accounted for 2.4 percent of book sales in the first quarter of 2009, up from 0.6 percent for all of 2008. In July, Motoko Rich, who covers the book beat for the New York Times, referenced a Codex Group survey that stated e-books reached 4.9 percent of book sales in May 2009. 18. B&N introduces Nook E-Reader Barnes & Noble has introduced a new electronic book reader, the Nook, which has a color touch-screen at the bottom and a larger grayscale screen for reading. The price of the units, scheduled to go on sale in late November, is $259.
The Nook includes a wireless connection to download books from the B&N online
e-bookstore, and an e-paper display from E-Ink Corp. that is separate from the
color controls.
Nook owners who go to a Barnes & Noble store will get sent preview chap B&N is talking to publishers about physical and e-book bundles, which are easier to execute within a store. An oversized front-of-store promotional kiosk will market the Nook to B&N shoppers.
The device will only be sold in Barnes & Noble stores and at their site. 19. Spring Design announces Google Android-based e-book reader, Spring Design has announced Alex, the first e-book reader based on Google Android, featuring full browser capabilities and patented dual screen interaction technology, the Duet Navigator. Alex’s dual-screen display design brings together the efficiency of reading on a monochrome EPD (electronic paper display) screen while dynamic hyperlinked multimedia information and third party input on its secondary color LCD screen, actually an integrated Android mobile device, opens a rich world of Internet content to support the text on the main screen. Alex is the first Google Android-based e-book device to provide full Internet browsing over Wi-Fi or mobile networks such as 3G, EVDO/CDMA and GSM. With its dual-screen, multi-access capability, it provides the entire Web universe as a handy reference library. Alex’s removable SD card gives users extensive storage, allowing them to expand their text with multimedia "add on" editions. Users can create their own images and notes and capture them to augment the original text or just dynamically grab relevant content with Link Notes, Alex`s innovative multimedia authoring tool to enhance multimedia publishing. Alex features a six-inch E-Ink EPD display and 3.5-inch color LCD display, earphones and speakers. The enhanced Android OS is optimized to support integration between the color and monochrome displays while preserving battery life. Users can capture and cache web content on the LCD screen, and toggle to view it on the EPD screen without taxing the battery life. Browser features such as bookmarking, history and security settings are built in, and the device, with full Android browsing capability, is mobile-enabled with smart phone capabilities. 20. Jason Boog to head digital publishing seminars at MediaBistro Jason Boog has been promoted to the new position of editor of Mediabistro Publishing. Mediabistro Publishing, a new entity, will focus on offering digital publishing training Mediabistro already offers classes to journalists and wannabes, and now will create a similar set of classes for publishing professionals and authors, including training in how to format digital offerings for the Kindle and a class on iPhone apps. In the immediate future, Boog will be coordinating the company's e-book summit set for Dec. 16-18 in New York. He'll also keep doing his Mediabistro podcast.
21. Library use of e-books reviewed in Learned Publishing The October 2009 issue of Learned Publishing reviews a report entitled “Library Use of E-books: 2008-2009 Edition” published by Primary Research. Respondents were primarily from academic libraries in the U.S., although some foreign librarians and non-academic librarians participated. Here are a few of the findings that are Included in the article: Respondents: 77 percent were college or university librarians (as opposed to 23 percent public or special librarians); and 78 percent of them worked in the U.S. (as opposed to 22 percent non-U.S. librarians). Librarians with the biggest budgets (of $4 million or more) increased their expenditure on e-books much more in 2006-2007, when the average increase was 35 percent, than in 2007-2008, when the average increase was 14.2 percent. Even more markedly, librarians with budgets of between $1.5 and $4 million increased their expenditure on e-books by an average of 53.3 percent between 2006-2007, but by an average of just 7.4 percent between 2007 and 2008. Of the sample featured in the report, half had a NetLibrary contract, 34 percent used Gale Reference Library, 27 percent used Ebrary and 17.6 percent used Safari. Institutions with budgets of over $4 million were seven times more likely to subscribe to Safari than others. The libraries in the sample were relatively loyal to their e-book platform providers. On average, 77 percent expected to renew current contracts (with 83 percent of academic librarians expecting to do so, and 61 percent of special/public librarians). Seventy percent of the total spending on e-books in the sample was with aggregators; 24.6 percent was with individual publishers (the remaining 5.4 percent is not accounted for). The libraries in the sample spent a mean of $3,760 on e-books in the last year. By comparison, median ARL library expenditure on print monographs in 2007 was a little over $2 million. Well over 81 percent of the sample cataloged their e-book collection and listed it in their online library catalog. For the most part, librarians in the sample felt that their patrons were less skilled in using e-book collections than they were in using databases of magazine, newspaper and journal articles. Many libraries reported significant use of electronic directories. Use of e-books in the hard sciences was particularly high. More than 30 percent of participants said that use of e-books in the hard sciences defined as chemistry, physics and biology was quite extensive and another 26 percent noted significant use. Libraries in the sample maintained a print version for a mean of 24 percent of the e-books in their e-book collections. Nearly 21 percent of the libraries in the sample have digitized out-of-copyright books in their collections in order to make their contents more available to their patrons. E-books account for only about 3.9 percent of the books on course reserve, with a minimum of 0 to a maximum of 30 percent. Nearly 70 percent of the sample’s total spending on e-books was with aggregators, while just over 24.6 percent of the total spending was spent with individual publishers. 22. Open Road to focus almost exclusively on digital books Open Road Integrated Media, a new business venture created by Jane Friedman, former HarperCollins president and CEO, and film producer Jeffrey Sharp, will focus almost exclusively on digital publishing.
The company will republish old titles by big-name authors including William
Styron, Iris Murdoch and Pat Conroy in electronic form, according to the New
York Times. The company will also seek new authors willing to be published
in the electronic format first."
International users of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader "will be paying
significantly more to buy books than their American counterparts," according to
UK newspaper The Guardian. An Amazon.co.uk spokesman revealed that
foreign customers - including those in Britain - will pay$13.99 (£8.75) per book
instead of the American price of $9.99 (£6.25). 24. LibreDigital showcases its e-book technology at Texas Book Festival LibreDigital, Inc., showcased its AllAccess content delivery platform, which allows publishers, resellers and authors to give readers access to e-books on any device, at the Texas Book Festival in Austin. The festival, which annually attracts more than 200 authors and more than 35,000 book lovers, was held Oct. 31-Nov. 1. AllAccess technology was the focus of one of the first panels at the Texas Book Festival. The discussion titled: "Are Books Dead?" took place on Oct. 31 in the Texas State Capitol House Chamber. Joining the panel were Allen Weiner Gartner; Kana Shae, Books on Board, the nation’s largest independent eBook store; and the founder of the Internet eLibrary and Senior Editor at MediaBistro, Ron Hogan. Bob Carlton of LibreDigital moderated the panel. "When consumers purchase e-books, they want options to be able to read them on the device of their choice - whether it`s an eReader, computer or mobile phone," said Russell P. Reeder, president and CEO of LibreDigital, Inc. The LibreDigital AllAccess technology enables book publishers, resellers and authors to deliver eBooks for download on popular devices, including, eReaders from Barnes & Noble, Sony and Amazon, and smart phones like the Blackberry and iPhone. With LibreDigital, consumers also benefit by not having to worry about different formats and displays required for each device since the technology is designed to ensure a high-quality experience on any size screen. The Texas Book Festival made previews of many of the works featured at this year`s festival available for download using the LibreDigital AllAccess technology. LibreDigital is working with six of the world`s top 10 book publishers, including HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette Book Group and Simon & Schuster, and many leading newspapers. The LibreDigital BookBrowse feature allows authors and publishers to determine which portions of a book can be previewed online. The new LibreDigital AllAccess platform enables book publishers, resellers and authors to deliver eBooks for any reading device. Founded in 1995 by Laura Bush and a group of interested volunteers, the Texas Book Festival occurs annually on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol.
25. Books in bad taste: debate erupts over sadism in crime fiction The debate began on the other side of the pond, when The Observer headlined a story “Sexist violence sickens crime critic.” The drop-head blurb explained, “Leading novelist says graphic depictions of sadistic misogyny have become so extreme she refuses to review some new fiction.” What happens to the female characters in crime fiction - how they are tortured and how they die - are now matters of debate, especially since it’s often the female fiction writers who commit the most atrocities on members of their own sex. The article in the The Observer by Amelia Hill begins: “Crime fiction has become so violently and graphically anti-women that one of the country’s leading crime writers and critics is refusing to review some violent new books. Jessica Mann, an award-winning author who reviews crime fiction for the Literary Review, has said that an increasing proportion of the books she is sent to review feature male perpetrators and female victims in situations of ‘sadistic misogyny.’ Each psychopath is more sadistic than the last and his victims’ sufferings are described in detail that becomes ever more explicit, as young women are imprisoned, bound, gagged, strung up or tied down, raped, sliced, burned, blinded, beaten, eaten, starved, suffocated, stabbed, boiled or buried alive.” “Authors must be free to write and publishers to publish. But critics must be free to say they have had enough. So however many more outpourings of sadistic misogyny are crammed on to the bandwagon, no more of them will be reviewed by me,” said Mann, who has written her own bestselling series of crime novels and a non-fiction book about female crime writers. She said that when a female corpse recently appeared on the jacket of a crime-writing colleague’s new book, the author pointed out to her publisher that the victim in the story was actually a man. Mann said the publisher replied: “Never mind that. Dead, brutalized women sell books, dead men don’t. Nor do dead children or geriatrics.” The debate has since spread to this side of the Atlantic as blogger Kate Harding notes in salon.com, “Dead, brutalized women sell books and bored, desensitized readers buy them, for lack of anything fresher.” 26. News about self-publishing and vanity presses: Thomas Nelson creates imprint for authors who pay to publish Thomas Nelson Inc. in a joint venture with vanity press Author Solutions Inc. is launching WestBow Press, "an imprint whose books will be designed, published and distributed by WestBow Press. Nelson will monitor WestBow Press titles for the purpose of entering into traditional publishing contracts for titles that perform well. “At Thomas Nelson, our purpose is to ‘Inspire the World,’” said Michael Hyatt, Thomas Nelson CEO. “With the creation of WestBow Press, we will be able to help more authors realize their dream of being a published author while discovering more diamonds in the rough to add to our roster.” ASI will manage WestBow Press on behalf of Thomas Nelson, and be responsible for selling and delivering an array of publishing, marketing, and book-selling services unique to WestBow Press.
Although the company's editors won't be editing manuscripts, "they will monitor
sales to identify potential big sellers." Pete Nikolai, director of backlist development and publishing process at Nelson, described WestBow Press is a partnership between Thomas Nelson and Author Solutions Inc. Author Solutions manages the brand, and Thomas Nelson receives a portion of revenues generated by the service, he said Nikolai said 21 people initially signed up to publish with WestBow. Self-published authors hoping to make a splash would probably need to pay at least $2,800, Nikolai said. In some cases, authors whose books perform well eventually could be offered a traditional book contract. Among the first to sign up was retired Murfreesboro, Tenn., pastor William D. Gainey. "I think it's a good opportunity," said Gainey, who also stated that God encouraged him to sign up with WestBow Press. Gainey paid about $2,300 to publish his book, Doorways to Greater Faith. Gainey, 77, said his goal is to spread the gospel. The WestBow Pro Format package, in which the author gets one complimentary copy of the trade paperback book, starts at $1,799 and the book gets a listing in the “exclusive WestBow Press Catalog.” According to the West Bow Press site, the Pro Format Package also includes: Trade paperback binding (b&w interior, color cover); interior book design and page layout; standard cover design including personalized back cover; ISBN; channel distribution to 25,000 retailers worldwide; sold on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com; personalized WestBow Press Bookstore detail page; e-Book format for Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader; copyright registration; Library of Congress control number; 10 image insertions/text treatments; 20 Free paperback copies; 10 free hardcover copies (hardcover option costs extra); Barnes & Noble See Inside the Book; Google and Amazon Search Program; volume discounts; one-on-one author support; non-exclusive contract; ultra fast, on-demand printing; retain rights to materials; Full-control of design and content; book representatives working to sell to Christian book buyers; included in WestBow Press Catalog. 27. LifeWay sat down in vanity press pew ahead of Thomas Nelson Thomas Nelson is not the first Christian publisher to exploit the vanity press market. LifeWay launched its own self-publishing division called CrossBooks Publishing in May, seeking Christian book authors with everything from Bible commentaries to children's fiction. The division, which prints on-demand, has since then worked with more than 100 authors. "The book publishing business is going through a challenging period in which creative new relationships between authors and publishers are gaining favor," Thom S. Rainer, LifeWay's president and CEO, told the Nashville Tennessean. Other niche publishers such as FaithWords and Howard Books said they aren't interested in launching self-publishing services of their own. Rolf Zettersten, publisher of FaithWords, said that his goal is to create national best-sellers and that offering self-publishing services would "blur our focus." Few self-published authors end up hitting the big time. In August, Greg Schroeder self-published his book, Discover Your Incredible Life -Just Like Mine: Celebrate Your Abundance using Outskirts Press, a vanity press based in Colorado. He has since sold about 200 copies. "My warning to anyone considering a self-publisher (is): Remember they are in the business to make money," Schroeder told the Tennessean 28. Marketing books: what works and what doesn’t Glenn Beck, the Fox TV and radio host, has had some 40 thriller writers on his shows during the past five years, notes Motoko Rich of the New York Times. His guests have included David Baldacci, Nelson DeMille and James Patterson. In every case, Beck offers enthusiastic reviews of the titles. Beck's radio show draws nine million listeners and his TV show has 2.7 million viewers… Host-a-Jewish-Book-Author.com, a website with information on authors of Jewish-themed books worldwide, has been acquired by the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity. The site was launched in late 2007 by literary agent Anna Olswanger of Liza Dawson Associates and is designed to make it easy for bookstores, libraries and other organizations to arrange programs with authors, especially around the Jewish holidays.
29. Why typical publisher contracts prohibit advertising in books J.A. Konrath, who has published both commercially and Independently, thinks that all e-books will someday be free to consumers because ads will be placed within the content to support publication. The ads will generate the revenue, while readers reap the benefit of free books. Only time will tell if Konrath, who has graced these pages in the past in connection with his author tours to promote his books, proves correct. But one major stumbling block stands in the way of books carrying advertising as do magazines, newspapers and other media. Most modern publishing contracts state that publishers may not sell advertising with their books. That restriction appeared in the early 1970s, when cigarette companies started buying insert ads in paperbacks. Lorillard Tobacco started its program in August 1971 with 12 million inserts spread over 156 titles. Authors objected. In time, advertising restrictions became standard clauses in publishing contracts. Inclusion of advertising in an author’s work would likely fall under subsidiary rights in the contract. With a reputable publisher, the author's worst-case split of subsidiary rights is 50-50. Contracts where advertising is allowed usually mention that as the split. A 50-50 split is less profitable for a publisher than the current revenue split of e-book revenue, which is closer to 75-25 in the publisher's favor – or 80-20 in the recent case of Macmillan. 30. Study finds previewing book chapters increases sales
At the Frankfurt Book Fair, LibreDigital presented new data on how readers have
sampled book content online over the past 18 months. According to LibreDigital,
it has powered more than 500 million page views of sample book chapters and
content for publishers, authors, retailers and social-networking sites. 31. Milestones: Records and news of note in book publishing A new report that includes data from Bowker’s PubTrack Consumer Survey and BML's Books & Consumer Survey found that 57 percent of British consumers purchased one or more books last year, compared with only 50 percent of Americans. American buyers tended to enjoy romance and mystery titles most, with these genres accounting for 57 percent of all fiction books bought, whereas it makes up just 31 percent in Britain. The report also found that bookstores accounted for 34 percent of British purchases, while the Internet ranked first as the book source of choice for Americans. 32. Harlequin launches digital-only Carina imprint
Much of romance publisher Harlequin’s catalog is available for digital download
in multiple formats, so fans of steamy bodice-ripping novels can access all they
want on their Kindles, iPhones, and netbooks, without worrying that particular
titles will disappear from bookstores when the next month's titles arrive.
Carina is not the first digital-only publisher. A much-hyped startup, Quartet
Press, disbanded in September before ever publishing a title. Jane Friedman,
former CEO at News Corp.'s HarperCollins, has moved into digital-only publishing
with her new company, Open Road Integrated Media, but won't bring out any
e-books until next year.
The last time a major house tried the digital-only route, TimeWarner's iPublish,
an imprint of WarnerBooks (now Grand Central Publishing, sold to Lagardere for
its Hachette Book Group USA in 2006), only lasted from mid-2000 to late 2001.
Random House's digital imprint AtRandom was even more short-lived - it was
around only between January and November 2001. Angela James, who has been named as Carina's new executive editor, is a digital-publishing veteran. 33. One in 10 adult book buyers read comic books, Simba study finds Simba Information, which this year published "Overview of the U.S. Comic Book and Graphic Novel Market," continued the analysis in its monthly periodical, Book Publishing Report, which reveals that one in 10 adult book buyers read comics and 70 percent of those adults who have read comics in the previous 12 months also bought at least one book. Nearly overlooked for decades, the burgeoning market for graphic novels and comic books has led retailers to pause and address the industry in new light. But while the oft-misunderstood niche has made strides, media industry forecast and analysis firm Simba Information's report, "Overview of the U.S. Comic Book and Graphic Novel Market," informs publishers and retailers alike that properly utilizing the segment requires finesse. "Graphic novels are unlike any other segment of publishing, but are often mislabeled as just another category within children's book(s), so they miss the chance to really shine," said Warren Pawlowski, analyst for Simba Information's Trade Books Groups. Showing marked increases in their presence on bestseller lists, graphic novels have almost become their own industry at a time when growth in traditional publishing has slowed. The basis for numerous films, television shows, and other forms of media, graphic novels have grown in both sales and influence. "More works of art to bridge the fine line between the literary and visual mediums, graphic novels appeal to the largest audience possible and have untold potential because of it," said Pawlowski. "Overview of the U.S. Comic Book and Graphic Novel Market" details the many nuances of this industry, providing publishers and retailers who wish to expand, showcase, or begin to look at graphic novels a definitive source for doing so. "Attention has been drawn to the high-concept releases of the last year, both in film and literature, but viewers and readers should be reminded that everything explored in them was likely seen in graphic novels and comic books decades ago," Pawlowski said. "The niche that graphic novels have been forced into has exploded, and what could never be found elsewhere is being seen there in droves." In addition to providing an overview for this segment of publishing, the report provides a detailed analysis of the three major brands bundled within the graphic novels category: graphic novels, manga and comic books. The report also features a thorough overview of the leading books and publishers, including price analyses as well as profiles for the major players detailing publishing strategies for the past and future and current production figures. 34. Eco-campaign promotes greener book publishing Only 0.23 percent of publishers are committed to increasing the number of books made on recycled paper, according to Eco-Libris. Moreover, only about five percent to 10 percent of paper used by book publishers is recycled. Meanwhile, the Book Industry Environmental Council announced that it was committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the publishing industry by 20 percent or to a 2006 baseline by the year 2020, and an 80 percent reduction by 2050. Readers can encourage publishers to reduce the sector's carbon footprint simply by purchasing books made from "green" materials and through environmentally friendly practices. As part of the effort to publicize greener publishing, 100 online book reviewers and 35 publishers from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom came together for one day on Nov. 10 to celebrate "green" books at the invitation of Eco-Libris. The goal of the campaign is to encourage readers and publishers to ensure that books are printed responsibly and book purchases are "greener." 35. News of chicanery, dishonesty and tort-feasing in the book business The Daily Beast reports that bestselling suspense author Patricia Cornwell, "after suffering estimated losses of $40 million due to the alleged negligence of her accountants and business advisers," is suing Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP, a blue-chip New York financial-management firm, claiming that they "mishandled not only her own money, but that of her spouse of two years, Harvard neuroscientist Staci Gruber." 36. Donaghy book pulled; NBA says allegations he made taken seriously
The National Basketball Association said on Oct. 29 that it will review
allegations made in a tell-all book by former NBA referee Tim Donaghy - a book
that was pulled before publication two weeks befo
Promotional copy indicated that Donaghy "was at the center of a mafia-run
gambling scheme wherein he used his on-court authority to manipulate the score
or even the outcome of games, including play-off contests." He pled guilty to
Federal charges and "in this confessional memoir, Donaghy details how he became
involved with the mob, specifies his methods for controlling the score of a
game, and claims that league officials routinely use deceitful methods to
dictate the results of games." Among the allegations reportedly made by Donaghy in Blowing the Whistle: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA, Donaghy was able to bet on games based on information on the styles of officials and some of their relationships with certain players and teams. "In 2008, Mr. Donaghy's allegations were thoroughly investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office," the NBA said in a statement on Oct. 29. "We are reassured that the U.S. Government completed its investigation finding that the only criminal conduct was that of Mr. Donaghy. "We take any question regarding the integrity of our game extremely seriously. At the time Mr. Donaghy's crimes came to light, we appointed Lawrence B. Pedowitz, a former chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney's office of the Southern District of New York to lead a comprehensive independent review of the NBA's officiating program. Mr. Pedowitz's review revealed that the NBA's core values of neutrality and accountability were not compromised by anyone other than Mr. Donaghy. "As with all allegations concerning the integrity of our officiating program, these latest assertions by Mr. Donaghy will be turned over to Mr. Pedowitz for a complete review." Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in prison last year after pleading guilty to conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting betting information through interstate commerce. At trial, he said he took thousands of dollars from a professional gambler in exchange for inside tips on NBA games - including games he worked - starting in 2003. "The National Basketball Referees Association is disappointed, but not surprised, with the actions taken by Tim Donaghy," Lloyd Pierson, a representative of the NBRA, wrote in an e-mail to ESPN.com's Marc Stein. "This continues to be the Tim that we know. He repeatedly attempts to highlight himself in the media, but the 59 NBA referees will continue to officiate games with the utmost integrity and the focus will remain on the 2009-2010 NBA Season."
The Web site Deadspin.com released what it said were excerpts of the book on
Oct. 28. Deadspin helped themselves to about 5,000 words of
apparently-unauthorized excerpts. On Oct. 28, a representative of Triumph Books, a division of Random House Publishing, wrote in an e-mail that the company had backed away from the potential book out of "concerns over potential liability." Pat Berdan, a senior consultant at Executive Prison Consultants and Donaghy's liaison to the book publisher, told ESPN.com on Oct. 28 that the NBA "threatened that they would sue" if the book was published. An NBA spokesman denied the claim, saying the league was aware of the book but had not received or reviewed a copy. Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum told ESPN: "The NBA absolutely did not threaten litigation. The decision was made at Random House on our own accord based on a close final legal review of the material and then evaluated by independent sources of some of the statements Donaghy made in the book. Applebaum added, "The decision not to publish the book was ours and it was made independent of any individual or organization." In court papers from the 2008 case against Donaghy, prosecutors said that he gave gambling associates sensitive information, including which crews would officiate games and how the various officials and players interacted. His actions "compromised his objectivity as a referee because of his personal financial interest in the outcome of NBA games," the government said. Donaghy said in a court filing that the league routinely encouraged refs to ring up bogus fouls to manipulate results, while discouraging them from calling technical fouls on star players. Donaghy was released from a federal prison in Pensacola, Fla., to a halfway house in June. He was scheduled for release on Oct. 24, but was returned to prison in August when he was accused of violating his federal probation by not showing up for work, the U.S. Marshals Service said. His lawyer said it was all a misunderstanding. The former NBA referee was released on Nov. 4 from the Hernando County, Fla., Jail, where he was finishing a 13-month prison term. The gambling scandal that embroiled him triggered an avalanche of negative publicity for the league. Donaghy, 42, pleaded guilty in 2007 to federal wire-fraud and gambling charges. He admitted to accepting cash payoffs from two childhood buddies from Cardinal O'Hara High in exchange for betting tips that were based on his inside knowledge of the game. 37. News from trade shows, book fairs and book festivals In response to e-books being explicitly excluded from the Madrid Book Fair in Spain this past June, two of Spain's technological innovators have responded by joining forces to organize the country's first e-book fair. Bubok, an e-book and POD publisher and retailer, and e-Cultura, a consulting company and think tank that combines culture with cutting-edge technology, have announced the creation of the first Feria del Libro Digital, set to take place Nov. 17-19 in Madrid. 38. Frankfurt Book Fair attendance of 290,469 down from 2008 The 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair closed on Oct. 18, recording the second highest number of visitors in the fair’s 60-year modern history. Total attendance of 290,469 - including 181,155 trade visitors – was down 2.9 percent from 2008’s record attendance. The Literary Agents and Scouts Centre (LitAg) experienced a 2.6 percent increase in attendance over last year, with 14,317 visitors. 39. Chinese publishers set copyright sales record at Frankfurt Book Fair Chinese publishers did an unprecedented volume of copyright deals at the Frankfurt Book Fair, sealing contracts for 2,192 copyright items through Oct. 17, a Chinese official said. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, more than 1,300 licenses were sold by Chinese publishers to foreign publishers by the time the fair closed. The sales were the biggest ever copyright trade for China at the annual Frankfurt fair, the world's biggest book gala. Of the total contracts through Oct. 17, Chinese publishers imported 1,310 copyright items, and exported 882 titles to foreign counterparts, said Zhang Fuhai, a senior official from the Chinese delegation. China was the guest of honor at this year's book fair, and 223 publishing houses from the Chinese mainland participated. Zhang attributed the sharp rise in copyright trade volume to China's role as the guest of honor as well as to China's rising influence generally in the world. According to fair insiders, it was also the result of the Chinese government adopting a strategy that encourages Chinese publishers to export more book copyrights abroad in an effort to promote Chinese culture at large. The number of Chinese copyright sales at Frankfurt was a stark reversal of the Chinese experience at the 2005 Beijing Book Fair, where German publishers sold 600 copyrighted works to China while the Chinese sold just one to Germany. And while the Chinese delegation to Frankfurt was pleased with the copyright sales balance, the show was not without its tense moments for the world’s most populous nation. A symposium preceding the book fair titled “China and the World — Perceptions and Realities,” became a major confrontation. Fair organizers withdrew invitations to two dissident writers the Chinese wanted to exclude, Dai Qing and Bei Ling, but welcomed them at the last minute after criticism by journalists and politicians. When the writers made statements, the Chinese delegation walked out, only to return after an abject apology by the fair’s director, Jürgen Boos. That fracas led to project manager Peter Ripken being fired, although the announcement of Ripken’s dismissal said only that it was for "ongoing difficulties." But Deutsche World noted that it was Ripken who "uninvited" the two Chinese dissidents from the pre-Fair symposium, leading to the Book Fair's series of denials and apologies. Ripken also kept those same two dissidents from speaking at the book fair's closing ceremonies. Ripken says he was acting on instructions from Germany's foreign ministry: "The foreign ministry has stated explicitly that this fair is not there just for China, and I acted in accordance with this wish." “We did not come to be instructed about democracy,” declared Mei Zhaorong, China’s former ambassador to Germany. Li Pengyi, a delegation member and vice president of China Publishing Group Corporation, said “We don’t feel we’ve been hospitably treated. China sent more than 2,000 people to Frankfurt. And now this barrage of criticism.”
Zhao Haiyun, spokesman for China’s General Administration of Press and
Publication, said that instead of focusing on literature, the media had focused
on human rights and censorship. “The German media are very biased,” he said. 2010 January Jan. 10-12/ Christian Trade Show Association International's Marketsquare – Atlanta Airport area. Jan. 13-14. IVBS -Inspirational Value Book Show - January, Nashville, TN. www.ivbshow.com Jan. 15-19. The American Library Association's Midwinter Conference - Philadelphia, PA. www.ala.org March
March 12-15. Shortened National Association of College Stores CAMEX show in
Orlando, Fla., reduced to four days from its traditional five. Under the new
schedule, the trade show and educational panels will overlap somewhat on
Saturday, March 13. April April 19-21. London Book Fair - www.londonbookfair.co.uk May May 17-20. The Museum Store Association's Retail Conference & Expo National Stationery Show. New York City. May 25-27. BookExpo America - www.bookexpoamerica.com June The Australian Booksellers Association's - Melbourne. The American Library Association - Anaheim, CA. The International New Age Trade Show West - Denver, Colo. June 24-29. American Library Association's Annual Conference. Some 2,000 seminars and events as well as a huge trade show. June 27-30. CBA/The International Christian Retail Show, St. Louis, Mo. www.christianretailshow.com June. The National Association of College Stores Conference. www.nacs.org August August 20-21 (tentative). The Great American Bargain Book Show (GABBS) - Boston. Hynes Convention Center. www.gabbs.net August. The New York International Gift Fair – www.nyigf.com August. New Orleans-Gulf South Booksellers Association.
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