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Welcome
to the Vol. 7, No. 9 September 2009Index (scroll down for stories)
1. Despite recession, remainders still a great way to make money 1. Despite recession, remainders still a great way to make money
By Edward Nawotka
“For a long time the remainder market wasn’t considered a legitimate part of the
book trade,” says Larry May. The global economic recession has given retailers and distributors a much greater incentive to go hunting for deals. As a consequence, one of the few burgeoning areas of the book business not in the digital domain is the remainder and hurts market. While no overall statistics are tracked for the segment - as publishers are often reluctant to release details about what they are sending out to be sold on the cheap - anecdotal evidence suggests that the slow holiday sales of last Christmas and the lackluster first two quarters of this year have pushed larger and larger quantities of higher quality books less often seen in this secondary market. For overseas buyers traveling to the United States to buy remainders, the first stop has traditionally been 230 Fifth Avenue in New York City, where many of the largest U.S. remainder dealers maintain appointment-only showrooms. When BookExpo America was in New York earlier this year, buying activity at 230 started a week before BEA opened and lasted until dealers ran out of product: Unlike traditional book retail purchases, when publishers try to ensure there’s enough to go around for everyone, remainder buyers are competing over a finite supply. In recent years, the strength of the Euro and other currencies against the dollar has made buying American bargain books a relative, well, bargain, prompting buyers to return to the U.S. numerous times - including visits to both of May’s shows, as well as CIROBE (the Chicago International Remainder and Overstock Book Expo). May says that in recent years, international participation at his two shows has grown dramatically - so much so that he decided to move this August’s Great American Bargain Book Show (GABBS) to Boston, Mass., from Atlanta, Ga., where it was previously located. “It’s less hot in Boston in August than in Georgia,” said May, “and because of its proximity to New York, it’s also a much better place to connect international booksellers and buyers.” Within a short drive of Boston are three large remainder warehouses that fairgoers will have the opportunity to visit firsthand, including Strictly By-The-Book in Fall River, Mass., World Publications, in Bridgewater, Mass., and Symposium Books in Providence, R.I. As at the Spring Book Show earlier this year, a number of international vendors will be selling remainders, including Caxton and PR Books, as well as Columbia Marketing from the UK and Fairmont Books and Book Depot from Canada. But it’s the overseas buyers that outnumber the sellers. European buyers are already familiar with the market and have been showing up in greater numbers each successive year, says May. “Oddly, the Spanish and Hispanic markets have been relatively weak,” adding, “The real growth is in Asia: the Korean, Japanese and Chinese markets have been pretty strong in the past five years. There’s demand in their countries for English language books, but to buy them new and import them can be extremely expensive. So remainders are a good option.” REGISTER: For The Great American Bargain Book Show which takes place August 21-22 in Boston, Mass. SUBSCRIBE: To Bargain Book News 2. Breaking news from the book barons Publisher Twelve plans an initial print run of 1.5 million copies of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s True Compass later this year. In addition, Twelve is planning to issue 1,000 copies of a leather-bound, electronically signed edition of the memoir at $1,000 a copy, and to sell the books through the website of the Hachette Book Group, the parent company of Grand Central... The Random House paperback edition of Pulitzer prize-winner American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham, which took the biography award, had a 200,000-copy first printing. Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, winner of the Pulitzer for fiction, is available in paperback with more than 100,000 copies in print… Dan Brown's new novel will be released in the United States and Canada by Random House imprint Doubleday on Sept. 15. The Lost Symbol will have a first printing of five million copies, the largest first print run in Random House history, according to the company. The audio version of The Lost Symbol will be published in North America in September by Random House Audio… Two previously unpublished Hercule Poirot stories by Agatha Christie have been discovered among her family papers. The works were unearthed from the crates of letters, drafts and notebooks stored by Christie at Greenway, her holiday home set in a seaside garden in Devon, The Guardian reported. The new stories will be included in Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making, which will be published by HarperCollins in September.
Well before she resigned as governor of Alaska, 2008 vice presidential candidate and Sarah Palin had signed a book deal with HarperCollins. Her memoir is scheduled for release in Spring 2010, the year she would have been up for re-election had she not quit her office. "There's been so much written about and spoken about in the mainstream media and in the anonymous blogosphere world, that this will be a wonderful, refreshing chance for me to get to tell my story, that a lot of people have asked about, unfiltered," the former Alaska governor said. Palin's memoir, currently untitled, if published on schedule, will cover her personal and political life, from her childhood in Alaska and the 2008 campaign to her political beliefs and her family life, including the pregnancy of her teenage daughter, Bristol Palin, who gave birth in December 2008 to a baby boy, Tripp. (She and the baby's father, Levi Johnston, have since ended their relationship- and Daddy Johnston is reportedly writing a book of his own.) "In fairness to my family, this is going be a good opportunity for them, too, because there have been so many misperceptions out there about who we are and what we believe in, and I'm excited to get to put my journalism degree to work and tell my story as it relates to my family," said Palin, 45, who in 1987 graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism. The book will be co-released by the HarperCollins imprint Harper and, for the Christian market, by the HarperCollins-owned Zondervan. Palin picked the most presidential of literary representatives, Washington attorney Robert Barnett, to handle negotiations. Barnett's clients include Obama and former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. As he did when arranging a publisher for memoirs by Bush and Clinton, Barnett did not solicit competing bids, but chose to negotiate only with one publisher, HarperCollins, which Barnett praised for being "first and fervent in pursuing this project." Financial terms were not disclosed, but Palin was widely expected to get a multimillion-dollar contract. Barnett and Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham both declined to offer details. Palin will work with a collaborator. 4. Penguin’s Sentinel imprint cancels tome by Gov. Mark Sanford A book by South Carolina’s errant Gov. Mark Sanford, scheduled to be published by Penguin in 2010, has been canceled. Sanford is the governor who absented himself from the state in order to secretly visit his extramarital lover in South America. The book is about Sanford’s conservative fiscal views.
Since the book was written, Sanford self-destructed, admitting that he cheated
on his wife with his Argentinian mistress Maria Belen Chapur (and others) and
lying to cover up the affairs and trips to Buenos Aires and New York. Sentinel subsequently said in a brief statement: "Sentinel has agreed to release Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina from his contract to write a book about fiscal conservatism, which was to be called Within Our Means and was scheduled for publication in March 2010. This is a mutual decision. We wish Governor Sanford the best."
Barnes & Noble has announced that it will provide free in-store wi-fi. B&N has provided paid wi-fi service from AT&T ever since that company took over Wayport. AT&T continues as their provider. Part of the reason for free service is to permit wireless device users at B&N stores to download offerings from B&N’s new ebook store… Reed Elsevier has put a number of its trade magazines back on the block. The company ended the first attempt at a complete sale of the division in 2008 when it was unable to get an acceptable offer from bidders. Reed said it intend "to divest a significant part of the RBI U.S. business," including the literary magazine group of Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and School Library Journal. 6. Romance Writers hold successful annual meet in Washington The 29th annual Romance Writers of America conference, held in Washington, D.C. July 15-18, drew nearly 2,000 registrants, more than the 1,800 anticipated by organizers. According to a recent survey conducted by RWA, some 74.8 million people read at least one romance novel in 2008 and romance boasts a core group of 29 million regular readers. According to Daisy Maryles, for decades the religious book editor at Publishers Weekly, but now cut loose, there have been some sales shifts in romance categories. The strongest categories are paranormal romances, whose leading authors regularly land on bestseller charts; historicals, which include regencies, Scottish Highland and medieval sagas; and teen romances. Harlequin, the leading publisher in the romance field, is launching Harlequin Teen next month; these romances will all have supernatural and paranormal elements. While still popular, contemporaries, especially romantic suspense and anything by Debbie Macomber, are losing a little ground in comparison.
With sales by Christian retailers down almost 11 percent in 2008, the retailers’ trade show was looking even more shopworn than the sector it serves. CBA, the Association for Christian Retail, wrapped up its 60th annual convention in Denver, Colo., with professional attendees (non-exhibitor personnel) at 1,903, down 20 percent from 2008. International attendees numbered 534, down 28 percent from last year, with 56 countries represented at the Show. “In light of the economy and its effects over the past 10 months, we approached this Show with conservative expectations,” said CBA President-CEO Bill Anderson. “We’ve observed in this economic downturn most trade shows are down 30-40 percent in attendance. We rallied the exhibitors and we’re pleased that a total of 79 responded in providing retailer attendees with clear benefits available only at the Show, cumulatively amassing more than $11,000 in potential savings - offering a tipping point for some retailers. I’m very pleased with the attendance results. While we knew attendance would be down some, I’m satisfied with a strong turnout and the enthusiasm and positive tone throughout the event by both retailers and suppliers.” Next year’s International Christian Retail Show will be held in St. Louis, Mo., June 27-30, 2010. 8. Entrepreneurs buy bankrupt Berean Christian Stores for $2 million
The 18-outlet Berean Christian Store chain has been sold to new owners Joseph
and Deanna Gimelli. Bill Simmons will remain president and CEO of the company, and the Gimellis will join the Berean board of directors.
The Gimellis were frequent and supportive customers of the Berean store in San
Jose, Calif., and became interested in the chain. After Berean filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection in June, the Gimellis bid on the company, finding
themselves pitted against three firms that wanted to liquidate the business. Simmons welcomes the new approach the Gimellis will bring to Berean Christian Stores: “A fresh perspective will shake things up in a positive way,” he told CBA Today.
Evidence indicates the book business, like the rest of the global economy, is beginning to emerge from the Great Recession… After four months of sales drops, sales at U.S. bookstores in June turned around and rose 3.4 percent, to $1.101 billion, compared to the same period a year ago, according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau. For the year to date, bookstore sales have dropped 2.8 percent to $7.412 billion… In the UK, sales rose 22 percent at publisher Pearson for the first half of their fiscal year, at 2.398 billion pounds, with earnings of 28 million pounds, compared to a loss of 62 million pounds this time a year ago. Education, which comprises over 60 percent of the total revenues, was up 29 percent for the period… Sales at the UK’s Penguin, of 452 million pounds, were up 11 percent from a year ago, or 44 million pounds, though operating profit for the division fell 19 percent to 21 million pounds, down from 26 million pounds a year ago. The sales gain was due entirely to the rise in the dollar versus the pound compared to a year ago. On a currency-neutral basis, Penguin sales dropped eight percent… 10. Update journalism: Latest skinny on past Southern Review stories The New York Times books blog covered Valeria's Last Stand author Mark Fitten's promise to visit 100 independent bookstores in support of his new novel. (Southern Review of Books, June 2009). Atlanta author Fitten is blogging about the virtues of each of the 100 independent bookstores he has promised to visit to promote the book. The Times called his blog "seriously cool." As of Aug. 10, he had visited 47 indie bookstores and posted his take on each on his blog. That same day, his novel had an Amazon.com ranking of 499,718. Independent bookstores have a seven percent share of the U.S. retail book market…
At the time this was written, all of the top five ebooks available for Amazon’s Kindle reader were free offerings. Seven of the top 10, and 15 of the top 25, similarly, were free. However, despite all the supposed resistance to ebooks priced over $9.95, one of the top paid titles on the Kindle bestseller list remains Breaking Dawn, selling at $11.38, after 352 days in the top 100… Sony has announced that it will sell e-books only in the open ePub format and will scrap its proprietary anticopying software in lieu of Adobe software that restricts how often e-books may be copied. As a result, e-books bought for the Sony Reader will be readable on most other e-book readers, except for Amazon's Kindle, which operates on a proprietary format. Later this year, Sony will introduce a new e-reader that allows wireless downloads of e-books... More than two million users downloaded Lexcycle's Stanza e-book reader app for iPhone and iPod touch during its first year. Amazon acquired Lexcycle in April. Stanza's popularity "has led to more than 12 million book downloads, reports Amazon."…John Smith & Son, an academic and professional book-selling chain in the United Kingdom, recently released results of an e-textbook study it conducted. According to the retailer, the study showed that when e-textbooks and print textbooks were bundled together, sales grew 25 percent. The study also showed that when textbooks were available digitally, used textbook sales of their printed counterparts decreased by as much as 68 percent in a year-to-year comparison. 12. iPublishCentral, AAUP bring e-book publishing to 130 university presses The Association of American University Presses (AAUP), a nonprofit organization of academic publishers, has formed a cooperative agreement with iPublishCentral, a self-service e-content delivery platform from Impelsys, to support its 130 members in pursuing electronic publishing. The partnership provides AAUP members with a discount for using iPublishCentral's e-publishing platform and services through AAUP. iPublishCentral, a self-service digital content publishing, marketing, warehousing and distribution platform, will allow participating AAUP members to market books on the Internet, sell content online, and promote brands and titles across the Web. "Scholars are increasingly looking for content on electronic platforms, and university presses want to serve those readers and writers as best as possible," says Peter Givler, executive director, AAUP. "iPublishCentral promises to provide the infrastructure and reduce the costs, time, and risks for university presses to create e-books and content and engage in revenue-generating online book marketing and electronic content distribution," added Brenna McLaughlin, AAUP electronic and strategic initiatives director. "The association is happy to be able to offer this new cooperative discount program to our members." In year one of the agreement, AAUP members will benefit from complimentary content hosting services available through iPublishCentral. In subsequent years, members will pay sliding-scale fees based on the number of books they upload to the iPublishCentral site. AAUP will share a small percentage of revenue made from transactions that occur on the AAUP portal using iPublishCentral. Through iPublishCentral, AAUP members can launch their own publishing portals, creating online content products and bundles. They can also monetize their backlist without the overhead of more traditional online content publishing, lengthy development timeframes or pricey infrastructure. "iPublishCentral has a proven model that has helped university presses to get their content online. In our agreement with AAUP, we look forward to helping other university presses open new distribution models and discover new ways of realizing revenue," says Sameer Shariff, CEO of Impelsys. "Increasingly discriminating readers will access sample pages and make quick, convenient purchases from anywhere in the world, further strengthening the financial position of university presses."
Barnes & Noble has launched the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, which it calls "the world's largest eBookstore," a part of its website that will offer more than 700,000 titles that may be read on a range of devices and computers, including iPhones, iPods, Blackberrys, as well as a new Plastic Logic eReader that will be introduced early next year. The new e-reader, an "ultra thin 8.5 x 11 inch wireless" device, is "especially designed for business professionals," B&N said, adding that it has made "a strategic commerce and content partnership with Plastic Logic" and "will power the eBookstore for the Plastic Logic eReader device, slated to debut in early 2010." B&N said it will be the exclusive vendor of ebooks for Plastic Logic.
The company has produced an updated version of the eReader application, acquired
as part of Fictionwise earlier this year, which is required to read books
purchased for the BN estore. It seems to work on only certain devices: for now,
iPhones and Blackberries, plus PCs and Macs - but not any of the dedicated
ereading devices currently on the market. 14. At Scribd, upload your document, charge for it and keep 80 percent Document-sharing website Scribd, based in San Francisco, has introduced a site where anyone can upload a document to the Web and charge for it."
In the new Scribd store, authors or publishers can set their own price for their
work and keep 80 percent of the revenue. The minimum price for documents sold on
Scribd is $1. Users can decide whether to encode their documents with security
software that will prevent their texts from being downloaded or freely copied." Independent publishers Lonely Planet, O’Reilly Media and Berrett-Koehler will add their entire catalogs. Travel guide publisher Lonely Planet is selling standalone city chapters of its country guides on the site for those travelers who are only interested in a particular city rather than an entire country. Currently, the Scribd Store is only open to buyers and sellers in the United States, with international launches to follow, the company reports. Documents purchased on Scribd may be read on Scribd.com, downloaded to a PC, printed, or made accessible through Web-enabled mobile phones.
The National Association of Independent Publishers Representatives (NAIPR) has
activated its electronic catalog/ordering tool, Frontlist Plus Universal, which
presents fall 2009 lists from more than 200 participating book publishers and
primary distributors.
The service provides "new title data in catalog order.” NAIPR, a nonprofit, says
"publishers and master distributors pay a nominal fee per ISBN included in the
program." The organization’s focus is on serving the buyer or inventory manager
following up on their sales representative's seasonal call as well as to support
the sales representative. Publishers, buyers and reps can register for access at
www.frontlistplus.org.
U.S. ISBN agency Bowker has announced publication of a new report providing
insights into who is buying books and what motivates them to buy.
According to a recent feature in the New York Times, Target's Bookmarket Club can sell 50,000 to 150,000 copies at Target alone.
The club has highlighted largely unknown writers. Its picks are focused on trade
paperback fiction, and include special designations such as a recent
"Hand-Picked Titles from Emerging Authors." Still Alice sold 51,000 copies in its Target edition and some 174,000 copies overall, making Target the single-largest outlet for the book. Sarah's Key sold only 2,000 copies in hardcover, but sold more than 145,000 copies at Target. The regular paperback edition has sold 200,000 copies. The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond sold 152,000 copies at Target. Target carries about 2,500 titles in each of its 1,700 stores, including many more paperbacks, particularly trade paperbacks, than hardcovers. Most books are shelved face-out. Target's core book buyers are women with a median age of 42 and median annual household income of $60,000. About half have college degrees, and some have children at home. The books for both programs are chosen by a panel of Target employees who meet monthly to review submissions from publishers. For each book selected as a Bookmarked Club Pick, the publisher produces a special edition, and the author writes a letter addressed to Target readers. 18. Milestones: Records and news of note in book publishing
April 16 of this year marked the 50th anniversary of the publication
of The Elements of Style, which has sold 10 million copies.
The book began as a "privately published" 43-page volume, referred to as "the
little book," for the students of William Strunk Jr., a professor at Cornell
University. E.B. White, a student in Strunk's English 8 course in 1919, wrote
that "he forgot the book but not the professor" until White "re-examined" the
book in 1957 and wrote about it in the New Yorker in July of that year.
After Macmillan editor J.G. Case enlisted White to revise and expand the book,
Case reprinted White's New Yorker essay as the introduction to The Elements
of Style… The UK’s Guardian reports that a "librarian at Oxford's
Bodleian Library has unearthed the earliest-known book dust jacket. Dating
from 1830, the jacket wrapped a silk-covered gift book, Friendship's Offering."…
Linda Gregg has won the $50,000 Jackson Poetry Prize, which honors "an
American poet of exceptional talent who has published at least one book of
recognized literary merit but has not yet received major national acclaim,"
according to Poets & Writers magazine, which sponsors the prize. Gregg’s
books, including her most recent collection, All of It Singing, are
published by Graywolf Press…
Ruth Padel was recently elected the first female Oxford professor of poetry,
and also holds the record for serving the shortest term after being immediately
forced to resign the office.
The Guardian reported that Padel, "the great-great-granddaughter of
Charles Darwin, is the first woman to take the role since it was created in
1708." The announcement came in the wake of controversy after Nobel laureate
Derek Walcott had to withdraw his name from contention when "a dossier detailing
sexual harassment claims made against him by a Harvard student in 1982 was sent
anonymously to 200 Oxford academics," the Guardian added. Walcott's
withdrawal left Oxford graduates and staff with a choice between Padel and
Indian poet and critic Arvind Mehrotra. Padel soon after the appointment
resigned "amid claims she tipped off journalists about allegations that her
rival for the post, Derek Walcott, had sexually harassed students. "I genuinely
believe that I did nothing intentional that led to Derek Walcott's withdrawal
from the election," she said. "I wish he had not pulled out. I did not engage in
a smear campaign against him, but, as a result of student concern, I naively -
and with hindsight unwisely -passed on to two journalists, whom I believed to be
covering the whole election responsibly, information that was already in the
public domain." Donald Trump lost his bid for $5 billion in libel damages from New York Times editor Timothy O’Brien, whose 2005 book questioned Trump’s billionaire status. A judge in Camden, N.J., tossed out Trump’s case, finding there weren’t sufficient grounds to justify a trial because Trump had failed to prove malice on the part of the author. In January 2006, Trump, 63, sued O’Brien and the publisher, Time Warner Book Group Inc., now part of Paris-based Lagardere SCA, for allegedly misrepresenting his assets in the book TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald. The New York Times wasn’t sued. Trump contended in court papers that O’Brien wrongly wrote that Trump was worth from $150 million to $250 million. Lawyers for O’Brien told New Jersey Superior Court Judge Michele M. Fox in May that the case should be dismissed, in part, because Trump failed to show he suffered monetary loss or defamation. Trump hasn’t shown “clear and convincing evidence to establish malice” by O’Brien, Judge Fox said in her opinion. Trump said he will appeal the decision. In a 2007 deposition for the case, Trump said “I am a billionaire, many times over, on a conservative basis.” Fox also ruled that as an author, O’Brien was an independent contractor and thus the publisher couldn’t be held liable for his actions. “The issue for this court is not whether O’Brien’s investigation was negligent, but whether a reasonable fact-finder could find actual malice,” and the case doesn’t sufficiently rise to that level, Fox decided. The judge also echoed O’Brien’s argument that similar estimates of Trump’s net worth by three confidential sources were excerpted in 2004 in the Sunday business section of the New York Times, yet Trump continued to cooperate with O’Brien as he wrote the book. O’Brien’s underestimating his net worth hurt Trump’s business and credit interests, the developer had alleged. “We proved our case,” Trump said in an interview after Fox read her decision in a teleconference. “We showed the net worth is much more than $5 billion, even $6 billion. And she said that while the reporter may have been negligent or even grossly negligent, it doesn’t equate to malice.” 21. Judge allows libel suit against Rita Cosby's book to go to jury
Judge Denny Chin ruled that lawyer Howard K. Stern's $60 million suit against
Rita Cosby for her book about the death of Anna Nicole Smith, Blonde Ambition,
can proceed to a jury trial. 22. A case for Guy Noir? Thieves steal safe from Keillor’s bookstore Two people broke into Common Good Books, owned by Garrison Keillor, in St. Paul, Minn., just after midnight on July 30, stole the store's safe and damaged its cash registers, taking "a few thousand dollars" that had been left in the store overnight.
The store has posted surveillance camera photos on its Web site and sent a Tweet
looking for a "goateed loser in longshorts and a Longhorns cap carrying a safe
at 1:20 last night." In about six minutes' time, two burglars jimmied their way into an upstairs cafe and then broke through the glass door at Common Good Books, where they rifled through the cash register before making off with a few thousand dollars and the store safe, assistant manager Martin Schmutterer said. A day later, Schmutterer backtracked a bit from the Longhorns claim, acknowledging it could be a Philadelphia Phillies cap. 23. Library groups tell DOJ they back Google Book Search settlement The American Library Association (ALA), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) on July 29 sent a letter to William Cavanaugh, deputy assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division, requesting the Division to advise the court presiding over the Google Book Settlement to supervise the implementation of the settlement closely, particularly the pricing of institutional subscriptions and the selection of the Book Rights Registry board members. The letter reiterates the basic support of the libraries for the proposed Google Books settlement, while also repeating concerns that the settlement live up to its promises in balancing market pricing and broad access when selling institutional subscriptions.
The library associations suggest that DOJ ask "the court to review any refusal
by the Registry to license copyrights on books on the same terms available to
Google. Finally, if necessary, the Division should ask the court to review the
procedures by which the Registry selects members to its board of directors, and
to evaluate whether the Registry properly considers the interest of all
rightsholders in its decision-making."
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has dismissed the fraud portion of Dennis
Kucinich's lawsuit against Phoenix Books over the publication of his 2007 book
The Courage to Survive. 25. Bulwer-Lytton award winners announced The winner of 2009 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is David McKenzie, a 55-year-old Quality Systems consultant and writer from Federal Way, Wash. He has formerly won in the Western and Children's Literature categories. His entry:
"Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when
the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor'east and the dogs are
howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the
‘Ellie May,’ a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such
a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought
his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests." An international literary parody contest, the competition honors the memory of Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873). The goal of the contest is simple: entrants are challenged to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Although best known for The Last Days of Pompeii (1834), which has been made into a movie three times, originating the expression "the pen is mightier than the sword," and phrases like "the great unwashed" and "the almighty dollar," Bulwer-Lytton opened his novel Paul Clifford (1830) with the immortal words that the "Peanuts" beagle Snoopy plagiarized for years, "It was a dark and stormy night." Most entries are submitted electronically through the Contest's Web site: http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/. Runner-Up
“The wind dry-shaved the cracked earth like a dull razor - the double edge kind
from the plastic bag that you shouldn't use more than twice, but you do; but
Trevor Earp had to face it as he started the second morning of his hopeless
search for Drover, the Irish Wolfhound he had found as a pup near death from a
fight with a prairie dog and nursed back to health, stolen by a traveling circus
so that the monkey would have something to ride.” Grand Panjandrum's Special Award “Fleur looked down her nose at Guilliame, something she was accomplished at, being six foot three in her stocking feet, and having one of those long French noses, not pert like Bridget Bardot's, but more like the one that Charles De Gaulle had when he was still alive and President of France and he wore that cap that was shaped like a little hatbox with a bill in the front to offset his nose, but it didn't work.” - Marguerite Ahl, Prescott Valley, Ariz. 26. Major upcoming trade shows, book fairs and book festivals
August 21-22.
http://www.gabbs.net The secret is out! The Great American Book Show is
journeying north to New England. Historical Boston, Mass., will be the host city
for GABBS 2009, slated for August 21–22. The Friday-Saturday event will be held
for the first time ever at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston’s Back Bay
area. A block of rooms for those attending has been reserved at the connecting
Sheraton Hotel.
Sept. 3-7.
The Beijing International Book Fair. Thurs.-Mon., Beijing, China.
Nov. 6-9.
CIROBE, the Chicago International Remainder and Overstock Book Exposition.
Fri.-Mon.,. Chicago, Ill. Oldest but no longer largest of remainder shows in the
U.S. 2010 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. Visit back issues of the Southern Review of Books by clicking on
January For more information about the book business, visit:
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"Southern
Review of Books Archives" hyperlink at the bottom of this page. The search
engine for the current edition and archives may be accessed by the button at the bottom. The
Southern Review is edited by Noel Griese. The author of 17 books and
numerous articles on various subjects, he has been a newspaper reporter
and editor and has taught English and journalism at the Universities of
Wisconsin and Georgia. Elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi,
he holds three degrees in English and journalism.
pies
of the American Christmas Classics gift package have been retailed for
$69.95. Now, for a limited time, 5,000 copies of the package are available
from Anvil at remainder prices for those who buy in volume.
table
as a gift book. A finalist for four awards for excellence, it takes its readers
on 23 days of safaris through Botswana, Zimb