The International Literature Evangelist
I’ll tell ya, it seems like forever since we posted a video of Chad. Luckily, Publishers Weekly has just published a lovely article-slash-interview with our director. It’s all about things like Open Letter, the books we publish, our websites (such as this one), and literature in translation. Also, there is an ...
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Comic Books and the Digital Revolution
After all the recent Kindle discussions (which are still ongoing in today’s Shelf Awareness), this Publishers Weekly article about comic book publishers embracing the possibilities of digital publishing jumped out at me. In terms of engaging and trying to please their fans, the comic industry seems miles ahead of book ...
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More Depressing Book News
Looks like another well-known independent bookseller is on the ropes (via PW Daily): After closing its 15-year-old Penn Quarter store in Washington, D.C., on Friday to make room for a Wagamama noodle shop, (Ed. Note: At least it’s not a fucking Cold Stone Creamery.) Olsson’s Books & Records, which is headquartered ...
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Always Good to End on a Positive Note (Or Not)
Today’s PW Daily has a piece from Rachel Deahl about the possible death of another book review section: Amid the pending real estate sale and newsroom cutbacks, rumors have surfaced about book sections being cut at Tribune-owned papers. One freelance critic told PW that the Tribune Company is planning to slash ...
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Translation Database Update and PW Article
It’s not available online, but there’s an article by Rachel Deahl in this week’s Publishers Weekly about Three Percent and the translation database. The Excel file behind the above link is the most up-to-date version of the database, listing 187 works of adult fiction and poetry coming out this year. Some ...
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Sales of Translations
Rachel Deahl’s article for Publishers Weekly on how well translations sell is really interesting (not just because we’re mentioned there) and worth expanding a bit. The main idea comes from Tom Colchie, famous translator and literary agent (and all around nice guy), who thinks that the “doom and gloom ...
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PW's 50 under 40
One of the interesting points from Karl Pohrt’s speech is his allusion to the difficulties of getting young people into the book business. As everyone probably knows, working in the book business (as a bookseller, reviewer, mid-list author, editor, etc.) isn’t quite as lucrative as, say, investment banking. ...
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