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Daunt on bookselling

19 March 2018

It's unusual to find a book chain boss who went into bookselling because he liked reading, but James Daunt, founder of Daunts bookshop chain in London, and CEO of the Waterstones chain in the UK, is that rare animal. Encouragingly, he still maintains that: 'Books still work and always will'.  Read more

J K Rowling ditches agent and sells ebooks direct

4 July 2011

Rather to the amazement of the publishing world, J K Rowling, long a bye-word for her loyalty to her agent and publishers, has cut out her publisher Bloomsbury and set up a new site to sell ebook versions of her books direct to her readers.  Read more

'Content is being devalued by technology'

3 May 2010

Mike Shatzkin is well-known in the publishing business on both sides of the pond for his visionary and often uncomfortable views of the future.  Read more

Downloads lead the audio revolution

28 May 2007

Audiobooks are finding a new market amongst the iPod generation. Last week News Review looked at recent developments in audio, including rental, but it is downloads which offer the biggest growth opportunities.  Read more

Amazon goes for broke

1 January 2007

The Christmas figures are not yet out, but it's a racing certainty that customers will once again have flocked to Amazon and further increased its grip on gift sales. Just in the UK, volume purchases from the Internet increased by 151% between 2002 and 2005 and Amazon's international divisions have all been growing fast.  Read more

'Direct, personal communication with potential readers'

21 August 2006

It is getting harder and harder for new authors to find a publisher. The explosion in the number of writers, as shown by the rapid growth in creative writing courses of all kinds, the large number of writing books being published, and the success of sites such as WritersServices, have all demonstrated that there is a huge thirst for publication.  Read more

Now you can download your audiobook

15 May 2006

The audiobook market is set to jump into the new world of downloadable sound to meet the demands of the iPod generation. Audiobook sales have been growing gradually over the years and there are now a great many books available in audio form, mostly the standard three-hour abbreviated version.  Read more

Web sales take off

30 May 2005

Last month figures were released which showed that in the UK internet shopping overtook purchases from mail order catalogues for the first time. Last Christmas web sales in Britain rose by 20% over the previous year to £3 billion. In the US the trend is changing even faster and the comparative figure was 28%.  Read more

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15 July 2019 - What's new

July 2019
  • 'The best books come from someplace deep inside. You don't write because you want to, but because you have to. Become emotionally involved. If you don't care about your characters, your readers won't either. Those of us who write do it because there are stories inside us burning to get out. Writing is essential to our well-being. If you're that kind of writer, never give up!
  Read more

'For me, writing [was] a question of survival...I could not trust anyone, even my family. The atmosphere was so poisoned. People even in your own family could turn you in.'

— Gao Xingjian, refering to writing during the Cultural Revolution of Mao Tse-Tung

Write from the Inside

15 July 2019

'The best books come from someplace deep inside. You don't write because you want to, but because you have to. Become emotionally involved. If you don't care about your characters, your readers won't either.
  Read more

1 July 2019 - What's new

July 2019
  • ‘There's been a great democratisation of the world of poetry, In the past, it was seen as only certain kinds of people wrote poems, but now there isn't that same divide. There's all sorts of different forms: spoken-word poetry, Instagram poetry... Poets like Hollie McNish have taken off and are selling lots.
  Read more