 In her keynote address from the "YA: What's Next?" publishing conference, author Beth Kephart makes an impassioned case for YA books that are heartfelt, authentic and empowering. Read more » | |
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| Young adult publishing is evolving, making predicting the future tricky, but several top industry professionals shared their insights on what's next for the category. Read more » | |
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| Berlin-based startup txtr has recently launched a Danish e-book store, with special promotions from two Danish publishers set to begin on December 3rd this year. Read more » | Amazon's Jeff Belle announced in a letter to literary agents that Amazon Publishing will begin building a European publishing division in 2013. Hiring will begin in January. Read more » |
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| Sourcebooks Associate Editor Aubrey Poole reports from the German Book Office Editors’ Trip about the state of children’s digital publishing in Germany. Read more » | |
Publishing Perspectives
Moving mountains in Middle Earth: Hobbit lands with baggage
Nov 30, 2012 - Crikey Weekender
Blockbuster movie premieres don’t get any bigger than the opening of Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit movie. But the road to get here has been anything but smooth.
On a bright and sunny day in Wellington, a giant billboard moves across the blue sky, flying as low as 300 metres above the ground.
The Boeing 777-300 is emblazoned with images promoting The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first of three mega-budget Hobbit movie adaptations from blockbuster director Peter Jackson. The 73-metre canvas took six days and 400 hours to apply. The exhibitor of this gargantuan flying advertisement, Air New Zealand, claims it is the largest graphic ever applied to an aircraft.
On the ground below, tens of thousands of fans — some camped out overnight — gather around Embassy Theatre and its long red carpet. A 9.4-metre tall sculpture of Gandalf, which took contractors more than 12 hours to erect, looms like a frozen Greek god above the entrance.
Some have in their pockets commemorative Hobbit-themed coins, which they can use to purchase jewellery and merchandise at the Hobbit Artisan Market. In days leading up to the event some will have sent letters and postcards to friends and family using Hobbit-themed stamps.
Those who have recently landed by plane would have seen a four-minute airline safety video starring elves, dwarves, hobbits and a famous wizard. They would have walked past a 12-metre sculpture of Gollum, which cost some $250,000, and picked up their luggage from “Baggins Services”.
Nearby the Embassy, overlooking Wellington’s harbour, figures of 13 giant dwarves — reportedly the world’s tallest — and one Hobbit cast shadows on the water below. They stand on the fifth story of a 12-floor office building, designed to withstand winds of up to 178 kilometres an hour.
The city, New Zealand’s capital, has been temporarily renamed “The Middle of Middle Earth”.
This is a movie premiere that has, you might say, stopped the nation. Predictably, the international press relished the spectacle from afar. The cost has been colossal, the profits likely to be greater. And the road to get here has been anything but smooth.
The ribbon cutting of The Hobbit #1 signifies a tale of many things: laws and business models circumvented, a federal government bending to the whims of a film crew, a production that spiralled out of control and a director who raised his already titanic profile to levels of power and responsibility befitting a king — and on the way attempted nothing less than changing the way movies are created.
Full story at Crikey Weekender
Pete Townshend: By the Book
Published: November 29, 2012 - The New York Times
The musician and author thinks Ozzy Osbourne wrote the best rock memoir. “It made me think I should chuck my memoir manuscript away and throw a party during which I jump out of the window but don’t quite kill myself.”
Pete Townshend - Illustration by Jillian Tamaki
What book is on your night stand now?
Martin Cruz Smith who wrote “Gorky Park,” has created a Russian detective, Arkady Renko, and I am now reading “Wolves Eat Dogs,” partly set in Chernobyl. I’m learning a lot about how radiation doesn’t always kill people. Not if they drink lots of vodka. I also have “Hemingway’s Boat,” by Paul Hendrickson — he seemed to use the sea as an inspirational tool, a retreat and an escape very much as I do. I also have a copy of “Discourses,” by Meher Baba; this is a throwback, relatively new for me these days. I am trying to reconnect with this Indian master that I adored so much when I was a young man, and I’m finding this book challenging: these discourses were written for his close disciples, and I don’t think I could ever live as pure and disciplined (and obedient) a life as seems to be required.
What was the last truly great book you read?
“Les Misérables.” Somehow I’d missed it, despite it launching a grand theater musical. I was so surprised at how readable it is, how well the characters are drawn and how gripping it is. A really great modern book? I think William Boyd is doing wonderful work. His set of short stories “The Dream Lover” is one of the most evocative books I’ve read — full of clear images and emotions conveyed with few words and from the very natural points of view of each narrator or leading character. His masterpiece is “Any Human Heart.” As I write this I realize I tend to set male and female novelists in different parts of my brain. So I want to add a female great book — and so many come up in a tumult that I can’t fix on a single one. If I push myself I come up with a truly great modern book, but a bit of a stereotype, I’m afraid: Margaret Atwood — “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
You once worked as an acquisitions editor at the British publisher, Faber & Faber. Do you miss anything about that job?
Are you kidding? That was the best job I ever had. I had lunch with the old chairman, Matthew Evans, this week, and we both went dewy-eyed about the old days. He’s in the House of Lords trying to stay awake, and I’m pounding stages like an aging clown. I loved the way the Faber editorial committee was driven as much by gossip and rumor as ideas. It was fun. Not what you expect in such an esteemed publishing house.
HarperCollins Worldwide Takes Ownership of HarperCollins India
Nov 30, 2012 - PW
In a move that marks an expansion into the Indian market, HarperCollins Worldwide has taken complete ownership of HarperCollins India after running the company for 10 years as a joint venture with Living Media India, an Indian media company focused on publishing and music. The move will not only make HarperCollins’ U.S. list more widely available in India, but also bring more Indian writers to a global English-language audience.
Noting that India is “the second largest English-speaking country in the world,” Brian Murray, president and CEO of HarperCollins, said, We see India as an area of growth both for titles from all our global imprints beging published into the region, as well as for local Indian authors being published in other markets through our HarperCollins 360 program. This is year another way to expand the reach of our author’s works.” HarperCollins UK and International CEO Victoria Bransley highlighted the importance of digital publishing to the acquisition, noting that “due to the increased possibilities of digital distribution, we are looking forward to this new chapter in our development in India.”
Run as a joint venture for the last 10years, HarperCollins India has published such award-winning books as Aravind Adiga’s White Tiger (Man Booker Prize winner), Manu Joseph’s Serious Men (The Hindu Prize); Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies (Pulitzer Prize).
P.M. Sukumar, CEO of HarperCollins India, said, “We now look forward to building further on the solid foundations provided by the partnership with LMI, with increased focus on our local publishing program, and drawing on HarperCollins’ global expertise in digital media to deliver our content to audiences in India and worldwide.”
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