January 31, 2010
Bloomsbury book cover stirs anger
For the second time in less than a year, Bloomsbury USA has put a white girl on the cover of a book that’s about a girl of color.
First it was Justine Larbalestier’s “Liar,” which has an African American protagonist. This time, the book is “Magic Under Glass” by Jaclyn Dolamore. The romantic fantasy features Nimira, a brown-skinned protagonist, but the figure on the cover that was shipped to stores is white.
Carolyn Kellogg
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-quick23-2010jan23,0,4795756.story
September 4, 2009
The Venus Pen by Tanya Hodges
Late last fall, EbonyJet.com announced the online only re-launch of the popular Gertrude Johnson Williams Short Story Fiction Competition, a project initially started in 1990 by JPC’s founder, John H. Johnson. The competition was named in tribute to Mr. Johnson’s mother, Gertrude Johnson Williams, an avid fan of reading and supporter of the literary arts.
The response was, in a word, overwhelming. Hundreds of entries streamed in within hours of announcing the contest, with the bulk showing up just prior to the final deadline.
In the past, a small group of noted judges made an initial cut from the entries, and the editors of Ebony selected the final winners. This time we decided to reverse the process. Eric Easter and Terry Glover of EbonyJet.com made the preliminary cuts to the semi-finalist round, and a team of star authors including mystery writer Walter Mosley, novelist Trey Ellis, author Sandra Jackson-Opoku and Ebony senior writer Joy Bennett (daughter of Lerone Bennett, Jr.) scored the final selections.
The final competition was tight, with only fractions of a score separating the final winner from the five finalists. But in the end the story with the highest score was The Venus Pen, by Alabama amateur writer and substitute teacher, Tanya Hodges.
The text of the story appears in the July issue of Ebony Magazine.
Ebony Jet
August 23, 2009
Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer – Sat Aug 15, 2:29 am ET
NEW YORK – Thanks to Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle, e-book sales are finally zooming, after more than a decade in the doldrums.
But the pioneering device may not dominate the market for long. As Castaldo found, many phones are now sophisticated enough, and have good enough screens, to be used as e-book reading devices. In addition, e-book reading on computers is already surprisingly popular.
E-book sales reported to the Association of American Publishers have been rising sharply since the beginning of 2008, just after the release of the Kindle. It’s the best sustained growth the industry has seen since the International Digital Publishing Forum began tracking sales in 2002 — a sign that e-books finally could be about to break into the mainstream.
U.S. trade e-book sales in the April to June period this year more than tripled from the amount a year ago, as reported by about a dozen publishers.
Total reported sales at wholesale prices were $37.6 million. That’s less than 2 percent of the overall book market, but the number understates e-book sales, because not all publishers contribute to the report. The figure also excludes textbooks, an area where e-books have made substantial inroads.
See Yahoo News for more information.
August 23, 2009
Wed Aug 12, 6:12 pm ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A luxury publishing company said on Wednesday it is putting together a Michael Jackson photo book that the pop star wanted to create before his sudden death about two months ago.
Kraken Opus said “The Official Michael Jackson Opus” will be available for customers through the website of concert ticket seller Ticketmaster, with delivery set for the Christmas holiday season.
Kraken said it had been in discussions with the pop star before he died, and now the book has been endorsed and approved by Jackson’s estate.
The book will detail the “Thriller” singer’s life and career, span 400 pages of photos and text, weigh 38 pounds, come bound in leather with a silk clamshell case. It will cost $165.
For more information, see Yahoo News.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
October 15, 2008
Wed Oct 15, 1:05 PM ET
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Burying your head in a book during the crisis buffeting world financial markets may be just what the doctor — or the bookseller — ordered, publishers argued on Wednesday at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
While luxuries are increasingly unaffordable, most people still have enough money to buy a book, and booksellers could even use the opportunity to stage a resurgence, said Fran Dubruille, director of the European Booksellers’ Federation.
“In these troubled times, the book is something which is a kind of landmark, which is solid reference and value, which is never, ever, ever going to be obsolete,” she told a news conference on the first day of the world’s biggest book fair.
“The book is a cheap gift. The book is always affordable,” she said. “Actually, maybe the crisis is a chance for booksellers to reassert their role in the community as providers of pleasure, of knowledge, for a very, very cheap price.”
According to a survey of German-language publishers carried out by the book fair’s organizers, most foresee a stable business environment.
“Books seem to be resistant to economic cycles — an expression of the fact that they are not luxuries but indispensable to life,” the fair’s director, Juergen Boos, said in a speech.
But statistics released at the start of the week-long fair show exhibitor numbers slightly down to 7,373 this year.
Alan Adler, chairman of the American Publishers’ Association copyright committee also warned that educational publishers, for example, might suffer from tighter budgets.
“Among other problems we’re having in this economic crisis is the ability of families to get the loans that they need to send their children to college,” he said.
“One of the issues that arises is not only the rise in tuition at universities around the world but also the cost of the books, textbooks and other instructional materials that are absolutely an essential part of the pedagogical exercise.”
Results released on Wednesday by Pearson, the world’s biggest educational publisher, showed slowing sales growth both in its education division and at Penguin Books.
The crisis could also dampen enthusiasm for pocket-sized, electronic readers such as Amazon’s Kindle or Sony’s Reader, which have been winning fans but which retail for about $350 apiece.
“Not many people can afford this,” said Dubruille. “I think the ereader is probably going to evolve further before it reaches the masses.”
(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, editing by Paul Casciato)
Yahoo News
October 10, 2008
Would-be King biographer caught in sibling feud
By ERRIN HAINES, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 10, 5:12 PM ET
ATLANTA – An author and minister who spent hours interviewing Coretta Scott King for her biography said Friday that she may abandon the project because of the drawn-out, public legal feud among the King siblings.
In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, the Rev. Barbara Reynolds said she did not want the 30-year relationship she shared with the civil rights matriarch tarnished by the ongoing fight among the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s children.
“She was a woman of dignity, but I don’t see anything dignified about all of this,” Reynolds said, noting that she’d like to finish the book with the family’s blessing. “I just may walk away and refuse to write anything. I’m not going to soil that relationship nor that memory.”
The siblings are expected to appear Tuesday in Fulton County court to argue over who should have control of several personal papers, including intimate correspondences between their parents, that could be part of a $1.4 million publishing deal negotiated by Dexter King as head of his father’s estate.
The lawsuit — one of three involving the Kings filed since July — could derail Reynolds’ book deal. New York-based publisher Penguin Group is threatening to yank the contract if the papers are not turned over by Oct. 17.
