Saturday 31 July 2010

Penguin celebrates 75 years of publishing

Current Penguin chief executive and chairman John Makinson credits Sir Allen Lane as the man who changed the reading habits of a nation:

"When Allen Lane founded Penguin in 1935 he had a pretty simple, but pretty radical idea: make great literature available to everyone at an affordable price and for it to appeal not just to the wallet, but to literary taste and the eye, with beautifully designed jackets and style," says Mr Makinson.

"Although they were not the first paperbacks, they were truly innovative and captured the imagination."

More from the BBC
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Friday 30 July 2010

New Forest Book Fair

Saturday 31 July, Lyndhurst Community Centre.

A mix of stock from booksellers from across the southern counties and beyond, including first editions, aviation, military, natural history, the arts, and general stock - also ordnance and antiquarian maps and prints.

Early trade buyers may use free car park through a five-bar gate beyond the main entrance. For further details please email enquiries@fairharebooks.com or call 023 80781927.

Thursday 29 July 2010

Wednesday 28 July 2010

Tracy Chevalier Sells 'Remarkable Creatures' Film Rights

Tracy Chevalier (The Girl with the Golden Earring) has sold the film rights to her book about Mary Anning who uncovers dinosaur fossils near her home at Lyme Regis and has a fight to be taken seriously. I wonder Remarkable Creatures will have the same effect on Lyme Regis as The French Lieutenant's Woman?

Dan Brown Breaks UK Sales Records

The paperback edition of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (Corgi) sold a massive 118,230 copies in just three days last week — the biggest ever first-week sale of a paperback novel. The Robert Langdon conspiracy thriller sold 27 copies per minute, on average, according to Nielsen BookScan data.

More from The Bookseller

Tuesday 27 July 2010

Peter Carey Makes Man Booker Prize Longlist Again

Peter Carey, two-time winner of the Man Booker prize, is one of 13 authors to make the longlist for the 2010 award.

More from the BBC

New Design for Biblio Sites

Biblio has redesigned its Biblio.co.uk and Biblio.com sites. It does provide a better, more coherent look and, according to Biblio it is:

"...only the beginning steps of our longer term strategic plan to differentiate Biblio and its booksellers as the premier destination for book collectors and other discerning readers who share our passion for the book as a tangible object and for the independent bookstore as a cultural institution."

It's just a pity that so few customers seem to have heard of Biblio.

Amazon Introduces 'Tell us about a lower price'

If you go to one of the Amazon product pages and look at the bottom of the 'Product details' you'll notice that further opportunites for providing feedback have been added:

"Would you like to update product info, give feedback on images, or tell us about a lower price?"

The last one is particularly interesting because it gives a clue how Amazon might enforce Price Parity across the board without investing huge resources. Simply, it looks as if they are going to rely on customers and other sellers to report - in many cases unwittingly - those who are violating the Price Parity policy.