Booksellers in the UK are being urged to join a national “Big Bookshop Party” event to help launch the Books Are My Bag (BAMB) consumer campaign on Saturday 14th September. The Booksellers Association has called on bookshops to host parties and get festive with specially designed bunting to coincide with the launch of the BAMB campaign intended to highlight the joy of books and physical bookshops. Read more on thebookseller.com
After being found guilty in federal court of conspiring to artificially inflate e-book prices, legal experts are estimating that Apple could owe as much as $500 million in damages. Read more on www.macrumors.com
Nielsen is predicting that fiction e-books will overtake sales of fiction paperbacks, but not until 2014, according to its latest digital report based on the Kantar World panel. It has also noted a further slowdown in e-book growth, with year-on-year sales falling for the first time. Read the full report on thebookseller.com
Incheon was named as the “World Book Capital 2015” at the conclusion of the selection committee meeting, which was held recently at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters. The city of Incheon was selected “on account of the quality of its programme, and the impact it will have on improving good integration of all stakeholders in the promotion of books and reading, access to books and writing in all formats to the citizens of Incheon and the Korean Peninsula during World Book Capital year and beyond”.
Porter Anderson reports on Publishing Perspectives that as Book Country relaunches on Wednesday, it has become safe terrain for literary novelists. In fact, what began as a program only for writers of mystery, science fiction, fantasy, romance, and thrillers in April 2011, this week is blowing open its frontiers to authors in more than 60 categories.. Read more here.
Belgian researchers report the enticing aroma of chocolate inspired bookstore shoppers to stick around longer, and boosted sales of certain genres. Read more here
Die kortlys vir die jaarlikse Suid-Afrikaanse Nielsen-boekverkoperprys is pas bekend gemaak.
Dit word toegeken aan ’n boek wat boekverkopers oor Suid-Afrika geniet het om te lees, te verkoop en reklame voor te maak die afgelope jaar. Die prys vier die uitnemendheid en hoë peil van Suid-Afrikaanse skryfwerk. Die Burger
First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, underlined her commitment to education during a conversation with South African youth, in conjunction with African youth channel, MTV Base, channel 322 on DStv and Google+.
Livestreamed at WhiteHouse.gov, the White House Google+ page and www.mtvbase.com on Saturday, 29 June, Obama’s remarks will also feature in groundbreaking MTV Base TV series, MTV Base Meets…
MTV Base Meets Michelle Obama will premiere to 52 countries across sub-Saharan African on MTV Base on Friday, 19 July at 17.00.
Obama was joined by hundreds of teens and young people from across South Africa at the Sci-Discovery Centre in Newton, Johannesburg, while others in L.A., Kansas City, New York City and Houston took part in the event virtually thanks to Google+ Hangouts. Thousands more watched the live streaming of the event.
The moment many have feared in the book publishing industry may be finally here, according to the New York Times: Amazon, having established control of a large portion of the book market in the U.S., is raising its prices.
Or, more specifically, in some cases, it’s reducing the discount it offers so that the prices its customers pay are scarcely different from what they’d pay in an old-fashioned, bricks-and-mortar bookshop. Then again, the Times article focused on small and academic presses, citing only a few more mainstream titles.
Read the full article on The New York Times
Penguin UK chief executive Tom Weldon has been appointed chief executive of Penguin Random House UK following the finalisation of the merger between the two publishing groups. Gail Rebuck, chair and chief executive of Random House UK, is to be chair of the new business. Ian Hudson is to be deputy chief executive, reprising the role he has at Random House UK. read more at thebookseller.com
