In honor of his “eloquent and fearless battle against political repression,” the German Publishers and Booksellers Association has awarded its prestigious 2012 Peace Prize to Chinese dissident writer Liao Yiwu, who walked out on his native country and landed in Germany a year and a half ago to pursue what he calls “freedom to write and publish.” Read more at www.publishingperspectives.com
The shortlist for the eighth annual Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award (www.ft.com/bookaward), now an essential calendar fixture for business people and authors alike, has been announced. The award aims to identify the book providing the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues. This year’s distinguished judges have chosen the six most influential business books in 2012:
Random House Struik has joined a growing list of publishers to donate ebooks to the eLibrary Project: http://www.elibraryproject.org, a pilot digital reading programme taking place in Benoni over the next 12 months.
Intrigued? Then visit the Cape Town Science Centre for the launch of Jason Drew’s “The Story of the Fly and How It Could Save the World” on Tuesday September 24. Introducing the fly as a future hero through recycling waste nutrients and generating sustainable protein the end result is an ingenious way of limiting our impact on the oceans of the world.
Digital Book World Daily reports that Amazon has started discounting HarperCollins titles already. Only four days after Judge Denise Cote approved the settlement between the Department of Justice and Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins is reportedly set on dynamic pricing and experimentation going forward. Read more at www.digitalbookworld.com
Award-winning author Kiran Desai will do a reading of her work, followed by a discussion, as part of the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) Great Texts/Big Questions public lecture series. The event is presented in association with the UCT Centre for Creative Writing as part of Open Book Cape Town, and takes place on Thursday 20 September 2012.
The September edition of Bookmark is always jam packed with interesting information and reports coming out of the SA Booksellers AGM which was hosted in Johannesburg this year. Each sector was discussed at length at the meetings and for those that were not able to attend, the Chairman’s reports for the different sectors should make for interesting reading.
We also have a number of very different literary events both past and present featured in Bookmark ranging from the Kids Lit Quiz world finals t the upcoming Open Book Festival. Jay Rangiah writes a much deserved profile on Peter Adams a long serving member of the book industry and Bookmark editor Jessica Faircliff chats to Ben Williams about www.exclus1ves.com’s new retail gamification called stickers.
The Douglas County (Colo.) Libraries recently revealed that they have compiled a new monthly price comparison report. which exposes the real reason behind why libraries have such large and gaping holes in their digital offerings. Vist the e-content blog for more.
The New York Times reports that a federal judge has approved a settlement between the Justice Department and three of the five major publishers in a civil antitrust case that accused the companies of collusion in the pricing of digital books, a decision that could start an e-book price war in the publishing industry. Read the full article on the media decoder blog here.
The release of the new Kindle series by Amazon first thing this week has heralded a new age of reading. According to Jeremy Greenfield writing for Forbes magazine, it is the age of diversification. read the full article at www.forbes.com
