Saturday, June 30, 2012

Rachel O'Neill on trailblazing book trailers


From the New Zealand Book Council Newsletter


I viewed my first ever book trailer on YouTube in 2009. It was the two-and-a-half-minute video trailer promoting the genre mash-up, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters, co-authored with Jane Austin.
At the time, I remember having reservations about book trailers. They seemed to be the opposite of what reading was all about, namely using one's imagination to evoke characters and their various worlds. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek trailer for Winters' book in which a very convincing tentacle, belonging to a fierce lake-dwelling serpent, drags the male love interest, Sir John Middleton, into deep and murky water. Let’s just say his female companion reaches for his hand, finds it in the water, draws it out, and discovers that it’s not strictly attached anymore.
I have since warmed to book trailers and keep my eyes peeled for those about New Zealand new releases. Highlights for me include two beautiful book trailers by Huia Publishers, who celebrate 21 years in business this June. The most recent of these is a book trailer for the new release Ngarimu Te Tohu Toa/Victory at Point 209, illustrated by Andrew Burdan. The graphic novel focuses on Second Lieutenant Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu of 28th Maori Battalion who won the VC during World War Two.
 Like many of the best book trailers I’ve seen, Ngarimu Te Tohu Toa/Victory at Point 209 uses illustration and animation to provide a movie-like introduction to the book. You get a quick but informative sense of the story, characters, tone and narrative style.
Inspired by Andrew Burdan’s excellent trailer, I thought I’d draw together a selection from various publishers' YouTube channels that I’ve enjoyed watching. Click through to our blog Open Book and watch the selection of trailers

Embarrassing Books: The Ten Main Causes Of Biblio Blushing


The Huffington Post UK | By
Posted:
We've all been there.
Sat on a packed commuter train, you reach into your bag and slide out your latest paperback with the caution of skeptic picking a magician's card...
...unconsciously your knees go up and your fingers spread, covering the maximum possible space on the front and back cover.
With a final furtive glance at the people around you, you begin to read.
But it's no good. The book in your hands is a burning source of shame. For reasons as ancient and irrational as civilisation itself, you're embarrassed about how your literary choice makes you look to a group of complete strangers.
But what is the cause of this biblio blush?
A multitude of possible reasons for book shame exist, and here we've helpfully rounded them up into ten basic categories.
Be ashamed. Be very ashamed...



J. K. Rowling Helps Fan Cope with Bullying


Did a book ever help you cope with bullies? Reader Sacia Flowers once wrote a long letter to J. K. Rowling explaining how the Harry Potter series helped her cope with bullying and a difficult family life.
The novelist responded with a warm and encouraging letter, sharing some advice that all you people can use during the rough times. Letters of Note has reprinted both letters, sharing them with a wider audience. Here is an excerpt rom Rowling’s letter.
I know what it is like to be picked on, as it happened to me, too, throughout my adolescence. I can only wish that you have the same experience that I did, and become happier and more secure the older you get. Being a teenager can be completely horrible, and many of the most successful people I know felt the same way … You’re now standing on the threshold of a very different phase in your life, one where you are much more likely to find kindred spirits, and much less likely to be subject to the pressures of your teenage years.

50 Shades Of Put It Away: The Worst Book Sex Scenes Ever


The huge, throbbing success of 50 Shades Of Grey - the erotic novel that became a self-publishing phenomenon - has brought with it a fair share of criticism.

From snide reviews to Twitter parodies, plenty have mocked the story's breathless prose and naked cliches, even as E.L. James's sale figures rose to uncontrollable heights of ecstasy.
But as book fans and writers alike know, grinding out a good sex scene is one of the deepest, hardest challenges facing the humble novelist, one that has ravaged the reputation of more than one titan of fiction in the past.
Any approach has its potential pitfalls.
Be too metaphorical, and your sex scene will slip from your grasp with the lithe wriggle of a snagged salmon, up, up, away from your impressive rod and through the sun-stroked streams, deep into a pool of pretension.
Play it too hard and fast, and you'll sound like a crude twat.
So for this reason, we think 50 Shades Of Grey deserves to be cut some slack. From John Updike to James Joyce to, er, Giles Coren and Tony Blair, plenty of highly-regarded wordsmiths have drooped when faced with evoking coitus.
Don't believe us? Here's 50 of the funniest, weirdest and most cringe-inducing book sex scenes of all time...




11 Drug-Fueled Escapades



Culture Beast

Out this week, Steven Martin’s Opium Fiend is a memoir of intense sensual abdication—and a personal history of the drug that makes the zoning out possible. See 10 more books aimed to satisfy your craving for cravings.


Remembering Nora Ephron: Writers and Friends on Her Legacy


Writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron, who wrote classics like When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle, died Tuesday night. Stephen Schiff, Joan Juliet Buck, and more remember her legacy.



Rob Reiner Remembers Nora Ephron, the Sally to His Harry
by Rob Reiner
Filmmaker Rob Reiner worked with Nora Ephron on the classic film ‘When Harry Met Sally.’ The director and friend shares his favorite memories of working with Ephron on the film, and the great times they shared off-set.
Read More.
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Stars and Friends Remember Nora Ephron
Mike Nichols, Nicole Kidman, Tom Hanks, and other stars and friends remember writer, filmmaker, and humorist Nora Ephron, who died at 71.
“I am very sad to learn of Nora’s passing. She was a brilliant writer and humorist. Being her Harry to Meg’s Sally will always have a special place in my heart. I was very lucky to get to say her words.”
—Billy Crystal
“Nora Ephron was a journalist/artist who knew what was important to know; how things really worked, what was worthwhile, who was fascinating and why. At a dinner table and on a film set she lifted us all with wisdom and wit mixed with love for us and love for life. Rita and I are so very sad to lose our friend who brought so much joy to all who were lucky enough to know her.”
—Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson
Read Mike Nichols, Nicole Kidman, and More
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Intimidated by Nora

By Joan Juliet Buck

Nora Ephron managed to state truths no one else had seen, never stopped writing and creating—and had a real life. Joan Juliet Buck on being paralyzed by admiration and finally working with her icon on Julie & Julia.
Read More
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Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron, 2009. (Linda Nylind, eyevine / Redux)

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A Filmmaker With a Voice

By Kate Aurthur

Ephron was once an essayist and became an accomplished filmmaker, especially of romantic comedies like Sleepless in Seattle, which solidified her voice. Kate Aurthur celebrates the writer and director’s work, from You’ve Got Mail to Silkwood to Heartburn.
Read More
.


Much more at The Daily Beast

Don Donovan's World


Ramblings of a much published New Zealand author - 30 June 2012


Great Works Re-visited 33.




© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz

What has happened to the Great New Zealand eBook project?


Copyright Licensing Limited (CLL) has announced that, following the completion of the conversion of 400 New Zealand titles from print to digital, the services of its company – Digital Publishing NZ (DPNZ) – will be discontinued.  CLL has been engaged with the New Zealand publishing sector to energise digital in New Zealand since 2008.  Over the past 2 years, DPNZ has worked alongside independent publishers and authors to up-skill the sector and invest in conversion and distribution of e-books.

The board of DPNZ has, over the last year, worked with people within the industry and outside consultants to investigate the commercial feasibility of DPNZ. As a result of those investigations on how the local industry might advance the original objectives it is now clear that the level of investment required to develop a home grown NZ solution to achieve these initiatives would outweigh the ability of the industry to invest and earn revenue from these projects.

Paula Browning, Chief Executive of CLL says, “It has been an eventful couple of years and in the short time since DPNZ was established, the digital publishing world has gone through some exciting changes.  With the increase in demand for books in electronic formats, we are now seeing some of the big names in the publishing world step into the local market in search of content for distribution”.

 One such distributor is Faber Factory which was set up 18 months ago by the reputable independent publisher Faber & Faber.  Much like DPNZ, Faber Factory was established to assist independent publishers in the UK to convert, store and distribute titles through their existing network of international retailers. Recently, they partnered with The Perseus Books Group in the US to use its Constellation Digital Services infrastructure.  Faber Factory has been successful in providing these services to independent publishers in the UK and now they have teamed up with Allen & Unwin (A&U) in Australia who will also offer this service in NZ. 

The past few years have been a rollercoaster for publishing worldwide. DPNZ and its shareholders believe that the investment and support Copyright Licensing Ltd has made into digital publishing in NZ has given the sector a comprehensive step-up that will enable NZ publishers and authors to actively participate in evolving the e-book world.

Your E-Book Is Reading You


Digital-book publishers and retailers now know more about their readers than ever before. How that's changing the experience of reading.

It takes the average reader just seven hours to read the final book in Suzanne Collins's "Hunger Games" trilogy on the Kobo e-reader—about 57 pages an hour. Nearly 18,000 Kindle readers have highlighted the same line from the second book in the series: "Because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them." And on Barnes & Noble's Nook, the first thing that most readers do upon finishing the first "Hunger Games" book is to download the next one.
For centuries, reading has largely been a solitary and private act, an intimate exchange between the reader and the words on the page. But the rise of digital books has prompted a profound shift in the way we read, transforming the activity into something measurable and quasi-public. Eben Shapiro explains on Lunch Break. Photo: AP.
In the past, publishers and authors had no way of knowing what happens when a reader sits down with a book. Does the reader quit after three pages, or finish it in a single sitting? Do most readers skip over the introduction, or read it closely, underlining passages and scrawling notes in the margins? Now, e-books are providing a glimpse into the story behind the sales figures, revealing not only how many people buy particular books, but how intensely they read them.

We Know What You Read

Illustration by John Cuneo
The perfect man, according to data collected by digital publisher Coliloquy from romance-novel readers, has a European accent and is in his 30s with black hair and green eyes.

For centuries, reading has largely been a solitary and private act, an intimate exchange between the reader and the words on the page. But the rise of digital books has prompted a profound shift in the way we read, transforming the activity into something measurable and quasi-public.
The major new players in e-book publishing—Amazon, Apple and Google—can easily track how far readers are getting in books, how long they spend reading them and which search terms they use to find books. Book apps for tablets like the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook record how many times readers open the app and how much time they spend reading. Retailers and some publishers are beginning to sift through the data, gaining unprecedented insight into how people engage with books.
Publishing has lagged far behind the rest of the entertainment industry when it comes to measuring consumers' tastes and habits. TV producers relentlessly test new shows through focus groups; movie studios run films through a battery of tests and retool them based on viewers' reactions. But in publishing, reader satisfaction has largely been gauged by sales data and reviews—metrics that offer a postmortem measure of success but can't shape or predict a hit. That's beginning to change as publishers and booksellers start to embrace big data, and more tech companies turn their sights on publishing.
Barnes & Noble, which accounts for 25% to 30% of the e-book market through its Nook e-reader, has recently started studying customers' digital reading behavior. Data collected from Nooks reveals, for example, how far readers get in particular books, how quickly they read and how readers of particular genres engage with books. Jim Hilt, the company's vice president of e-books, says the company is starting to share their insights with publishers to help them create books that better hold people's attention
Full piece at the Wall Street Journal

Arts on Sunday for 1 July 2012 - Radio New Zealand National



12:43 We talk to the executive producer of the highly regarded TV film Siege, Philly de Lacey, and wonder if there's a lesson there for our feature film industry.

12:48 After months of gushing talk about New Zealand making the most of its time as the Frankfurt Book Fair's country of honour, there are questions being raised over the way writers have been selected to represent us.

1:10 At The Movies: The welcome return of the annual Film Festival.

1:31 Visiting United States artist and Fullbright Fellow Brinkley Warren is a young man with big ideas who believes that the creative process can strengthen one's identity, and aid in the process of personal transformation and growth. He's in New Zealand until February 2013, and has seeded a project called Creative Soup Kitchens. He's been working with members of Wellington's homeless community, providing them with free art supplies and exploring their stories through art. Sonia Sly meets some of the artists involved in the project, and chats to Brinkley about the value of contribution and the need for social change.
 1:41 Christchurch writer Fiona Farrell offers revealing insights into life in the city after the earthquakes in her book of interviews called The Quake Year. Her interviewees reflect on the past and look to the future. The book is a Canterbury University Press publication.

1:55 Black Confetti: Kate Ward Smythe reviews Auckland Theatre Company's new production by award-winning playwright Eli Kent.

2:05 The Laugh Track: TV directors Thomas Robins and David Stubbs who created the Emmy award-winning Internet drama Reservoir Hill and are now about to reveal their first TV series, Girl Versus Boy.

2:26 Sometimes coming second can be just as good as winning. When Wellington film maker Catherine Bisley missed out on this year's Script to Screen Scholarship, a special award was created just for her; a coveted spot as a production assistant with New York indie kings Killer Films. Justin Gregory went to see her at work.

2:38 Featured writer - Mike Nikolaidi, journalist, arts administrator and now novelist. His book blending fact, fiction and memoir is called A Greek Trinity: Tales from the Book of Michael and is published by Steele Roberts.

2:50 Pop-up art galleries
Joey Vaessins is the young contemporary New Zealand art lover who's behind a pop-up art gallery idea to make the most of Auckland's empty buildings.
See images from the Times Contemporary New Zealand Art Exhibition: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/artsonsunday/galleries/times

3:05 The Drama Hour: Another winning play from the New Shorts series, there's another 'best-of' Go Solo and more from The Gullibles.

For more information and images visit the Arts on Sunday webpage: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/artsonsunday

B&N plans to expand Nook stores



Barnes & Noble plans to launch a Nook digital bookstore in 10 countries within 12 months, with “one or more distribution agreements in place to sell Nook devices in certain countries outside the US prior to the 2012 holiday season".
According to a 10-K form it has filed at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the American bookseller said the international expansion plans were part of its partnership with Microsoft, announced earlier this year.
The document said: “The company is also exploring opportunities to give consumers outside of the US access to its award-winning Nook portfolio of reading products through potential distribution partnerships yet to be announced.
"While there can be no assurances, the company intends to have one or more distribution agreements in place to sell Nook devices in certain countries outside the US prior to the 2012 holiday season.”
Waterstones was originally rumoured to be partnering with B&N to sell the Nook before it announced a partnership with Amazon to sell Kindles.
Foyles c.e.o. Sam Husain has previously told The Bookseller he would not “rule out” any e-reader or e-book retailing option, including the Nook.


While at PWB&N Eyes Nook Bookstores in 10 Countries Within A Year
              

Samuel Beckett book sells for £12,000


First edition of Samuel Beckett's 1938 novel Murphy donated to Oxfam sells for £12,000.

Jane Bown’s Samuel Beckett portrait
Jane Bown’s Samuel Beckett portrait
A book donated to Oxfam has sold at auction for £12,000 after an eagle-eyed specialist spotted it was a rare find.
The first edition of Samuel Beckett's Murphy was sold at the charity's annual Bonhams book auction and went for double the estimated price.
Murphy, published in 1938, was the first novel written by the Irish author and dramatist. The auctioned book is one of only 1,500 copies printed and one of the few that has survived with its original dust jacket.
The book was donated to Oxfam Books And Music in Berkhamstead, in Hertfordshire, and spotted by the store's book specialist Geoff Smith.
He said: "I'm absolutely delighted at the amount the book has raised for Oxfam. I knew as soon as I saw it that it might be important, but after some initial research on the internet it was clear that it was rare and likely to be valuable.
More at the Telegraph

15 Famous Authors on Why They Write

by . - Flavorpill Jun 26, 2012


We felt compelled to explore other reasons for writing as shared by famous authors. These honest and passionate declarations offer an intimate view into their processes, their life philosophies, and their humor. See if they inspire you, and then drop your personal favorites in the comments section below.


Gustave Flaubert
The Madame Bovary writer died penniless, but he was a painstakingly dedicated and detailed scribe who worked tirelessly even though his output never matched his peers. Flaubert’s famous line, “Writing is a dog’s life, but the only life worth living,” doesn’t mince words and mirrors his tenacious approach to the craft.
More at Flavorpill

With Spinoff Official, Harper UK ceo Barnsley Anticipates "More Clout" While Morrow Restructures Publicity and Marketing Departments


PublishersLunch
With News Corp making the spinoff of its entire publishing business official, it remains to be seen how the newly formed company will operate over the next few months, pending approval, and afterwards, presuming regulatory bodies give the OK for the split. The new business will start life with cash reserves and without any debt, and Rupert Murdoch, talking to Bloomberg Thursday, was appropriately bullish: "Our publishing business is more valuable than people give us credit for...There are great digital opportunities in publishing, and net-net, around the world, we’ll be increasing our numbers and increasing our costs and hopefully increasing revenues as well."
At a party for its authors in London Thursday night HarperCollins UK ceo Victoria Barnsley also expressed enthusiasm about the spinoff, according to the Bookseller: "We are quite happy to make the news, but being the news is less common. Today we heard that we will be part of a separate publishing company. My gut feeling is that it is good news—we will be a bigger fish in a smaller pond...We will have more clout. I think we will have more investment, which will be good for all of us."
But on the US side, the spinoff news comes as Harper has been streamlining departments and eliminating jobs. They did so earlier this month with its sales force and now we've learned that William Morrow's publicity and marketing departments will be reorganized "to bring the two departments even closer together to capitalize on the strengths of each," according to a company spokesperson, mirroring the structure on the Harper side.
Associate publisher Lynn Grady will now oversee both publicity and marketing departments, while  Seale Ballenger is leaving the company after more than 8 years, most recently as vp, group director of publicity for Morrow. In a note to colleagues Ballenger said he is "feeling grateful and proud to be a part of its many successes and accomplishments, and open to the plethora of possibilities that lay ahead of me. I know that when a door closes, a window opens. I am energized to find that open window and, like Alice and the looking glass, venture through it."

Friday, June 29, 2012

Katie Price could teach Martin Amis a few things about how to launch a book


    Price raised the bar of literary marketing twice in a single day. With a pair of Speedos, a horse and a vodka bottle, Amis could do the same

    Katie Price Launches Her New Novel
    Ride a black horse … woman of letters Katie Price launches her book in a satin bikini with matching mantilla. Photograph: Ferdaus Shamim/Getty Images

    You are doubtless aware that these are difficult times for the book publishing industry. Physical book sales are down 5% year on year, with the increase in ebook sales insufficient to compensate. In Britain, the number of high-street bookshops has almost halved: 2,000 have closed since 2006.
    Lost in Showbiz wouldn't pretend to know how to counter these problems, but it thinks it knows a woman who might. It gently draws the attention of the Publishers Association to the fragrant figure of Katie Price, and, more specifically, the whirlwind launch last week of In the Name of Love. This, you will be eager to learn, is the eighth in the brain-melting series of novels she once announced she "doesn't physically write", a reference perhaps to their basis in metaphysics, their restless probing of what Aristotle called aporia. Having spent time with In the Name of Love's predecessor, Santa Baby, Lost in Showbiz can confirm that few novels have ever caused it to question so thoroughly the very nature of being: no sooner do you start it than you find yourself wondering if there is any point in being alive.
    But we digress. Back to the launch. What an event! Here was an occasion special even by the standards of previous Katie Price launches, including the one where she chose to promote her range of personalised iPods by appearing with them strapped to her head. It opened with the author appearing on a live, rearing black stallion and dressed in an orange satin bikini and matching mantilla. Lost in Showbiz offers up this image to the great and the good in the world of letters and says: frankly, my learned friends, you can stuff your essay-length review in the TLS and your learned profile in the Paris Review's Writers at Work series. This is how you get a novel noticed. It notes with interest that Martin Amis claimed to have read a number of Price's autobiographies as research and respectfully suggests that if he had taken a few pointers from their author vis-à-vis how to launch a novel, then perhaps the reviews of Lionel Asbo might have been a little kinder. It can't help but think if he had spent a little less time at the Hay literary festival boring on about the state of the nation and a little more time galloping about the site astride a noble thoroughbred, clad only in a pair of revealing swimming trunks, then the world would be a happier place. Come on, Marts! Get your Speedos on and saddle up!
    Under any normal circumstances, this would clearly have been the highlight of the occasion. But it proved to merely be the amuse-bouche before the gut-busting main course that was the subsequent press conference, as reported in the indispensible journal of record Now! magazine. It was here that, while fielding questions about her former husband, cross-dressing kick boxer and new dad Alex "The Reidinator" Reid, that Price chose to favour the world with the information that she had once inserted a vodka bottle into his rectum.
    In response, one onlooker reported, "the room fell silent".
    Lost in Showbiz doesn't doubt that it did. Perhaps the assembled hacks were stunned by the sense that they had just witnessed history in the making. It's easy for hacks to be tired and jaded, but here was something genuinely new: a woman plugging a novel she hadn't actually written by publicly claiming that she'd sodomised her transvestite ex-husband with a vodka bottle. You don't get that on Radio 4's Open Book.
    Or perhaps they were ruminating on the many additional questions raised by this revelation. What brand was involved? Do we espy a new opportunity for the former Jordan to implement one of her lucrative promotional deals with them? And, not least, what long-term effect might her revelation have on her former paramour's drinking habits? There's presumably only so many times a man can hear a bartender sniggeringly ask "Do you want that on the rocks, or does Sir prefer to … take it straight up?" before he decides to cut his losses and go teetotal.
    Or perhaps they were simply noting that Price had now significantly raised the bar of literary marketing twice in the space of a single day. First, the rearing stallion/bikini combination. Now, Vodka Bottle Up The Bum-gate. Once again, Lost in Showbiz finds its thoughts turning to Martin Amis, delivering his next coruscating satire on the shortcomings of the underclass to his publisher, and discussing the subsequent publicity campaign. "Of course, Martin, in the past, your reputation and a series of broadsheet interviews in which you loudly decry the moral decrepitude of Britain would have been more than enough to secure a prime position in Waterstones. But I'm afraid the goalposts have shifted since we last met. I might as well ask you: have you ever stuck a vodka bottle up someone's bum? Perhaps you might consider it? Well, they don't have to enjoy it. Tell them to lie back and think of the Sunday Times Bestseller List."

    Dropping the F-Bomb


    The New Yorker 
    norris_bode.jpg
    June 28, 2012

    Posted by


    Nothing is so debilitating to a copy editor as having to lavish care on illiterate tweets laced with obscenities. Last spring, The New Yorker ran Kelefa Sanneh’s piece on Earl Sweatshirt, the young rapper whose mother sent him to reform school in Samoa because he had fallen in with bad companions. After reading the piece seven or eight times, making sure that such immortal lines as “Shit sucks” and “LETS SWAG IT OUT” were rendered exactly as they were in the original, I was so disoriented that I stetted a big-ass mistake at the end. What was the point of making a fuss over a “than” for a “then” in a piece so full of profanity? There should be a detox facility for proofreaders who have undergone this kind of extreme experience.
    I did not know at the time that there was an informal contest going on at the magazine to see which writer could get the most instances of “fuck” into print, and that Sanneh was going head to head with David Remnick for the title. (You can’t write about rappers or boxers without quoting a few obscenities.) Ian Frazier gets a very satisfying ratio of profanity to regular speech in the monologues of his Cursing Mommy: “Somebody please tell me I have not lost my stupid goddam fucking drink.” This week, John McPhee writes about his battle to quote sailors saying exactly what sailors say, a battle that he did not win—at least not in The New Yorker of William Shawn or Bob Gottlieb. But he broke new ground in this piece by using “fuck”—as verb, noun, adjective, and interjection—fourteen times in a single paragraph.
    Pauline Kael never tired of trying to get the word “shit” past Mr. Shawn in the old days, and never succeeded. She was on leave in the late summer of 1979, when “Apocalypse Now” came out, and Mr. Shawn permitted Veronica Geng, who was filling in for her, to quote the opening lines: “Saigon. Shit.”
    It no longer occurs to me to query the use of four-letter words, even when they are used gratuitously, as in “I missed the fucking bus.” I used to be a prude, but now I am a ruined woman. We had a discussion in the copy department a few weeks ago about how to style the euphemism: Shall it be “f”-word, f word, f-word, “F” word, F word, or F-word? I don’t like any of them. Fuck euphemisms. Get on the goddam fucking bus.
    This week, a reader who sent in a portfolio of mistakes she had found in the magazine (two out of six were blatant errors, for which we are truly sorry) cited the use of the term “star fucker” in a piece by John Colapinto about the philanthropist Trevor Neilson. She had no objection to the term itself, but wrote in the margin, “Need ‘activating’ hyphen!”

    Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/06/dropping-the-f-bomb.html#ixzz1zAfsSN4s

    Fifty Shades of Grey breaks print sales record


    The 'mummy porn' book Fifty Shades of Grey has become the fastest adult paperback to sell one million print copies.

    A woman who runs a low-key virtual publishing house in Sydney has been acclaimed as the face of e-book publishing after discovering online
    Fifty Shades of Grey, by former British television executive EL James
    It's been a digital publishing phenomenon, with sales of the novel on the Kindle reaching one million earlier this week, but now Fifty Shades of Grey has broken print sales records too.
    The first book in the trilogy has sold one million print copies in 11 weeks, beating The Da Vinci Code's previous record of sales of one million in 36 weeks.
    According to Nielson Bookscan the book has also broken the weekly record for paperback sales, selling 397,889 copies.
    The book beat JK Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which sold 367,625 copies in 2008.
    EL James's novel has been dubbed 'mommy porn' due to its steamy plot lines. James, who was a former self-published Kindle Direct Publishing author said the books offer women a "holiday from their husbands".
    Earlier this week Amazon confirmed that the novel had become the first ebook to sell one million copies for Kindles.
    Author Dan Brown holds the record for overall weekly adult sales for The Lost Symbol hardback which sold 590, 964 copies in 2009.
    JK Rowling still holds the single week record across all genres, for the last in the Harry Potter series.

    Related Articles

    News from Publishing Perspectives:


    After 30 years, Paris' beloved English-language Village Voice Bookshop is closing in July, succumbing to the digital age and changing attitudes toward reading. 

    Digital publishing has turned everyone into a "global consumer" who can download books from abroad, all but eliminating the need for foreign language bookstores. Read more »
    Alberto Vitale ran Random House US from 1989 until 2002. Here he reflects on his career, changes in the book business, e-books, and the value of print. 

    Neal Maillet, Editorial Director of Berrett-Koehler explains why it's a publisher's duty to take on books that challenge convention despite the risks. 

    Is your job as a publisher to play it safe, or to use your position to further the truth, even when that truth might make you uncomfortable and vulnerable? 

    Rare 415-year-old Wytfliet Atlas stolen from the Royal Library of Sweden recovered at NYC gallery


    Art Daily Newsletter
    Royal Library’s map librarian, Greger Bergvall, holds the Wytfliet Atlas. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer.

    By: Ula Ilnytzky, Associated Press

    NEW YORK (AP).- A rare atlas stolen a decade ago from the Royal Library of Sweden by one of its chief librarians was recovered in New York and given back to its rightful owner. Swedish and U.S. authorities showed off the 415-year-old Wytfliet Atlas at a news conference Wednesday. The book, created by Cornelius van Wytfliet and containing the earliest maps of the Americas, had been in the Royal Library collection for more than 300 years before it was stolen. There are only eight other copies worldwide, according to the library. The atlas was one of 56 rare books stolen by Anders Burius, the chief of the Royal Library's manuscript department, and the first of his haul to be located. Burius stole the books between 1995 and 2004, nearly the entire time of his employment there, and later committed suicide, said Steven ... More

    Reminder - the Auckland Save TVNZ 7 Funeral March is tomorrow (Saturday 30th) at 4.30pm.

    This is the finale. We had a great march yesterday in Wellington and we hope the Auckland march will be even better.

    Reminder - the Auckland Save TVNZ 7 Funeral March is tomorrow (Saturday 30th) at 4.30pm.
    Starting at Queen Elizabeth Square (Britomart) at 4.30pm, we then walk up Queen Street, Victoria Street West, past TVNZ to St Matthew-in-the-City for speeches. We know the media will be out in force to get shots of us filing past the TVNZ building so please come along and show your support for public service television.

    As well as protesting the government's decision we are also mourning the loss of our last public service television channel. Please bring flowers or a candle and tell your friends to come along too. It's a chance to be amongst friends as we remember and celebrate one of the best television channels in New Zealand's history.

    The weather forecast is looking good so please come along for a fun, festive 'funeral'.


    Wellington March Update

    The march yesterday exceeded all our expectations. Around 400 TVNZ 7 'saviours' loudly marched to Parliament where the petition with 36,155 signatures was presented to Labour Broadcasting Spokeswoman Clare Curran. It was officially handed over by three generations of TVNZ 7 fans - Anne Fyfe, Kirsty Fyfe and Elliot Baguley. There were rousing speeches from Clare Curran, Julie Anne Genter (Greens Broadcasting Spokeswoman), Andrew Williams (NZ First), Peter Dunne (United Future Leader), Grant Robertson (Labour Deputy) and Russell Norman (Greens Co-Leader).

    Pictures and videos are available in the links below.
    http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=46106
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/7187624/TVNZ7-funeral-march-protest-in-Wellington


    And here's some more links to the many news items and media releases around the closure of TVNZ 7.

    http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/kim-dotcom-backs-tvnz-7-in-station-s-dying-days-4948733
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1206/S00194/public-disservice-broadcasting-the-shameful-demise-of-tvnz7.htm
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10816105
    http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nz-politics-daily-public-broadcasting-strangled-labour-national-ck-122389
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/best-of-political-analysis/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502734&objectid=10816107
    http://blog.labour.org.nz/2012/06/26/a-bit-depressing/
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/auckland-city-harbour-news/7186050/Funeral-for-a-friend-as-death-of-public-television-mourned
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/7187624/TVNZ7-funeral-march-protest-in-Wellington
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1206/S00202/a-funeral-for-public-broadcasting.htm
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/blogs/on-the-box/7189991/Farewell-TVNZ7-but-whats-next

    See you tomorrow afternoon.

    Na matou, noa na

    Myles Thomas and the Save TVNZ 7 team