The Publishing Landscape

I was thinking about where we place the black dog list, what are some of things that drive the list, and where publishing in this country is going in general. As a publisher we want our books not only to entertain but inform. We want the reader to finish a book thinking something new, to be surprised, to have their world view shifted - at least a little.

The Twilight and Harry Potter series entertain, and they've led thousands of children to reading, which is a great thing. But I don't think they inform. They reinforce preconceptions rather than alter them. They entertain by not challenging the reader. We want to do something different at black dog. Carole Wilkinson's Dragonkeeper informs the reader of what it is to be like to be nameless and illiterate, without an obvious talent, yet find the strength within herself; Sue Lawson's After (August) will alter a reader's view of being cool. Karen Tayleur's Hostage (October) will illuminate the reader's view on deceit.

The landscape of publishing is changing - the licks are getting bigger. The mid-list is disappearing. The demand on marketing budgets is increasing. The short-term is strengthening over the long term. The independent booksellers are under pressure. Does that leave us with a less diverse, less interesting publishing and literary landscape?

Are we less willing (as retailers and consumers) to support ambitious writing?

new vogue

A word that is coming into vogue: optic.

as in: "The optic to view much in north Australian indigenous affairs is …" Nicholas Rothwell The Australian July 18-19 2009

Who's bigger Harry or Stephanie?

The Harry Potter series have sold over 400 million copies and the Twilight series has sold over 50 million. Harry, with seven books in the series, was first published in 1997 (11 years ago) and Twilight, with four book in the series - the last was published in 2005 just three years ago. The last Harry Potter was published in 2005 and the last Stephanie Meyer was published last year, and not in the first half. Twilight as a franchise is looking like it is even bigger than Harry.

Will the next mega-YA/crossover/fantasy series be even bigger?

entertaining …

… challenge

Bulwer Lytton competition

I preferred the runners up! (So short should this have been a tweet?)

not back lit

One of the pleasures of the Sony ereader for me is that it ain't backlit. With the constant use of phone and computer my eyes get tired of backlit screens. I'm wondering whether other people are finding the same an advantage?

in praise of the ereader

I'm really enjoying my Sony E-reader. I'm worried. Have I fallen out of love with paper? Or is this just an infatuation with the new. I've been reading manuscripts - it saves paper as I don't have to lug around a huge hefty wad of paper. (Are we going to be driven to ebooks for environmental reasons?) And more - I have access to a whole lot of manuscripts. I can pick and choose -wow! I can browse manuscripts. And I can read in odd moments like I do with a book. And I never lose my place. (And I never discovered I've printed out the whole script without page numbers.) But that's really manuscripts not books. I have one book on there. A book from an overseas publisher (a pdf), so it doesn't feel like a book being read for pleasure (though I'm absorbed). I do get lost though and went back to the computer once and its larger screen to get a sense of where I was in the pdf.

I think they'll take a while to takeoff though especially with teens and even kids. Except as an act of desperation, the phone screen is too small for comfortable reading. The ereaders are expensive (and they're no here yet!) Maybe electronic paper will be the iTunes moment for books. The genres will be conquered first.

What about non-linear books like our non-fiction picture books? Will they ever make and ebook?

Why children's books are underpriced

It's interesting that we expect to pay less for things for children. On Wednesday mornings I go to exercise class with Miles, my ten year old, and we only pay for one. I realised this morning I just expect that. Cinema tickets for children are cheaper, and there's of course student discounts on public transport. And so it is with children's books - we expect to pay less for them than for adult books, even though they cost no less for the publisher to produce. Given the importancy of literacy and a readiness to read to a healthy prosperous society, you might think we'd be willing to pay more, which means there's a lot of unpriced social benefits in children's books.

Short history - only two and a half years

twitter history

Twitter excitement

A catalytic moment that news of Michael Jackson's death circulated first by twitter.

Then people went to the newspapers for more information. (There's only so much you can say in 140 characters.)

Radio didn't disappear when television came along. Reports of the death of paper media have been much exaggerated. But the business models are changing. Newspapers can no longer expect to be subsidized by advertising, or at least classified advertising.

It's an exciting time to be in the media.

interesting:

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=4782

‘Why do children love them [my characters] ? Because I believe in them. Mine aren’t made up. They are real...I don’t sit down to write a story, they come.’

Joshua Gans wrong-headed in the Age

Joshua Gans wrote in the Opinion pages of the Age yesterday: "Here is a curious fact, as an Australian, I cannot buy my own book." In fact, he can buy his own book and he's lucky to be able to buy it in two editions, the Australian edition published by New South or the US edition published by MIT Press. What he's concerned about is that he is unable to buy the Kindle edition for $12.59.

He believes that somehow the removal of the parallel import restrictions, or territorial copyright provisions, would make his book more available to the Austraian reader, and available on Kindle here in Australia What Mr Gans is not appreciating is that this removal would increase the likelihood of his book not being available at all or maybe just in an Australian edition, if he was lucky. The removal of the PIRs would mean there was less incentive for his Australian publisher to sell his rights overseas. It would also mean that his Australian publisher would have greater difficulty publishing his book at all. He could of course go direct to a US publisher but without the incentive of a successful Australian edition his chances would be much reduced of finding a US publisher.

Would his US publisher make the book available here? There's a good chance they would not. And if they did, it wouldn't receive the support an Australian based publisher would give it. There's a good chance as an Australian author Mr Gans would not find his book in his own land.

Amazon has chosen not to make the Kindle available here as yet. That's why he can't buy the Kindle version of his book not because 'publishers [intellectual monopoly holders] have not done the deals to make it possible'.

ban the ebook

The Book Fair in Madrid has banned ebooks - "solo papel". If I'm understanding "Soybits" correctly (with my almost non-existent  Spanish), ebook companies are not allowed to have stands.

Odd. but the Spanish can be such fierce traditionalists.

Aggregators

In the new world of ebooks, the booksellers are called aggregators. Not an elegant and inspiring term. Functional.

The differences

The differences between Australian and US publishing sneak up on me, and startle me. I have a hard time getting my head around the Spring/Fall system of seasonal publishing. US publishers are surprised that we don't publish in season but by month - continuously. The seasonal system does iron out some monthly ups and downs, and makes catalogue production a whole lot easier. 

There's also a love of imprints over here. They proliferate. Some branded with an editor's name. I guess its a response to having a much bigger market. 

And there's the distinction between hardback and paperback imprints. And comes across as quite a gap. Upstairs, downstairs.

And there's no half-way house of the trade paperback.

BEA 2009

We've had a good BEA - maybe that first-time honeymoon experience. But the mood has been glum. Attendances down. Sales in bookshops shrinking. Fear of that "iTunes moment" devastating the printed book industry. Newspapers and magazines - the other print media - closing down.  I can see the "Streamline Moderne" magnificence of  McGraw Hill building as I walk to and from the fair. A testament to the past?

McGraw Hill now makes the bulk of its profits from the rating agency Standard & Poor. Maybe book publishing is about to become a rust belt industry. But I think reports of its death are overstated. Everybody enjoys a moment of mourning (NY Times yesterday article: "Declining sales cast gloom at an expo") but e-books are still a tiny percentage of book sales - $100 million out $25 billion. 

The e-books side of things is exciting and seductive, but I'm thinking it will happen more slowly than the fears of the last few days.

Carnegie and Kate Greenaway award shortlist links

Carnegie

The unifying theme of this year's list is "The complicated business of growing up, particularly as experienced by teenage boys".

And most of the writers are men, maybe unsurprisingly if that's the theme. Is that narrow for such an award?

BOYCE, FRANK COTTRELL COSMIC
Macmillan (Age range: 8+)
ISBN: 9781405054645

BROOKS, KEVIN BLACK RABBIT SUMMER
Puffin (Age range: 14+)
ISBN: 9780141381459

COLFER, EOIN AIRMAN
Puffin (Age range: 9+)
ISBN: 9780141383354

DOWD, SIOBHAN BOG CHILD 
David Fickling Books (Age range: 12+)
ISBN: 9780385614269

GRAY, KEITH OSTRICH BOYS
Definitions (Age range: 12+)
ISBN: 9780099456575

NESS, PATRICK THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO
Walker (Age range: 14+)
ISBN: 9781406310252

THOMPSON, KATE CREATURE OF THE NIGHT
Bodley Head (Age range: 14+)
ISBN: 9780370329291

Greenaway

"The shortlist for the 2009 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, announced today, demonstrates that picture books are not just for the youngest children but can entertain and enchant all age-groups."

It's interesting to see Bob Graham listed in both the CBCA and the Greenaway.

The CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Shortlist 2009

BARRETT, ANGELA (text by Paul Gallico) THE SNOW GOOSE
Hutchinson (Age range: 10+)
9780091893828

CRASTE, MARC (text by Helen Ward) VARMINTS
Templar (Age range: 7+)
9781840113235

DOCHERTY, THOMAS LITTLE BOAT
Templar (Age range: 3+)
9781840118261

GRAHAM, BOB HOW TO HEAL A BROKEN WING
Walker (Age range: 3+)
9781406307160

JEFFERS, OLIVER THE WAY BACK HOME
Harper Collins (Age range: 3+)
9780007182282

MCKEAN, DAVE (text by David Almond) THE SAVAGE
Walker (Age range: 10+)
9781406308150

RAYNER, CATHERINE HARRIS FINDS HIS FEET
Little Tiger Press (Age range: 3+)
9781845065898

WORMELL, CHRIS MOLLY AND THE NIGHT MONSTER
Jonathan Cape (Age range: 3+)
9780224070737

a typographic moment at the Wall Street Journal

link

"local books endangered"

Mem Fox has put it neatly in a letter to The Australian that the government earns more from her writing than she does (10% GST v 5% picture book royalty for the author) and with the repeal of PIRs "quintessentially Australian children's books will disappear from our culture and our children will grow up American. End of story."

also worth a look

I'm ploughing my way through the PC submissions. It's educational but masochistic for an Easter Monday - the revised submissions are due in on Friday though. I'd recommend reading Kate Grenville's submission.

Shows you what a dog can do

especially an Australian dog

more independent Australian children's publishers

I forgot Ford Street and I'll go back and correct the post.

Passion

I'm just back from the Productivity Commission roundtable. I was impressed by what a passionate lot we are in the book industry - authors, publishers (small and big) and printers. And how little we are understood outside our industry, and what a bad job we do of communicating what we do, how we do it, and what we are doing for the greater good — until we are pushed.

Australia's contribution to works in the English language

According to Peter Donoughue, Australia contributes 2% of the number of works in the English language; and according to my rough calculations we make up 0.5% of English first language speakers. So we're punching well above our weight. 

"authorship will be everywhere and nowhere"

link

This triggered thoughts about what's going to happen to long-form narrative (aka the book) and to the unique author's voice that comes out of effort and time invested in writing.

A useful list of independent Australian children's pubishers

With the help of the Productivity Commission I've come up with this list of independent Australian publishers as I wanted a picture of this particular slice of our industry.

Black dog (of course) and now in no particular order:

Working Title Press (Jane Covnerton) - gorgeous picture books

Little Hare - broad list but stronger at the picture book end - 50 books a year and six staff.

Wilkins Farago (Andrew Wilkins) - focused on translated picture books as a foundation but Andrew's added a rich diversity on top of that. (1 1/2 staff)

New Frontier - strong focus on picture books and best known for Zen tales series  (two short-listings in the Crichton Award this year)

Brolly Books (Emma Borghesi and Andrew Adam) - strong focus creating books for international markets.

Koala Books  - the core of the list is rights purchasing from overseas.

Era (Rod Martin) - strongly education but also some superb picture books.

Ford Street (Paul Collins) - newer than most with an interesting focus on YA.

And then  a few that are harder to categorize:

Omnibus (Dyan Blacklock) - part of a larger group, but independent in spirit.

Walker Books - a magnificently global independent. 26 staff, and $11 million in turnover, and published 28 Australian created books in 2008. (Sebastian Walker's bio is definitely worth a read.)

Allen & Unwin - too big to be classified as an independent?

Hardie Grant Egmont - part of a larger group, and with a relationship to Egmont UK. Quite focussed publishing, with Go Girls and Zac Power.

Fremantle Arts Centre Press - ngo but independent in spirit.

Magabala Press - ngo and unique.

UQP - ngo, and I'm not sure where they're placing their emphasis in terms of the their children's publishing

Woolshed (Leonie Tyle) - owned by a multinational, but with an independent spirit.

Text - YA focus, part-owned offshore, and with a strong emphasis on rights buying.

I'm less familiar with New Zealand but Longacre and Gecko spring to mind.

I'm sure I've forgotten someone - so apologies, but let me know and I can expand the list.  It struck me what a short but rich list it is. 

book industry figures

Here's a quick snapshot of the book industry courtesy of the Productivity Commisssion Discussion Paper:

The industry is worth $2.5 billion in consumer dollars. or $1.8 billion in what the publishers earn. Foreign rights(and stock) account for $220 million of the that. Direct sales by publishers are estimated to be 15% of the market (I'm assuming of publishers' revenue) or $270 million. 

Education is 40% of the pie, and trade is 60%, which surprised me given that education is everything-but-trade. Trade books are the sort of books you buy in a bookshop, and education includes, primary, secondary, tertiary, scholarly and reference. 

9% of the market is trade children's, which is an understatement as children's books are sold to a lot of schools, so maybe 12%. Adult trade fiction is 15% of the market and adult trade non-fiction is 36% of the market. Adult trade non-fiction includes narrative non-fiction as well as self-help and say cookery (a form of self-help?)

Dividing up the bookselling market by type of bookseller: the chains have 55% and independents 20% and the DDSs (Target, Kmart, Woolworths) 25%. The DDS share has grown sharply in the last 10 years. 

Online sales are estimated to be $100m or 5% of the market. 

What's interesting is how much the figures bounced around when I tried to nail them down.

Worth a look

The story is that this video was submitted for a contest entitled "u @ 50" — by a 20 year old.

link

Bit lit: aka paranormal romance, or vampire books

A delightful term. We were introduced to it yesterday by Audrey (our French intern) in her presentation on French publishing. 

SKUs

Books were once books, then, as business theory took over publishers, books became "products", and now books are SKUs!

buying versus borrowing

It is interesting that the books that sell are not the ones that are voted the most popular in the library. 

On reflection: a vote is an expression of what people think they should read rather than what they're actually reading. I wonder what the bestsellers list would be for books set in Victoria or written by Victorians.

I was really pleased to see Vulgar Press's Radical Melbourne on the list.

link

Territorial copyright - a little more commentary

The key for me in the territorial copyright debate that is before the Productivity Commission at the moment is not that we defend the right of publishers to publish foreign editions here, though that's a natural corollary of a defence of territorial copyright. The key is a defence of the copyrights of Australian authors (and publishers). 

We should be worried about the rights and the income of the Carole Wilkinsons, the Morris Gleitzmans, the Terry Dentons and the Tim Wintons, worried about the significant risk of foreign editions of their works being brought back into this country and sold off cheaply, circumstances where they receive a reduced or no royalty. 

Authors, even famous and successful ones, earn little enough as it is, without their incomes being eroded to possibly and only possibly exert a vague "downward pressure" on prices. An open market or near open market will be a disincentive for Australian authors to write - fewer books will be written, fewer people will succeed as Australian authors, and fewer Australian books will be published by Australian publishers. 

The better author's incomes are the better the quality of work they produce - because of the time they will be able to devote to it. 

Heny Rosenboom on territorial copyright (aka parallel importation)

This is worth a read. Henry is as lucid and as expressive as he always is.

And for those us like me who were no chop as mathematicians as school here's an explanation of the phrase "to square the circle":

"(Math.) to determine the exact contents of a circle in square measure. The solution is now generally admitted  to be impossible." Sir W. Scott. 

And here's a link for further elucidation.

The PC ignores children's authors and publishers

The Productivity Commissions draft report is much on very much on the mind of every publisher. Mine too. 

One of my annoyances when I read the discussion draft is that the Commissioners have chosen to ignore children's books. As far as I know they spoke to no children's publisher and where the publisher had a children's division they didn't explicitly speak to them about children's books. 

I'm including literacy materials in the context of children's books here.

Certainly I've not heard of any of the independent specialist children's publishers being spoken to. Neither Rod Martin, Rod Hare, Jill Morris, Jane Covernton or Dyan Blacklock have been approached. I haven't been approached either. So a thriving and  innovative sector of the industry has been completely ignored. And it's an area where the independent publishers bring an enormous amount of creative added value.

And I don't know of any children's authors who were spoken to by the Commissioners. The primary literacy area supports an enormous number of authors. Some of who have continued to write fantastic readers and others who have gone on to write trade and even adult trade books. It's an incubator for authors. It's a vibrant, active, enthusiastic and often overlooked community of authors. And many of them made submissions - which the Commission chose to ignore.

It is an area that under an open market or under the 12 month rule will be squeezed, maybe hobbled, maybe destroyed. Being an independent children's publisher, whether in the education sector or the trade sector (and in children's books they overlap), is tough. Margins are tighter than in adult books because the prices are lower. Reading programs require a high investment up front, which means the publisher needs a global market and a long life for the books to get a return on the investment (to invest in new books). 

Much of the innovation in this sector, of course, comes from the independents. The success of independent primary readers was pioneered by independents like Wendy Pye and Sue Donovan. The PM Readers were originally published by Price Milburn, and Cengage then took them to an international success. So while the mulitnationals have been successful in this area they've depended on the pioneering work of the independents.

The success of selling our independent readers and literacy material leaves children's publishers vulnerable if we then open our own market (which is, even with the 12 month rule, what the PC is proposing). Literacy materials reach markets that trade publishers don't and it has the ability to manipulate and clear stock of books very quickly, to see a profit in sending books back into Australia and capitalize on it. 

growth but not in NSW

It is interesting to see that according to NSW government figures (Figure 8) the number of publishing businesses in NSW has declined but the number has increased in Australia as a whole

writers (and publishers) as sharecroppers

I like Andrew Brown's image of writers (and publishers) becoming sharecroppers for Google. It's an interesting analogy to play with.

The same could be said about iTunes/Apple - and musicians and music labels as well for audio books and ebooks Whether the owners of the channels become the new kings. There are plenty of choices out there of channel, but do the consumers want that much choice. Or like Google's dominance of search engines do they want an easy aggregated choice the works well in most circumstances. 

Are writers really sharecroppers for publishers anyhow? Are they exchanging one master for another. (I'd argue vehemently that the key role of the publisher is not distribution or marketing but adding or creating value through the working with authors in the editorial and book-design process and then building a brand through what they publish so readers come to the publisher confident of what they are going to buy - and come back to buy again. Old-fashioned maybe.) 

Productivity Commission interim report on territorial copyright

The Productivity Commission has release a discussion draft, which makes the ridiculous suggestion of territorial copyright protection for only 12 months from the date of first publication of a book in Australia.  It's a messy suggestion that implies that it is change for the sake of change. 

The 12-month idea doesn't recognize that it takes time to build an author or a book. It allows protection from importation when there is no risk of a book being imported. In most cases it is most unlikely for a book to have already been sold overseas by the time of first publication in Australia. For children's books (not something the Commission focussed on), overseas publishers want to see a track record here first before they purchase the rights. But when the book is a success the publisher and author have by then already lost the protection of territorial copyright, and aren't rewarded for the success.

This will make the mid-list, which is already under a lot of pressure, vanish. And the book market will come to be dominated by fewer and fewer "big-name" authors who will sell more, as they grow older. We will see fewer new Australian authors in bookshops, and fewer in turn will succeed. The next generation of truly successful authors (who earn as much as, say, an average football player) would have been coming from that now extinct mid-list.

One reason for the demise of the mid-list is that many of the large publishers/distributors don't hold stock in their warehouses for any period of time. A book either works immediately - or it doesn't. Setting a 12-month window will exacerbate this effect.

I don't think we can under-estimate the importance of books in reflecting, creating and securing an Australian culture. 

Our sense of ourselves is already being eroded by the rising waters of globalization. Soon we won't have a voice to take to the world unless there is a sense in our community that we have a voice we're prepared to defend. In time (under the 12 month rule) we will have less of a sense of ourselves and of our culture, and of our uniqueness. We're becoming pale versions of Americans (and the Americans do such an admirable job of celebrating themselves and their culture), and if the 12-month proposal gets up we've made another step along that path.

designer to film

Paramount are doing a film (with Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman attached) of the  "Important Artifacts … ( and long fashionable title follows)" by Leanne Shapton. The book is a faux catalogue of the auction that follows a couple's breakup. Leanne is a book designer. What a concept for a book!

here's one link

and a intriguing interview with Leanne Shapton on YouTube

Thompson and Shakespeare

We had an entertaining publicity meeting with Tony Thompson (Shakespeare: The Most Famous Man in London, May release . Tony's blog is to start soon, and Tony is never short of an opinion so it will make entertaining reading on Shakespeare and topics literary. 

And here are some interesting Shakespeare links we've come up with:

excavation

portrait

more on the portraits

even more portraits

The Rose

text of the plays

Scattheart reviews

There are some lovely reviews of Lili Wilkinson's Scatterheart on Amazon UK (following on from the gorgeous quotes from Waterstone's booksellers, which I'll put here in a little while. This a story that resonates with the British.

the reality v the idea of being published

It's frustrating sometimes that there is the reality of  publishing and then there's the idea of what publishing should be about that many authors, especially first time authors, hold. And there can be quite a gap. The myth of publishing is often much stronger than anything we can say about what the process is really going to be like.

In my publishing world: some good books fail and some bad books succeed, and there is never a guarantee of success. Critical successes are sometimes best-sellers and sometime not. Hard work helps, but success strikes at surprising times. Publishing is illogical and strange, and like any business, it involves risk, and risk management, which is one of the thing that makes an exciting business to be in. It's certainly not "fair".

Fishpond

I see Fishpond claiming to be Australia's biggest online bookstore. Some other bookstores might argue with the "biggest"; and they are based in Auckland but that's maybe suitable payback for Australian publishers always wanting ANZ rights for books they buy. 

http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/

Shakespeare quote

I'm really thrilled that John Bell (of Bell Shakespeare Company fame) has given us a quote for the cover of Tony Thompson's  "Shakespeare: the Most Famous Man in London". Editor Melissa wouldn't let John get away and landed a beautify handwritten letter with the quote: "This is an exciting read that takes us straight to the heart of Shakespeare's life and times. It gives his plays and illuminating context."

Many thanks, John.

"Shakespeare: The Most Famous Man in London" (ISBN 978-1-74203-070-8) is a May release, $18.99 RRP and it is part of the Drum series.

online is big

Everything online is the biggest or the best or the largest or at least the top:

"the top independent eBook seller in the world"

"Australia's largest book store"

"Australia's Biggest Online Bookstore" - note the use of capitals

"The world's leading source of ebooks"

and so it goes on …

Dinosaur designs

… have a good strong green statement with plenty of detail and they make lovely jewellery (Maryann is a fan). One Planet have an interesting statement with less detail but plenty of authenticity. 

(PS We offset the personal and business use of our cars.)

paper impact

As publishers our major impact on the environment is the paper we use in books. We're a comparatively small user of paper though - much more is used in photocopiers and and much much more in disposable catalogues (which are "recyclable" as is noted cheekily on the covers of most). Still that's not an excuse and we reckon at black dog we need to use paper responsibly so we're working to coming to an understanding of how the paper we use impacts on the environment. 

It would be easy to make a bromide green statement on our website but we've held off doing that till we can say something that has some content. At the moment we're exploring our paper options among other things. (We do do all the usual things around the office: green electricity, turning lights off when not needed, recycling paper, printing double sided where appropriate etc.)

 All the paper we use with Australian printers is from sustainable sources and where possible is PEFC and FSC certified and we endeavour to print on FSC papers when we print overseas.

The main impact that paper has is though the trees cut down for conversion into paper, the water consumed in making paper and the chemicals released in the production of the paper (which can be quite nasty).

Here are some useful links:

Global Forest Watch

FSC

PEFC

Wind from a bestseller

It's interesting to see Alex Duval's books in the Nielsen children's top 10 - two titles!. They're being pick up in Stephanie Meyer's tailwind.

territorial copyright

If you want to argue that territorial copyright is protectionist (as some commentators are) then you're arguing that copyright is protectionist ( which I guess it is - like any property law).

Kindle - text to audio at the same spot

It's interesting that one of the features of the new Kindle is that you can switch from reading the book to listening to it at the point where you left off. I'd like that feature on my iPhone. 

My consumption of ebooks and audiobooks has shot up since I got an iPhone, more the audio than the e. But sometimes when I'm listening to a book I want to transfer to reading it, and then back to listening to it. Revolutionary for me.

Twitter

I'm trying to figure out how it works. And Twitter is going to link to this blog - I hope.

Shorts and Numbers for Shortlist

Congratulations to Reggie Abios for being short-listed in the APA design awards in TWO categories with a black dog in each:

"Short" in the Best Designed Children's Fiction Book category

and

"A Story of Natural Numbers" in the Best Designed Children's Non-fiction Book category.

Whoo-wee.

Antarctica

I was reminded of Dr Mark Norman terrific The Antarctica Book this morning when reading about a recently completed wildlife survey of Antarctica. The Antarctica has a diversity rivalling that of the Great Barrier Reef: 7500 animals in the region. Interestingly 235 of the species are found both here and in the North Pole region some 11,000 km away (polar circle to polar circle?). And the species are on the move as the seas warm. The WWF called for an expansion of protected areas.

Productivity Commission

The submissions to the Productivity Comission project "Copyright Restrictions on the Parallel Importation of Books" give a snapshot of the state of play of Australian book publishing industry. A browse through rewards the effort. They could be recommended course reading for editing and publishing courses. The Hardie Grant submission makes particularly good reading.

if you fly regularly …

don't watch this video

Taiwan Lantern Festival

nice

News Corp profits from book publishing

It's interesting that News Corp's operating profit from publishing reduced from US$67m in the December quarter 07 to  US$23m in December quarter 08. It's not looking very recession proof. Can we (in publishing) take heart from television, which declined from US$245 down to US$18m?

a story about a black dog

link

net pricing? I don't think so.

Where would we be without RRP? Here's an extract from an emailed ad from a prominent bookselling chain:

* Offer ends 31st December 2008. Percentage off Publisher's Recommended Retail price. Excludes already reduced titles, educational text books, DVDs, CDs, videos, online digital and audible products, online purchases, gift cards and special orders.

Without RRP, as an industry, we have no baseline, and because as an industry we have so many products coming out each month, there needs to a measure of value for the consumer. That seems to be one of the over-riding features of our industry - a lot of fresh "product" monthly. It's why the discount department stores like books - fresh new "product" to bring in the shoppers. It's a lottery, a gamble, a horse-race (which is part of the excitement) but a few of those books will be winners.

The arguments for net pricing all seem to be part of the same general argument of which the particular arguments against territorial copyright form a part - "let's unfetter the retailer to maximize profit". Is the intent a transfer of profit from the author and publisher and other creators?

National Youth Self Portrait Prize 2009

The National Portrait Gallery is running a competition. The gallery invites all young Australians between 18 and 25 to enter. (I'm not sure why the lower limit is so old.) 

future of children's TV shows

At black dog, we're passionate about Australian children finding themselves in Australian books - fiction and non-fiction - as well as being being able to read the best in the world. We don't want the local to be swamped by the global. So, it's always interesting to see what is happening in the parallel world of children's television. And the comments of the British TV executive Nigel Pickard are fascinating in today's Green Guide in the Age. It's not online as yet so I can't provide a link as yet, but I'll come back and do so.

The comments that resonated with me:

"Almost every territory you go in to in the world, the top 10 programs will be local programs. You only have to look at what's happening here in Australia with the success of domestic drama this year against bought in drama things like Underbelly and Packed to the Rafters. It's the same for kids' audiences; those shows rate well and have a resonance for the audience."

And while stressing that his campaign for more locally produced content is not an attack on US content (or Oz content in the UK market): "It's a question of balance and ensuring that you have programs available to these kids that does reflect their own culture and lifestyle. A good program is a good program (regardless of origin); just make sure there's enough from your own territory."

His plea for regulation on broadcasters for local content sits well, I think, with the Australian publishers defence of territorial copyright — we have to actively defend local content in TV and in books.

Worth a look if you're interested in cover design

here

especially Mark Melnick's comments below. Penguin US with a $0 design budget?!

Mr Carr's argument for the elimination of territorial copyright

Bob Carr's article in the Weekend Australian (‘The Forum’ 13-14 December 2008) made for interesting reading.

I don't see that removing territorial copyright restriction will mean more books in working-class homes, especially children's books, which I read as the core of Mr Carr's article. I just don't see the argument that books will be cheaper if territorial copyright is removed. We're a market that covers a lot of miles internally and is far away from most other places, especially the US and the UK (the main book markets), so we're expensive to ship books to and to ship them around, so our books will be comparatively expensive however they are sourced. Look at the P&P costs Amazon charges.

There will be fewer children's books in Australian homes (that include children) if Australian children can't find themselves in the books they read. In the long run they'll be less interested in the reading habit if they're always having to read about other people, somewhere else. Is an open market a disincentive to local publishing? I think it is. If we're successful, as publisher and author, first here and then we sell overseas then a bookseller can import these successful books from the foreign publisher and cut our revenue and our author's revenue, then we'll both be struggling to survive professionally. It's the successful books in terms of sales that keep us around to publish another day. Eliminating territorial copyright would be disincentive to sell our books overseas, which the Australian children's publishing industry has been extremely good at doing. Eliminating territorial copyright condemns us to being an importing culture not an exporting culture. Neither the US or the UK are planning to get rid of their territorial copyright provisions.

lovely old Adelaide

I'm just coming to the end of a trip to Adelaide. A very pleasant trip. It's just such an easy city, nothing is too far from anything else including the airport from the city. And everybody has been so charming. Adelaide has done such a good job of keeping its old buildings. And they're gorgeous. When I visit Perth and Brisbane I come away with the impression that anything old gets knocked down

But Adelaide is different. Just down the road from my hotel is the Harbour Board building. A lovely old building that weighs a thousand tonnes, but it was put on rollers and rolled wholesale along a steel runway using hydraulic rams some 34 metres down the road. That's commitment to  a built environment

PS And the people have been courteous and thoughtful, driving me here and dropping me there. Thanks for the lifts Dyan and Jane.

Patrick Ness wins Booktrust

I'm pleased that Patrick Ness has won the Booktrust Teenage Prize for The Knife of Never Letting Go. I'm pleased for Patrick, but also pleased for myself as I'm halfway through it. It shows my good taste! Kate and Melissa at black dog recommended it to me.

warm reception to Lili's Scatterheart in the UK

Lili Wilkinson's Scatterheart just missed being shortlisted in the Waterstone's prize but got some fabulous comments from Waterstone's booksellers:


I loved this book!! I was lucky enough to be allowed to read it first in our store as I had forgotten my book. I loved the convict/Australian story was superb and really enjoyed the fantasy tale running all the way through it. I thought the characters were complex, no two-dimmensional disney baddies with twirly moustaches here!

I enjoyed this book so much, that as soon as I had finished I wanted to share it with someone else, but also went straight on-line to see if it was available to buy from anywhere now. Want my own copy!!

Loved it! I thought the way that the tale of Scatterheart ran alongside the main story was great, the parallels were not too obvious but it did give the story a nice 'fairy-tale' feel. Great characters, great story - definately one for the shortlist!

I actually really really liked it, ending was a bit short though, but I loved how it didn't shy away from some issues.

Definately one for the shortlist . I love Historical novels and this did not disappoint .The parts in Newgate Gaol and on board ship were the best bits for me.The stories about Scatterheart were also fascinating .

A gritty (Celia Reesish ?) teen novel that somehow manages to be both intensely real, moving and compelling - but also manages to be this year's North Child. Or should that be South Child?
Sheer'Quality'.

I really enjoyed this. The ending did feel a little flat but I loved the fairy tale and the story was so exciting that I started the first page and didn't put it down at all until I finished.
I loved this one too. I do understand some of the comments about the ending but I think it would have spoiled it if we had found out too much about what happened next.

A great read, has to be on the short list!

I loved this book, it really captured me.

One girl's adventure to find happiness, becomes a fairytale within a fairytale. A romantic story of love, power and elitism. Being a woman of quality isn't easy for 14 year old Hannah, however, making the right decisions in love is harder. after being made poor and put in jail, innocent though she is, she soon discovers a hardship that she never thought possible and would open her eyes to life and love.

With marvellous characters to love and hate and a capturing tale, this book will take you on a heartfelt journey.

This was wonderful!!!

Of what i have read so far to do with the prize this is my fave. adventure, love and characters you can't help but like.

I'll join in the praise! I thought it was a compelling read - especially on board the ship. I thought the characters were really well drawn and was terrified but fascinated by the way Hannah's life completely changed in a heartbeat. For me, 'Scatterheart' will be hard to beat!
Just found out Lili is the daughter of Carole Wilkinson who writes the Dragon Keeper series...
I really liked it, even though it's not something I'd normally choose to read, however the ending was a bit too brief

Was really not expecting to like this as it's not my usual kind of book, but I was thoroughly surprised by how much I took to it. Couldn't wait to keep reading it. So realistic and not at all shy about the grittier details of life. Only negative was the end which all seemed half-hearted and was a bit of a let down. But maybe that was the idea.

I absolutely loved this book! I couldn't put it down on my holiday last week. I can see where people are coming from with the ending, but I thought the rest of the book was so compelling that in a way it didn't matter. This one really deserves to be on the shortlist and I hope it makes it.

Love, love, loved it! A real journey in physical and emotional terms. I think the ending was spot on, I won't ruin it, but hopeful without being unrealistic. Definitely for fans of Celia Rees' wonderful Witch Child.

Rifling through the box, this was the book which first sparked my interest I waited a bit then launched into it. I will be very careful what I say because so far this book seems to have gathered a lot of admirers and there is nothing worse than having someone rubbish a book you love.

I didn't like Hannah at first but that was the point of her character development. She was much less self-centred and cold by the end

I'm gonna join the majority on this one too!
Thought it was fantastic and will definately put this on my shortlist choice.
It's well written, engaging, and gritty. I love reading stuff about Australian History (although I hated it when I was at school) Every other kids book I've ever read on this topic has skirted all the horrible nasty bits and I love that this didn't. This seems a very good contender.
This is another one taht I wanted to love, there is so little written about the convict trail to Australia that I thought I'd love it from the start.

As a teenager I know that I would have disliked the fairy tale element being mixed with the histoircal and would have wanted one or the other. I don't mind it so now but the book still left me feeling uncomfortable and to be honest a little grubby.

I'm from the exact area the book talks about. The representations are reasonably accurate - but we're talking fiction here so I'll let her off the hook with a few uh-ohs.

Spoiler alert: such a shame when Long Meg went - She was my favourite!

I liked the device of linking Hannah's story to Scatterheart's. I think Hannah's character was well and believably developed.

Loved Long Meg!

Just misses my top 9.

i loved it.
i liked the way that the characters developed for the reader when they developed for hannah: so i hated long meg first, then distrusted her then loved her. and james i thought was a bit of a saviour then he was a 1st class git. and thomas was beneath her then i knew she loved him and i loved how she grew and matured (earlier than her years, remember- if she'd stayed at home she'd have never learnt anything about anything!) i loved the interwoven fairytale (although, it meant nothing at all until she got on the ship and it started to unravel and keep her going through the rough bits). i thought that the captain was a nice man and that he knew she got full rations after the brig and he only had her head shaved so it didn't look like he favoured her. and james wasn't entirely bad, he just turned that way (rumour didn't help...) after hannah broke his heart.

ooh, and! i've read The Floating Brothel too (see acknowledgements) - it was ace, but full of naughty! (so i felt like i could fill in the gaps that naive hannah couldn't...)
shame The Hunger Games has to win, this could have been a contender.

I really enjoyed this book. The mixture of fairy tale and gritty history worked so well. I was enchanted by Hannah's journey all the way through (and polar bears are my favourite animal!) Definitely one for the shortlist.

This was a quality bit of storytelling and if anything is going to give 'Hunger Games' a run for its money - it's this. Proper period writing [literally], infectious characters [literally]...stop me someone please! Hey i just really enjoyed this and this has been another story set on a boat that's been great.

The Man behind "Keating"

Casey Bennetto is a genius. If the show " The History of the Speigeltent" ever returns  do make it a priority to make it along for typically excellent Bennetto entertainment. The song. "Show Don't Tell" should be compulsory listening for every writing course.

JK's take

There's been some, in my opinion, sanctimonious horror at JK Rowlings take of some 300 million dollars last year. I thought it was fantastic - a writer more than recognized for her work financially.

Fantasy

Will the coming hard economic times mean the end of the rise and rise of fantasy?

Schoolyard dialogue

I've been reading books and manuscript with schoolyard settings and I'm interested to note that so much of these books are driven by dialogue, more so than other YA books. I'm wondering whether historical fiction has more explanatory background - and less dialogue?

new clause in Random UK's author contract for children's books

Can an author then terminate a contract if a publisher chooses to publish a book or an author which damages by association the author's reputation as a person suitable to work with or be associated with children?

The UK publishers seem to be determinedly on a course of irritating and aggravating children's authors.

entertainment law

The Age was entertaining in terms of publishing law this morning.

Harry Nicolaides is being held in remand in Bangkok for insulting the crown (the technical charge is the nicely old -fashioned, if not a little medieval, "Lese Majeste". In 2005 he wrote and published a novel Versimilitude in which he criticised the Thai crown prince. A warrant was issued in March this year but Nicolaides was unaware of it. Nicolaides said only 50 copies were printed and on seven were sold. There's a good amount of self-promotion on the web about the book, couched in breathlessly enthusiastic terms. If the Thai government wanted to promote the little known book and air its claims to a wide audience, arresting Nicolaides has achieved that.

RDR Books in Michigan lost its case to publisher the Harry Potter lexicon.
"The Lexicon contains a troubling amount of direct quotation or close paraphrasing of Rowling's original language. More often the original language is copied without quotation marks. Because the Lexicon appropriates too much of Rowling's creative work for it's purposes as a reference guide, a permanent injunction must be issued to prevent the possible proliferation of works that do the same." Judge Robert Patterson.

PS the Booker shortlist:
Steve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole (Australia)
Aravind Adig,a The White Tiger (India)
Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies (india)
Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture (Ireland)
Linda Grant, The Clothes on Their Backs (Britain)
Phillip Hensher, The Northern Clemency (Britain)

Didgeridoo offence

Interesting and challenging.

And for a little more detail.

How accurate does historical fiction need to be?

new conservatism

If I'm hearing correctly, there is a rising new conservatism among librarians in schools (including government schools) with Islamic students about exposed flesh on book covers - and about sexual language between the covers.

More so than in the recent past, librarians seem not to be buying material that could offend for fear of parental complaint. And it's true of many schools, that explicitly declare themselves to be Christian.

The Jewel of Medina

Now that's interesting …

worth …

a read

police English

I found this excellent example of the oddly imprecise precision of police English in today's Age:

"When he saw the police he turned the gun on himself and he is now deceased."

Detective Senior Sergeant Stuart Bronson

The age-ranging debate is certainly an interesting one

I just can't see that age-banding on the backs of books will actually persuade people who don't buy books (for children) to go out and buy them.

From another English commenter:

From my years of sales experience at Walker Books I found all level of age banding on shelves, displays, removable stickers simply did not achieve a great result. The majority of booksellers in the large stores would run a mile to avoid 'that messy kids section'!

Which left me feeling that my sense that booksellers often undercook the kids section was absolutely right.

age ranging

I liked this age-ranging quote from Alan Garner:

Books are not shoes. They are not shirts. They have no sell-by, nor read-by dates. Their content is a unique creative interaction between text and reader. The evidence of my correspondence files going back nearly half a century show an age span of more than sixty years of people willing to engage and re-engage with the same titles. Whoever devised age banding knows how to sell detergents.

Statistics from a somewhat comparable country

Here's some snapshot Canadian publishing statistics from Statistics Canada.

From 2005 to 2006 operating revenues dropped 1.2% after a 3.2% in 2005. Expenses were up almost 1% and added all together the profit was down to 10.3% from 12.1%.

So up a little, down a little - just statistical noise for me.

The more interesting bit was that the export of books was up - and the Canadians seem to have been working hard on this, harder than the Australians and it seems to be paying off.

And even more interesting: while household were spending less on books, magazines and periodicals the trend has been for quite a bit more on books (average household spending on books rose from $86 in 1998 to $111 in 2005).

top publishers

The top 7 publishers in the world by 2007 revenue are:

1 Thomson

2 Pearson

3 Bertelsman

4 Reed Elsevier

5 Wolters Kluwer

6 Hachette Livre

7 Planeta + Editis

which to me shows the strength of educational (i.e. non-trade) publishing

Greenwash

There's a lot of greenwash slopping around (including a bit among publishers - the best contribution would in some cases just not to publish that unnecessary bit of consumer flummery that no-one really benefits from). The best example of greenwashing I've come across recently is the Marbig Enviro Box - just the same old cardboard box - it's just as recyclable as the Strong Archive Box and the Super Strong Archive Box, which are also in the Marbig lines,, and made from just as much recycled board (100%) -  but excitingly it's been given a new environmental friendly name.

back to paper

I had a drink with my an illustrator friend the other night, down at the Builder's Arms. He announced that having been down the electronic route but he'd returned to paper. He'd found that the micromovements of electronic rendering on a tablet could place an strain on very specific muscles in the arm. I've always associated muscle damage to Herculean physical efforts involving big weights - the thought of tiny little repetitious movements doing damage was a surprise.

He added that he was enjoying painting on paper, especially enjoying the textural feel of bristles crossing paper, the resistance the paper gave to a brush full of paint - and also, even more importantly, the little accidents that happen on paper that change the path of an illustration, which don't happen when working electronically.

I would like to quote from our forthcoming Monsieur Rat (August): "Even when you are sure of where you are going , you can still stumble and change direction."

I'm wonder how much of a back-to-paper trend there is. We doing more scan now than we were doing say a year ago.

PS

"Storyliners are the true heroes of any soap" quote from a Facebook group, quoted in the Green Guide.

state of Australian TV writng

When cleaning up my office I came across an old "Green Guide" article about television writers - along the unsung-heroes line. I was interested in it enough to tear it out and save it for later, and later is now. First some interesting facts and figures: of the 600 full members of the Australian Writers Guild 190 are in Melbourne but only 25-30 would consider themselves in full-time employment as writers. [conclusion: the full-time writer in any industry is a lucky bird] "If you've written 6 hours of television in a year you've had a good year," according to Jacqueline Woodman, the Guild's director. She goes on to say:
"You have to be prepared to be what's called a jobbing writer. If you want to be an artiste then you won't get work all the tim. If you only want to work on your own ideas then there's no way you can make a full-time living as a writer. You have to be prepared to write other people's ideas as well to pay the bills. That's also how you learn and hone your craft.
That's one of the big mistakes amateurs make, only wanting to work on their script or their life story or their one big idea. The ones who make a living have done all sorts."

And apparently the local industry here is healthier than it has been for sometime and Peter Gawler, Underbelly writer, is seeing a shift towards scripts with an Australian voice.  He says, "We do have our own style of telling stories in this country.  I don't think we are terribly good at high concepts. We're much better at a form of social realism the refects the Australian no-bullshit no-fuss approach." I wonder whether that is reflected in our literature, especially our children's literature. 

Woodside

But Woodside is also the nation’s largest single-location polluter: it emits at least 12,000 tonnes of nitric oxides and 15 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year, among many other pollutants.

Australian Rock Art Research Association

remit is the business buzz word of the moment?

… and with a definition somewhat more and somewhat less than its previous meaning. Here's but one example I came across recently: "comprises four divisions with different publishing remits" It's come to mean something like a brief or scope or terms of reference, though it is vague and self-important while sounding very technical and precise. Maybe its a word favoured by remittance "men"?

Age-ranging on the back of children's books

There's been much discussion about age-ranging on the backs of children's book, both here and in the UK, where the suggestion has originated.

Here's a link and here.
and the lovely Emma of Snowbooks has this to say.

I heard that one bookseller was circulating a petition against it at the ABA conference on the weekend. We (black dog) aren't thrilled about it - short-term gain for long-term loss is our feeling. It may (and there doesn't seem to be that much proof of even this) sell more books now; but at the cost of selling more books later. Also I can't see that research done in the UK has relevance to our quite different market here. Maybe colonialism isn't as dead as it should be.

But Variety had a view on film ratings that's interesting in this context:
"a new twist on the PG-13 rating -- one that strongly cautions not only those under 13 but anyone much above it, too.

more on Fishpond

I've been looking at the fishpond.com.au website, and I've been feeling a little put out.

My reading of what I am seeing is that while fishpond says it is an Australasian bookseller "to be proud of" it is not all that enthusiastic about supporting Australian publishers.

When I looked up Possum Magic today I was first offered on screen the US edition and the other editions mentioned are from the UK but I couldn't find a reference to any of the Scholastic Australia editions. Boo to a Goose has the US edition listed first at a discount and then if you click through you are offered the Australian edition under "Other Editions"at full price. You can buy the UK and US editions of Dragonkeeper and Garden of the Purple Dragon but not the Australasian edition. They're now listing our Red Haze but I think that is because I emailed them that it has been shortlisted in the NZ Post Awards - though I've yet to have a response to that email (and they don't list a phone number and the number I was given by Booksellers NZ gave a "no service" response). There may be some issue with data but as they seem pretty uncontactable, living behind an email "wall", I can't find that out.

Under the "AU Bestsellers" on the fishpond.com.au site today (which I'm assuming is meant to be equivalent to "NZ Bestsellers" on the fishpond.co.nz site) none of the authors are Australian and all of the editions are from the US or UK. On the fishpond.co.nz the top pick of "Fishpond Picks 2008" is the US edition of New Zealand author Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip. The Penguin NZ title is listed elsewhere on the site though.

I'm heading over to New Zealand on Monday and I'm hoping to meet someone from fishpond but I've yet to hear back. I like their passionate claim to be an Australasian bookseller but I'd like to discuss how they are seeing they are fulfilling that, and plans for the future.

This is a cute promotion

better world books

Booktopia and Fishpond

I searched our best-selling Dragonkeeper on both sites and this is what I got.





Booktopia is offering the local edition while Fishpond offers the UK and US editions only (which have to be shipped or flown in). A further search on Booktopia showed that the editions that Fishpond are offering of the Garden of the Purple Dragon and Dragon Moon are more expensive than the editions being offered by Booktopia.

for niche players

"There are a lot of people who like trends that run counter" Demographer, Bernard Salt.

He was actually talking about the rise in V8s (counter to the general shift to smaller, more environmentally friendly cars) as a backlash against everything smaller cars represent. But it struck a chord with me - markets often seem to be going in opposite directions at once. And especially for smaller and niche players in large markets, it's a thought worth bearing in mind I think.

lp

I went to a panel session at the Sydney Writer's Festival yesterday and four out of the five writers on the panel had written for Lonely Planet at some stage. In our small pool, Lonely Planet has had a huge impact on our literary (especially non-fiction) culture by giving opportunities for writers to write and be professionally published.

PS I liked the free events that you could just drop in on - and the speakers outside for those who missed out on a seat inside. It gives a real festival flavour (rather than a sequence of ticketed events).

rent-seeking and coupon-clipping

Henry's latest post is very interesting read.

slang & CJ

'slang is the illegitimate sister of poetry, and if an illegitimate relationship is the nearest
I can get I am content'

C J Dennis

end of the current crop of film independents?

It's interesting reading in Variety about the "independents" having been purchased now being folded into the studio structures. Is this a sign of a cold economic winds? Here's a link

but here's a quote that caught my eye:

"Horn cited the fact that 600 pics get released annually as having made the specialty biz less attractive financially in recent year. He also said that such pics have becomce more likely to screen at multiplexes rather than art-house venues and expressed confidence in Warner's distribution side to ensure that smaller films receive the proper handling.

Horn admitted that the announcement's likely to be interpreted as Warner Bros. getting out of the indie film biz but stressed that it will still acquire and produce specialty pics. He cited the success of such fare as "March of the Penguins," "Before Sunset," "We Don't Live Here Anymore," "La Vie en Rose" and "Snow Angels" as examples of the kinds of projects that Warner will still look to buy and produce."

Do Travel Writers Go to Hell

A fascinating and funny read, even if (or maybe because) Thomas proves himself to be the self-involved and self-indulgent twat that he describes other people saying he is in the first chapters of the book.

And it raised all sorts of interesting issues for a publisher. What's fair return? Emma at our local bookshop made the point that eveybody wants the job of travel writer so you get paid peanuts - and that's just the deal. LP says they pay better than most. But if that is less than needed to get the job properly (as Thomas says) is that smart?

Thomas is perceptive an interesting about the evolutionary cycle of a company, especially a publishing company. He sees it an inevitability the growth from the "raw growing" " "clumsy teenager" of a company "not yet in full command of its newfound size and bulk" that still held it alternative and gutsy persona of its early years"when he wrote a Costa Rican guidebook to them in 2000 to what it has become today.

Maybe LP is now the perfect example of the industrialization of publishing described by Alberto Manguel in the City of Words, this year's CBC (that's Canadian) lectures.

His point about LP's influence on developing parts of the world maybe too much of a good thing echoes what Manguel is saying - the machine is more powerful than the intention of any of the parts.

Anyhow a recommended read from me (adults only).

Treasure fever

At the book shop, Miles (my 8 year old) brought Andy Griffiths latest "Treasure Fever" up to the counter and asked if there was an edition without the pencil case shrinked wrapped on the back, which surprised me. I don't want to be a snob and I have no objection to finding ways to encourage kids to buy books (and here's hoping they then read them) but I was surprised he didn't want the "treasure". There was no option though and we left with the pencil case as well as the book. I questioned him about it and he said he thought the pencil case didn't look cool and it would just be junk. When we got home he stripped off the shrink wrapping and folded the pencil case out and found it to be bigger than he'd first expected and decide it was cool after all. (Now I'm wondering whether the satisfaction with the pencil case will stop him reading the book. I'll see what happens and let you know.)

Writers v authors

I'm wondering whether the distinction between an author and a writer in the book publishing context is the difference between a royalty and a fee. Are Lonely Planet authors really just writers now they no longer pay royalties?