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Globalisation

World Book Night becomes more global

8 August 2011

Now it's beginning to look as if World Book Night may shortly become just that, rather than an aspirational name for the adult version of the UK's World Book Day. The United States is to partner the UK, launching World Book Night in 2012.  Read more

The Frankfurt Book Fair goes global

20 October 2008

In the midst of all the gloom and doom, the Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two. has been pretty much business as usual. Writing on the last day of the Fair, visitor figures are so far up 8.1% on last year, although there has been a slight drop in exhibitor numbers.   Read more

The latest despatch from the Turf Wars

9 June 2008

No sooner had the dust settled on Bertlesmann's surprise appointment of German print supremo Markus Dohle to succeed Peter Olson as CEO of Random House US, than another unexpected change hit the American publishing world. Jane Friedman, the successful and popular head of HarperCollins, also announced her immediate departure.  Read more

Amazon goes for broke (again)

26 May 2008

Amazon has dominated the headlines in the book trade press over the last few months, as it has taken a more aggressive approach to its plans for growth. Back in 1997 Jeff Bezos said he wanted the internet retailer to be one of only 'two or three leading players' Actually it's done much better than that.  Read more

Blackwell and Readers Digest sold

20 November 2006

Mergers and further conglomeratisation are shaking the foundations of the international publishing world, as the book trade continues to become more like other businesses, and is similarly affected by globalisation.   Read more

'A land grab in continental Europe'

5 June 2006

A recent heated debate at BookExpo in Washington has highlighted the argument about territorial rights between UK and US publishers. Carolyn Reidy, President and Publisher of Simon and Schuster, accused British publishers of engaging in 'a land grab in continental Europe based on the thinnest of legal and business pretences'.  Read more

'They're killing literature'

24 April 2006

A recent article in The Australian highlights the problem facing literary fiction writers in Australia. Brian Castro, prize-winning author of six novels, had difficulty in getting his seventh novel, Shanghai Dancing, into print.  Read more

Frankfurt Book Fair 2005

24 October 2005

This has been the weekend of the Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two., rather later this year than usual and, with 7,223 exhibitors from 101 countries exhibiting 380,655 titles, the biggest ever.  Read more

Globalisation hits publishing

4 July 2005

Sad news about redundancies and an Australian bookshop chain going bust show how the way books are sold is changing. This will affect everyone, from writers right down through the book chain to readers.  Read more

Second-hand Books go Global

23 September 2002

In a move that is sure to stoke controversy about online sales of second-hand books, Abebooks, the American used book site, has announced an alliance with giant online bookseller Amazon, to be called Amazon Marketplace. This will enable the thousands of booksellers who currently list their used, rare and out-of-print books on Abebooks sites to access Amazon's huge customer base.  Read more

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