Skip to Content

Online retailer

Amazon's sensational growth

30 July 2018

Amazon's latest figures are astounding and cement its dominance of the book business, particularly self-publishing, as well as the huge inroads it is making in many other areas.  Read more

World Poetry Day and new ebook platform Bookgrail

20 March 2017

World Poetry Day has been marked by the publication of some encouraging sales figures from the UK, showing sales up 16% on last year in the first quarter. But a lot of these sales seem to be driven by social media and to feature poets who are appealing to a young female audience.  Read more

Scribd subscription service cuts out bestselling romance and erotica

6 July 2015

The news that Scribd is reining back on successful erotica and romance titles exposes the weak link in the subscription model of bookselling.
  Read more

A challlenge to Amazon at last?

9 March 2015

So what are the chances of the just-launched German online book retailer and e-reader, backed by bookstore chains Thalia, Weltbild and Hugendubel, Deutsche Telekom, and giant German publisher Bertelsmann providing a real challenge to Amazon?  Read more

Latest trends in UK and US book-buying

25 March 2013

Last week's annual Books and Consumers research from Bowker showed some interesting trends in book-buying both in the UK and the US. In 2012 British consumers bought 296m books, compared to 288m in 2011, but for the fifth year in a row spend declined from £2,137m ($3.226) to £2.1086 ($3.182) as the lower prices for ebooks started to affect the overall price mix.  Read more

Syndicate content

Linked items...

9 March 2020 - What's new

March 2020
  • ‘Do your homework. This is a very competitive genre and you need to be aware of not only current novels, but current television series and films too. There is nothing worse than working on a story for months only to find out it has already been done.
  Read more

International Welsh Poetry Competition 2020

Information

Closing date: 
31 May 2020
Entry: 
Open to all No entry fee £6 for first poems, then a sliding scale
Prize: 
1st Prize £500, 2nd Prize £250 and 3rd Prize £100

Judge Sally Spedding

1st Prize - £500
2nd Prize - £250
3d Prize - £100
plus 17 runners-up, specially commended entries and publication in a future anthology.

More details

Advice for aspiring crime writers

9 March 2020

‘Do your homework. This is a very competitive genre and you need to be aware of not only current novels, but current television series and films too. There is nothing worse than working on a story for months only to find out it has already been done.  Read more

‘My advice to writers, whether they are inspired or repelled by my work, is to read and reread, write and rewrite, keep to the grindstone, do not be swayed by fame or adulation, the work is the absolute prize.'

— Edna O’Brien