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Comment from the book world in November 2012

November 2012

'A brand is a job in its own right'

26 November 2012

'A brand is a job in its own right. You feel like you can't leave it. I'm very fond of Charlie and Lola but there was a time when I really just wanted it to end. You want to walk away because you want to get on with something else, but if you walk away you can't be sure how it might move without you...


(but isn't she rich enough to retire?) I don't think that's true. I used to feel pretty good about the book industry but the recession has hit authors in a big way. I didn't think it would hit children's publishing so strongly, but there's been such a big worldwide dip, it has affected everything.'


Lauren Child, author of the Charlie and Lola series, in the Sunday Telegraph

'A whole lot of experience'

19 November 2012

'All my books work in the same way in that they draw upon a whole lot of experience that I've already had. I'm not just talking about life experience but knowledge of Chartres... I will already know about what I'm writing about. I will do some research a) to remind myself; b) to make sure I haven't got it wrong; c) to bring it to life again... but I'm not one of those people who goes away and does research. I tend to draw upon what I already know because then it means that I'm not, as it were, having to process it. It's already in my blood and it comes out easily, and I think therefore more naturally.'


Salley Vickers, author of The Cleaner of Chartres in the Bookseller

'Digital is here'

12 November 2012

'Thematically this email is a microcosm of publishing now and tomorrow. Mega-mergers, new devices, Amazon growth (and losses) and established players seeking to re-adjust for the digital age through innovation and restructure. The Penguin Random House story suggests that the phoney war is now over, digital is here, it is driving our thoughts and strategies, and will come to dominate this content led business as it has other content sectors.


The next 12 months are likely to be among the most tumultuous this sector has ever witnessed. Barnes & Noble, Microsoft, Apple, Kobo and Google need to find a way to break Amazon's e-book market share, while the growth in tablet devices indicates that publishers are going to have to redouble their efforts to make both immersive reading and non-immersive reading attractive for those billions of users who do not have e-ink readers, but who will want to interact with content that used to come in books on their tablet devices.


Philip Jones in the Bookseller's Futurebook