May 2006 - Writers Magazine

News Review

• 'Just when those in the book trade had resigned themselves to huge annual growth in the numbers of books published, US figures have plummeted, although UK numbers continue to soar. '  News Review looks at an astonishing discrepancy.


• 'The allegation of large-scale plagiarism has raised its ugly head in a too-good-to-be-true story of a young writer who appeared to be writing well rather too well for her age. ' News Review reports on Kaavya Viswanathan


• 'The audiobook market is set to jump into the new world of downloadable sound to meet the demands of the iPod generation...  ‘many people who wouldn’t have previously considered buying an audiobook as a CD or tape said they would be interested in downloading one.’ Paul Smithson


• News Review looks at the book fair wars, with the surprise announcement this week that 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. is setting up a direct competitor to the London Book Fair in its new home in ExCel in London’s Docklands.

Comment

• 'It is easy to understand the mindset of those who feel uncomfortable with reading... But reading is generally looked on as a pleasure even by those who avoid it - a pleasure to some but not for them.' Ruth Rendell, writing about her Quick Read The Thief in the Sunday Telegraph


• 'Trips to the library with my mother are, in my memory, even more thrilling than trips to the sweet shop, and when I got my eldest daughter a library card I felt as though I had bought her citizenship of that same fabulous world.’ J K Rowling, in support of the innovative Love Libraries scheme


• 'The law is therefore as everyone thought it was.  Unless you copy the means of expression of facts and ideas, you do not breach copyright.' David Hooper in Publishing News, commenting on the outcome of the Da Vinci Code case.


• 'A publisher's job is to add value to the work they are about to bring into the world.  An existing brand or franchise requires a great deal less risk and effort than an unknown author or a difficult subject.' Anthony Cheetham in the Bookseller.

Writers' Quote

• 'People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.'
   Logan Pearsall Smith

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