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News stories from the book world in May 2006

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May 2006

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US title output declines but UK numbers soar

29 May 2006

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. Recent US figures released for 2005 by Bowker showed a drop by 18% to a mere 172,000 titles, down 18,000 from 2004. Unlike last year, Bowker has not yet counted the title output of the largest print on d  Read more

Something borrowed, something blue

22 May 2006

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. To a hungry world looking for talented and good-looking young authors, Kaavya Viswanathan looked to like a publisher's dream.  Read more

Now you can download your audiobook

15 May 2006

The audiobook market is set to jump into the new world of downloadable sound to meet the demands of the iPod generation. Audiobook sales have been growing gradually over the years and there are now a great many books available in audio form, mostly the standard three-hour abbreviated version.  Read more

Book fair wars

8 May 2006

The next big international book trade fair for the English-speaking world is BookExpo in Washington 19-21 May. This is primarily for the American book trade and has 2000 exhibitors, 500 authors and 100 conference sessions.  Read more

'A big deal in the public imagination'

1 May 2006

Just as we were feeling that we have heard enough about Waterstone's bid for Ottakar's and the referral to the Competition Commission comes the latest extraordinary twist in this saga.  Read more