Publishing teeters as Random House and Penguin plan to merge. It's time for a government policy to protect the arts argues Scott Timberg in Salon, in a wide-ranging article which takes a long look at US publishing.
Links of the week December 10 2012 (50)
Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world:
17 December 2012
Around the same time a devastating hurricane smashed and flooded its way up the East Coast, leaving millions homeless or without power, another storm collided into a professional subculture based in New York City. While the second storm is only metaphoric, the transformation of publishing could have far-reaching consequences not only for those who work on Union Square, but for readers and writers across the English-speaking world.
Michael Morpurgo, talking at an awards ceremony for young writers, claims that Michael Gove is 'deadening' children's education.
Warhorse author Michael Morpurgo has criticised Education Secretary Michael Gove's curriculum reforms. Morpurgo, who was speaking before addressing the Wicked Young Writers' Awards, said he believed that encouraging young people to write is vital to future achievement.
The writer was referring to Gove's call for restoring 'academic rigour' to the national curriculum.
The former Children's Laureate said: "If we're not careful we will deaden children's enjoyment of literature ... Mr Gove calls it 'rigour', I call it 'rigor mortis'. It's not wrong to expect the best of children, it's just that you have to be very sensitive about it, particularly with children who do not have books in the house %u2013 which is one in four."
A copyright law that lets authors break contracts after 35 years will start taking effect in January. The law, which is meant to give authors like Stephen King and Judy Blume a 'second bite at the apple,' could provide yet another disruption for traditional publishers.
The book publishing industry, already facing disruption from Amazon and e-books, will confront a new form of turbulence in 2013. Starting in January, publishers face the loss of their back lists as authors begin using the Copyright Act to reclaim works they assigned years ago. These so-called 'termination rights,' which let authors break contracts after 35 years, have already made the media thanks to a court squabble between the Village People and music studios. On the book front, publishers and agents are staying mostly mum even though the bestseller lists from 1978 reveal some very big names eligible to reclaim their work – Stephen King, Judy Blume, John LeCarre and so on. Here’s a plain English overview of how the law works and why (for now at least) we’re likely to see literary types negotiate rather than litigate.