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an online newsletter for publishers, authors, book lovers and booksellers

Vol. 8, No. 12   December 2010

Index (scroll down for stories)  

  1. Guinness says book claiming to be world’s largest – isn’t!
  2. Sourcebooks’ Raccah tells Frankfurt group about enhanced e-books
  3. Breaking news from the book barons
  4. Ousted Penguin head writes novel about publishing industry
  5. ‘Bachelor Pad’ winner spending prize money publishing book
  6. News about bookstores, publishing, marketing and promotion
  7. While much of book business flounders, rock ‘n’ roll racks up sales
  8. Ex-Sex Pistol front man publishing $700 book for fans
  9. Author recognition: Bertrice Small’s 50th romance novel published
10. News from small publishers and micropresses
11. How bad is it – and what is the book business doing to cope?
12. Update journalism: Latest skinny on past Southern Review stories
13. The publishing revolution: News of e-books and other new media
14. Martha Stewart’s ‘Cookies’ launches  digital publishing deal
15. Survey: Amazon has 76 percent of e-book market
16. Borders targets bloggers with new e-book publishing platform
17. Customized textbooks becoming more popular
18. Barnes & Noble Introduces Color Nook
19. Ease of conversion to ePub one of PubIt’s advantages
20. Libroid app representative of new content-rich e-publishing
21. Graphic novels and comics news
22. Comic-book bio of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg released      
23. Harris Poll finds mysteries, thrillers edge out romance novels
24. News about self-publishing and vanity presses
25. Self-publishing case 102: Four authors write, crash-publish Dracula spinoff in time for Halloween
26. Milestones: Records, Prizes and news of note in book publishing
27. Vargas Llosa awarded 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature
28. Howard Jacobson's ‘The Finkler Question’ wins Booker Prize
29. News of chicanery, dishonesty and tort-feasing in the book business
30. Texas bills Amazon for $269 million in uncollected sales taxes
31. Evangelical Christian Publishers resolve copyright infringement case
32. Indiana AG files more complaints against vanity publisher Caswell
33. CIA sues former spy for publishing book in 2008 without permission
34. News from trade shows: Chinese children's book market growing
35. Istanbul’s annual literary feast highlights Turkish book market
36. 100 writers pull 10,000 fans to Vegas Valley Book Festival
37. Major upcoming trade shows, book fairs and book festivals

 

1. Guinness says book claiming to be world’s largest – isn’t

An Australian publisher's claim at the Frankfurt Book Fair that he published the world's biggest book is inaccurate, according to information from Guinness World Records sent to TODAYshow.com.

Gordon Cheers, the managing director of the Australian publishing company Millennium House, told the AFP news agency that his 6-by-9 foot atlas, titled Earth, platinum edition, was the world's largest book. "This is the first time a book this size has ever been seen," he said, adding that his company would only print 31 copies, each going for about $100,000.

"It's all about creating a legacy," he told AFP. "Today, everything is digital and it's gone in a second. This will still be around in 500 years."

In a statement to TODAYshow.com, Suzanne Gross, an official with Millennium House, indirectly questioned Guinness’ definition of “book.”

“When is a book a book? If there is only one copy produced is it a ‘book’? ... Anyone can grab two huge planks of wood, hinge them together and paste in some paper and call it a book,” Gross wrote, noting that there will be 31 copies of Earth, platinum edition.

“Platinum is not big because it can be. Platinum is big because it needs to be. That’s a book,” she said.

An image of the book that currently holds the title is visible on the right.

Earth may still nab a Guinness World Record. It likely could receive the award for world’s largest atlas.

The current record-holder for an atlas is the Klencke atlas, which was made in 1660 as a royal gift. Wilcox said it measures just smaller than 6-by-3.5 feet, belongs to the British Library and was measured on Feb. 2, 2010.

Guinness World Records hasn’t yet received a request to verify the publisher’s claim for Earth, Wilcox said on Oct. 15.

2. Sourcebooks’ Raccah tells Frankfurt group about enhanced e-books

In an October article in the UK’s The Bookseller, Philip Jones summarizes remarks made by Sourcebooks publisher Dominique Raccah at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Raccah, long a power in the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), defended the  publisher in the digital age, but also said that her company’s role as only a "book publisher" was coming to an end.

Raccah moved from the advertising industry to create Sourcebooks, the largest female-owned publishing house in the nation. Her publishing house is located in Naperville, Ill.

At Frankfurt, she questioned the future of enhanced e-books, saying that the revenue bore "no relation to what I’d consider to be reasonable,”  though she insisted Sourcebooks was in the market for the long haul.

Raccah said that there were huge additional costs associated with publishers producing digital products. "With printed books we ship exactly the same product to different retailers, not so with e-books, and that ‘not so’ has some very large implications and enormous costs." She said publishers had to consider meta-data, the file format, the costs of enhanced media and the ongoing developmental costs of products such as apps.

Raccah said that moving into e-books had introduced 80 new steps into Sourcebooks’ workflow - all manual - adding that the proliferation of e-booksellers and e-book devices only added more layers to the explosion of chores being added to the work of publishing.

She said that the costs versus revenue ratio was a big issue, particularly for enhanced e-books, where there are additional costs in acquiring mixed media. "There seems to be a hunger for enhanced media, and it should be selling something reasonable, but when I look at the numbers it bears no resemblance to what I’d consider reasonable. As of now I haven’t seen anyone show a real profit here, despite our moving very rapidly into the space. As of now this isn’t a winning proposition."

An article by Sandra Guy in the Chicago Sun-Times provides an example of the mixed media about which Raccah spoke at Frankfurt.

In iDrakula, a modern spin on the vampire myth Dracula, a reader can  sequential portions online and download a free iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch app to get e-mail, photos and text messages detailing the characters. Those who want to finish the book can buy the full story inside the app for $1.99, or go to the bookstore and purchase a paper copy for $9.99.

Sourcebooks, which has 14 national best-sellers in its list, has five years of experience creating software applications and multimedia learning experiences.

Though paper books account for about 95 percent of Sourcebooks' revenue, Raccah foresees digital publications becoming 25 percent of the business in 2011. She believes digital book prices will remain at $10 to $12, while e-reader prices continue to plunge.

Sourcebooks has become the self-proclaimed largest publisher of mixed-media books - hardcovers accompanied by audio - in keeping with Raccah's goal of reaching the largest possible audiences.

Sourcebooks has issued nine apps and has 27 more coming. One of the best recognized is Most Baby Names, a $4.99 iPhone and iPad app that finds the most popular baby names, or looks up their origins, based on the book The Complete Book of Baby Names.

3. Breaking news from the book barons

Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy is, without question, the current world publishing phenomenon, with international sales already exceeding 45 million copies. Three films have been produced in Larsson's native Sweden, and in the U.S., David Fincher has begun shooting a big-budget Hollywood film starring Daniel Craig. Since the first novel in the three-book series was published in the U.S., Larsson's books have gone through almost 200 printings here. Other authors have sold in the millions, but none has sold as many as quickly as Larsson has. His publisher estimates that by year's end, they will have sold 15 million copies in 2010, or roughly the equivalent of recent works by John Grisham, Dan Brown, Stephenie Meyer and Stephen King combined… Children’s book publisher Albert Whitman & Co. has reached an agreement with Open Road Integrated Media to publish all 150 titles of Whitman’s Boxcar Children Mysteries series in e-book format. The first 19 e-titles in the series will be released in time for Christmas 2010. Originally written by Gertrude Chandler Warner, who wrote the first 19 books, the popular series has sold more than 50 million copies across the 150 titles.

4. Ousted Penguin head writes novel about publishing industry

McClelland & Stewart has purchased the rights to the next novel by David Davidar, ousted this year as president of Penguin Canada.
 

Ithaca, Davidar’s third novel, will be released next fall.

“With this book David turns his keenly observant and passionate eye on a subject he knows well, giving us a rich, layered, and poignant novel about the publishing industry at a time of its greatest change in a century,” said M&S president Douglas Pepper.

“Honest, witty, and edgy, the book’s message is ultimately hopeful, about the power of great story-telling and how it has endured and, despite the cataclysmic changes of the last several years, will continue to endure.”
 

Pepper, a longtime friend of Davidar, published Davidar’s 2007 novel, The Solitude of Emperors.

Davidar, who is also the author of the 2002 novel The House of Blue Mangoes, stepped down as head of Penguin Canada this year amid accusations of sexual harassment. The matter was settled out of court.
 

5. ‘Bachelor Pad’ winner spending prize money publishing book

“Bachelor Pad” winners Dave Good and Natalie Getz split $250,000.

They had to immediately pay $35,000 in taxes, which left them each with $90,000.

The sexy couple split just before the final taping of the matchmaking game show and have each made their own plans.

"Dave is going to use a large chunk of the money towards publishing his new book The Man Code," pal and Bachlorette winner Jesse Csinscak told the RadarOnline.com Web site. "There's a certain code among guys that they should follow and Dave is going to share them in his new book."

Natalie plans to spend some of her money repaying college loans and then starting her own business.

The opportunistic pair are currently making appearances in Las Vegas and around the country.

6. News about bookstores, publishing, marketing and promotion

In this issue of the Southern Review of Books, we take a look at some of the forthcoming books by and/or about the rock industry glitterati. A plethora of such tell-all books about the rock industry are being released as publishers turn from appealing to the literati to publishing books about the glitterati.

7. While much of book business flounders, rock ‘n’ roll racks up sales

While only a small percentage of the 200,000 books released each year sell 25,000 copies or more, rock memoirs seldom fail to make money.

“They’re pretty easy to produce, and with an already built-in audience, fairly cost-effective,” a NYC-based publishing executive told TheWrap. “Pretty much all you have to do is interview the subject and just get a ghost(writer) to polish it into prose.”

The genre took off with Motley Crue’s explicit The Dirt, published in 2001. The book spent a month on the New York Times' bestseller list when first published. It sold 233,000 copies in hardcover and more in paperback since. After that, Bassist Nikki Sixx’s The Heroin Diaries debuted at No. 7 on the Times' bestseller list in 2007 and has, says Nielsen BookScan, sold 91,000 copies in hardcover.

Neil Strauss, who has collaborated on books with Motley Crue and Marilyn Manson, has helped to create the cottage business in rock star memoirs. “We’re in an era where fans want something to buy - even though they’re not buying the music anymore,” he told TheWrap. “But rule No. 1 for a good rock book is you have to tell everything.”

The Stones haven’t had a multi-million selling studio album since 1989’s “Steel Wheels,” but Keith Richards’ forthcoming memoir Life - due out Oct. 26 - is already a top seller in pre-orders on Amazon.

If previous rock star memoirs are any indication, guitarist Richards, who got a $7.3 million advance for Life – should see some spectacular sales this fall.

Bob Dylan’s critically acclaimed Chronicles: Volume One spent almost five months on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list after it came out in 2004. It has sold 165,000 copies in hardcover, according to BookScan.

A 2007 self-titled memoir by former Guns ’n’ Roses guitarist Slash - full of sex and drugs - has sold over 73,000 copies in hardcover.

Among the slew of memoirs forthcoming from rock stars is David Bowie’s Bowie: Objects. The book is being repped by agent Andrew Wylie, and was one of the top works being shopped at the Frankfurt Book Fair, with Wylie taking big bids on the unfinished work.  According to the Wylie Agency, the book by the 63-year-old singer, who's been out of the public eye since heart surgery in 2004, will be “the first in a series by the pop icon in which he explores his creative process by featuring 100 things from his archive.”

8. Ex-Sex Pistol front man publishing $700 book for fans

Former Sex Pistols front man John Lydon is releasing a book that will cost his loyal followers over $700 a copy.

Mr. Rotten’s Scrapbook will include handwritten notes and a 12-inch vinyl picture disc in each copy to make up for the price. Not only that - 100 of the 750 books will contain a special golden ticket that will get the winners a 10- minute live web chat with Johnny Rotten himself.

Lydon, also known as Johnny Rotten, became the punk band’s lead singer from 1975 to 1978.

The hard-bound and numbered coffee table book will be released in just 750 copies, all of which will contain individual doodles in the center spread. There will also be personal photos, most of which have never been published before, and his own annotations.

A 12-inch vinyl picture disc built into the back of the book will feature live recordings from his band Public Image Ltd taken from the group’s shows last year, as well as spoken word tracks.

 “Those who don’t like me can f*** off. Those who do, rush out and get it - you will not be disappointed,” Lydon said.

The book is priced at $597 when pre-ordered, and as much as $707 when bought from Dec. 1 forward.

Lydon is not the first rock legend to publish a high-priced book. Earlier, Jimmy Page announced his plans to publish a limited-edition photo book that will retail for $685. (Sources: Anne Lu, AHN Entertainment Contributor, London, Oct. 21, 2010; Deidre Wengen, phillyBurbs.com; The Telegraph)
 

7. News about bookstores, publishing, marketing and promotion

Publishers of literary fiction are approving fewer book deals and signing fewer new writers. Most of those getting published are receiving smaller advances. Independent book publishers who are picking up some of  the slack offer on average $1,000 to $5,000 in advances, a fraction of the $50,000 to $100,000 advances that established publishers typically paid in the past for debut literary fiction. Much of the decline is due to e-books. A new $28 hardcover book returns half, or $14, to the publisher, and 15 percent, or $4.20, to the author. Under most e-book deals, a digital book sells for $12.99, returning 70 percent, or $9.09, to the publisher and typically 25 percent, or $2.27, to the author. The lower revenue from e-books is making worse the decline in book sales and in reading, that were already under way. Sales of consumer books peaked in 2008 at 1.63 billion and are expected to decline to 1.47 billion this year and 1.43 billion by 2012, says Albert Greco, a book industry market researcher. Meanwhile, e-books sales are exploding.

9. Author recognition: Bertrice Small’s 50th romance novel published

Bestselling novelist Bertrice Small hit a publishing milestone in October as her 50th book, published by NAL Trade made its way into bookstores around the world.

Small’s 50th, The Border Vixen, was issued on Oct. 5. On Nov. 3, the book was the No. 1-ranked romance on Amazon.com.

Small began her career in a Manhattan town house 40 years ago when she sat down with a yellow legal pad and a pen and starting writing.  When her husband came home for dinner that night and asked her what she was doing, she said she was writing a book, "That's nice,” he replied.

That first book made its way to a publisher and then onto the bestseller lists.

Her work is dominated by kings and queens, sultans with harems in exotic locations , and sometimes, the hills of Scotland.  Stone castles with dungeons and sultry bedchambers warmed by blazing fires are also featured. Love scenes are interwoven with swashbuckling adventure that keeps her mostly female readers interested.

Small's books are published in 17 languages and sold around the world. The titles are doing particularly well right now in Eastern Europe. Most of her books including that first novel, are still in print.

"I'm a nice dirty girl," Small said, describing her often-racy books which have become tamer over the years. "What was shocking 33 years ago is nothing now."

A long-time resident of Southold, N.Y., on the tip of Long Island, Small, now 72, writes from her home that she calls "the Cottage.” She has lived there for more than 30 years with her husband, George. The couple, married for 47 years, has one son and four grandchildren ages 4 to 14. The grandchildren and their parents live a short walk away from Grandma's house on the same street.

She writes six days a week, 365 days a year beginning at 10 a.m. with a short break for an early dinner before she returns to her keyboard. (Source: Andrea Aurichio, northforkpatch.com, Oct. 29, 2010)   

10. News from small publishers and micropresses

What is a Pulitzer Prize worth when it comes to sales? In the last issue of the Southern Review, we noted that Paul Harding, author of Tinkers, published by the small independent Bellevue Literary Press, had won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for novels.  Bellevue seldom prints more than 2,000 copies of any book it publishes. But since Harding won the Pulitzer, more than 250,000 copies of Tinkers have been shipped. Tinkers is being distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution of Minneapolis, Minn.

Harding is touring this fall and into the new year to promote the book.

11. How bad is it – and what is the book business doing to cope?

Net sales of books in August,  ccording to 88 publishers who report sales to the Association of American Publishers, rose 3.4 percent to $1.6 billion,. Net sales for the year rose 6.9 percent, to $7.3 billion. E-book sales continued to explode, rising 172.4 percent to $39 million in August. For the year to date, e-book sales are up 193 percent, to $263 million, representing 9.03 percent of total consumer book sales, compared to 3.31 percent for all of 2009… Dorling-Kindersley-India (DK-India), a publishing subsidiary of Penguin Books, is expanding its footprint in the Indian market with new digital and travel titles in 2010-11. However, it has cut its list of titles post-recession in 2009 to concentrate on its travel, lifestyle and digital segments. In 2009, the imprint cut down on its titles by at least one-third to survive the worldwide economic downturn. That trend continues. “We are building our digital operations in India,” Aparna Sharma, managing director of DK-India, told IANS. “We have narrowed the focus down to our strengths - travel, lifestyles and digital books so that we get the maximum returns. We are publishing nearly 180 titles a year and we do not want to increase the number.” However, children's books remain a priority area.

12. Update journalism: Latest skinny on past Southern Review stories

There is still no trial scheduled in the lawsuit filed by “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis we noted in the October issue of the Southern Review. However, the book over which Francis is suing - Flash!: Bars, Boobs, and Busted: 5 Years on the Road with Girls Gone Wild by former  “Girls Gone Wild” crew member Ryan Simkin - has been published by 4 Park Publishing. The publisher’s CEO, Shelli Stutz, told the UNLV Rebel Yell that “The book is absolutely not an academic piece of literature.”“We’re marketing (Flash!) as a light-hearted read. We’re more than happy to talk about Paris Hilton and her vag,” said Stutz. “GGW” creator Joe Francis is currently suing Simkin, 4th Street Media and 4 Park Publishing over the book. As of Nov. 12, the hardback version of the book listed at $19.96 had an Amazon.com ranking of 263,869; the paperback version listed at $16.15 had a rank of 68,623; and the Kindle paid version listed at $9.99 had a rank of 18,102 … In the November issue of the Southern Review, we did a piece on Diane Dimond’s crash-published Cirque Du Salahi, about Tarek and Michaele Salahi. On Nov. 13, the  paperback version of the book, listed at $14.39, had an Amazon.com ranking of 52,346, while the Kindle paid version, listed at $4.99, had a ranking of 15,325.
 

13. The publishing revolution: News of e-books and other new media

Amazon has issued a direct appeal to Kindle users to "vote with their purchases" against publishers looking to set prices for electronic editions. An open letter to Kindle customers posted on Amazon.co.uk said that the "agency model,” where publishers set a price at which books must be sold instead of allowing retailers the freedom to discount, would be "a damaging approach for readers, authors, booksellers and publishers alike," citing a loss of Kindle sales for publishers using the agency model in the U.S., and calling on customers to "decide for themselves how much they are willing to pay for e-books, and vote with their purchases”… Canadian upstart Kobo’s eReaders and digital bookstore hope to compete with Amazon.com’s Kindle reader, digital offerings from Google Inc., and the iPad and iBookstore operated by Apple. So far, Kobo is holding its own. Since launching in December 2009, Kobo has attracted more than a million users to its service. Each week, its applications, which run across multiple smartphones, on book publisher websites and various e-readers and tablets, are accessed from more than 200 countries. There are now more than 2.2 million digital books available in the Kobo store. Its eReaders are sold in bookstores across North America and around the world… Amazon is launching Kindle Singles, which the company describes as "books that are twice the length of a New Yorker feature or as much as a few chapters of a typical book." Kindle Singles will "be priced much less than a typical book." Suggestions for content included investigative journalism, single short stories, episodic books, magazine highlights and nonfiction e-books "lite."

14. Martha Stewart’s ‘Cookies’ launches  digital publishing deal

Callaway Digital Arts, a publisher of iPad apps, is partnering with Martha Stewart to create apps based on her products. Instead of text-only e-books, CDA creates interactive, multimedia digital applications specifically designed for Apple’s iPad. The first iPad app to come out of the new partnership, Martha Stewart Makes Cookies, is available in the Apple App Store now. It includes 50 recipes, instructional videos, baking tips, packaging ideas, kitchen timers, shopping lists, sharing options, and an array of search features.

15. Survey: Amazon has 76 percent of e-book market

The Los Angeles Times reports on a Cowen & Co. survey that says Amazon’s Kindle has 76 percent of the e-book market, and is expected to have sold $701 million worth of Kindle e-books by the close of 2010 - up 195 percent from the previous year.

The report notes that the iPad (and other platforms that have the Kindle Reader app) has helped Amazon by making it possible to buy Kindle e-books without having to own a Kindle itself. The survey notes that 20 percent of Kindle e-book purchasers don’t actually own a Kindle.

The "iPad is not having a negative impact on Kindle device or e-book sales," according to the report, written by the Cowen analysts.

The report estimates that Apple will account for five percent of the e-book market this year, compared with Amazon’s 76 percent. However, by 2015, Amazon is expected to have 51 percent of the e-book market, with Apple's share increased to 16 percent.

Heavy book buyers' preference of device is almost split evenly between the iPad and Kindle. The report said among readers who go through 25 books or more a year, 44 percent prefer using Kindle or the iPad, compared with 47 percent for iBooks.

The report also said one in five people who buy e-books from Amazon do not have a Kindle. (Sources: Los Angeles Times ; The Bookseller; Chris Meadows, TeleRead, Oct. 12, 2010)

16. Borders targets bloggers with new e-book publishing platform

Book retailer Borders has announced its own e-reader publishing platform called "Borders - Get Published." The service is designed to compete with Barnes & Noble's new PubIt service and Amazon's established DTP program.

Powered by BookBrewer, Get Published will let independent authors publish and sell their e-books through the Borders e-book store in a quick and easy fashion.

Borders is specifically targeting bloggers with the new service, promising "Blog to e-book in 10 minutes."

Users simply copy and paste their document or import their blog into the BookBrewer Web interface. The service offers tools to edit content, add images, and break content into chapters, and documents are published in ePub format.

Borders charges for the service, and also takes a 25 percent cut from e-book sales.

The two publishing packages include the $89.99 Basic Publishing option, where BookBrewer assigns the book an ISBN, and makes it available to all major eBook stores at a price set by the writer. The $199.99 Advanced Publishing Package gives Authors full rights to their ePub file, which they can distribute in any way they choose.

Because Borders will take a cut from every book sold from the Basic Publishing program, it is unsurprising that it would open the content up for sale in competitors' e-book stores.

"Everyone has a story to tell, pictures to share or advice to give. It turns out that those are exactly the kinds of things people want to buy and read as eBooks," said BookBrewer CEO Dan Pacheco in a statement.
 

17. Customized textbooks becoming more popular

McGraw-Hill in October launched a custom publishing system called Create, which allows professors to assemble their own content to create either e-books or printed texts.

According to min online, Create uses a search engine to help professors locate content from a database of 4,000 textbooks, 5,500 articles, 11,000 readings from literature, philosophy and humanities, and 25,000 case studies. The system provides a review draft to professors for approval, and Create produces final copies for sale to students at McGraw-Hill's e-bookstore or at campus bookstores as hard copies.

One significant drawback to the Create product is that it does not include material from other textbook publishers, making it impossible for professors to use material from a competing publisher in their chapters.

18. Barnes & Noble introduces Color Nook

Barnes & Noble has unveiled a Nook e-reader with a color touch screen and more social networking features that give the bookseller solid advantages over rival Amazon.com's Kindle, while also giving avid readers reasons not to switch to more expensive tablet-style computers, such as the Apple iPad.

The $249 Nookcolor, introduced on Oct. 26, trades the black-and-white, E Ink digital paper display in the rest of the Nook family for a seven-inch, full-color screen.

The new display takes the device into the business of selling magazine subscriptions and children's books, many of which depend on color, so are unavailable for E-Ink-based e-readers such as the Kindle.

B&N celebrated the launch of the Nookcolor by opening a new section on its online bookstore dedicated to children's books. B&N has also added to the Nookcolor software technology that publishers can use to give children a more interactive experience with words and pictures.

By the end of the year, B&N plans to offer 260 digital picture books for children.

Besides being able to share digital books electronically with other Nook and Nookcolor owners, the new e-reader also enables users to look at books their Facebook friends have marked for lending and download them through the online social network or receive the digital books via e-mail.

The Nookcolor, which is scheduled to ship in November, uses a Wi-Fi connection for book shopping, downloading and sharing e-books. The device has 8 GB of internal memory, which is enough to store 6,000 e-books, and can use a microSD card if more storage is needed. The e-reader includes a browser for surfing the web and can play music streamed from a site.

The Nookcolor runs Google's Android 2.1 operating system, which means it doesn't support Flash, Adobe's software for playing video on the web. Flash support could be added later through a software upgrade.

19. Ease of conversion to ePub one of PubIt’s advantages

Barnes & Noble’s PubIt! Platform makes it relatively easy for writers and small publishers to make their digital works available through BN.com.

Opening a Barnes & Noble account is the first step. Publishers then need to register with PubIt! by providing tax and banking information. Once a publisher is signed up, it's easy to upload your books.

You can upload a book directly in ePub format, but you can also upload it in HTML, RTF, TXT, DOC or DOCX. PubIt! will then automatically convert the book to ePub.

As we mentioned in the November issue of Southern Review of Books, B&N offers a 65-percent royalty on sales. That’s a bit below the 70 percent offered by Amazon, but Amazon’s rates only apply to books priced between $2.99 and $9.99. B&N allows books to be priced from $0.99 to $199.99.

The B&N Nook emulator allows publishers to preview digital text as it will appear on the Nook.

20. Libroid app representative of new content-rich e-publishing

Libroid, the brainchild of German author Juergen Neffe, offers e-book readers the possibility of potentially limitless content with every publication.

According to the International Digital Publishing Forum, e-book sales in the U.S. amounted to $88.7 million in the second quarter of 2010. In the same period five years earlier, they were barely $3 million.

Neffe is a veteran journalist for Germany's Der Spiegel magazine and author of a best-selling book on Charles Darwin.

The Libroid program, which currently runs only on Apple's iPad tablet computer, splits the traditional book page into three columns, allowing authors space to annotate their text with footnotes, images, maps, videos and web links.

Libroid delivers the book's core text in the middle of the page. Two smaller columns on either side carry the extra content. Page numbers are abandoned in favor of a percentage bar that tells readers where they are.

Interactive elements allow readers to make their own comments on virtual book clubs that can be linked up to the text. It also offers authors the possibility of updating their own work. (Source: Barry Neild, CNN)
 

21. Graphic novels and comics news

DC Comics announced the day before New York Comic Con that it was lowering its base price for comics to $2.99 for 20 pages of story from $3.99 for 22 pages of story at present. Longer books with double features will be returned to the shorter length and lower price. As of 2011, only a few rare special issues will remain at the currently common price of $3.99. The lower price points are seen as a reaction to higher prices hurting sales. Marvel subsequently announced that it too will be moving to the lower price, but only for new books published in 2011. Ongoing titles will remain at the same higher price.

22. Comic-book bio of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg released     

Spinning off the just-released movie about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Bluewater Comics has launched a pictorial portrayal of the controversial entrepreneur.

Bluewater offered Facebook fans a sneak peek of the comic based on the life of Zuckerberg, unveiling six pages from their title, which goes on sale in December.

Like “The Social Network” – the movie version that topped the U.S. box office for several weeks - the biography does not always present a flattering image of the 26-year-old billionaire.

Zuckerberg, who created Facebook while at Harvard, was later sued by his best friend and three fellow Harvard students for allegedly stealing their idea.

In one frame of the Bluewater comic, Zuckerberg is pictured swigging beer and hacking into Harvard University's computer system.

Jerome Maida wrote the comic book. (Source: Marissa Charles, Splash/Bluewater, Oct. 11, 2010)

23. Harris Poll finds mysteries, thrillers edge out romance novels

According to a Harris Poll - the results of which were published in an Oct. 7 article in Publishers Weekly written by staff - mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels beat out chick-lit and romance novels by a large margin.

More women than men read mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels.

The poll, conducted among 2,775 U.S. adults online in August, found that among those who say they read at least one book in an average year, equal numbers - about eight in 10 - said they have read a novel or nonfiction book in the past year. Almost half (48%) of fiction readers said they read mysteries, thrillers and crime novels, while a quarter read science fiction (26%) and another quarter (24%) read “literature.” One in five said they read romance novels (21%) and 11% have read graphic novels in the past year. Chick-lit (8%) and westerns (5%) were less popular among respondents.

Among respondents who read nonfiction, 31% read histories, 29% read biographies and 26% read religious and spirituality books. Lesser numbers have read political books (17%), self-help books (16%), current affairs (14%), true crime (12%), and business books (10%) in the past year. Respondents aged 18 to 33 were more likely than other age groups to read “literature” (42%) and graphic novels (18%). Readers 65 and older were more likely to read mystery, thriller, and crime novels (61%) and westerns (9%). Women were more likely than men to read mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels (57% vs. 39%), romance (37% vs. 3%), chick-lit (12% vs. 4%), and religious books (30% vs. 21%). Men were more likely to read science fiction (32% vs. 20%), history books (40% vs. 23%), political books (25% vs. 10%) and business books (16% vs. 4%). (Source: Publishers Weekly, Oct. 7, 2010)

24. News about self-publishing and vanity presses

One of the questions we get often at the Southern Review from authors considering self-publishing is, “How long should my book be?” The answer depends on a number of variables, not the least of which is subject matter. But here are some ballpark figures. The average nonfiction book is about 200 pages in published form, with approximately 400 words a page. That’s 80,000 words; about 320 double-spaced typewritten manuscript pages. Most books range between 35,000 words (a slim, 100 pages volume) to 200,000 words or more.
 

25. Self-publishing case 102: Four authors write, crash-publish Dracula spinoff in time for Halloween

Draculas, a horror novel that J.A. Konrath wrote under the pen name Jack Kilborn), along with Blake Crouch, Jeff Strand and F. Paul Wilson, was released on Oct. 19 to exploit the market for horror fiction just before Halloween.

How four guys were able to collaborate on a single narrative is an interesting story, but not as interesting as the way Draculas was released.

The four decided to make Draculas a Kindle exclusive, although a paperback option was later added via CreateSpace. They published the book themselves, without going through a traditional publishing house.

One reason for bypassing the traditional houses was timing. The authors wanted Draculas to launch before Halloween, but hadn’t finished writing and editing the novel until September. There was no way a major publisher could go from first draft to e-publication in three weeks.

With Amazon's assistance, the authors were able to put up a pre-order page and a free teaser in September, although they'd only written the first few chapters at that point. The teasers allowed the authors to build buzz and accrue some advance sales.

The Kindle version of Draculas was published at $2.99 - something else no big publisher has done for a new release except for AmazonEncore. They released the e-book without DRM (digital rights management), which is another thing no big publisher would allow - except for AmazonEncore.

While the authors initially said Draculas would be sold exclusively on Kindle for a year, a paperback version has since become available on Amazon. The four hired a cover artist and an e-book formatter to help them.

A traditrional publisher takes 52.5 percent of an e-book’s cover price, and the retailer gets 30 percent through the agency model. That leaves only 17.5 percent for the author. By absorbing the sunk costs themselves, the authors were able to earn the full 70 percent royalties and not have to share them with anyone.

They’re splitting the profits four ways, each earning 51 cents  per e-book copy sold.

Using their fan bases, the four authors sent out 260 advance reading copies of Draculas. They expected to launch their e-book with over a hundred reviews on Amazon.com, Goodreads.com and dozens of blogs. As of Nov. 13, the book had 151 customer reviews on Amazon.com.

They also did some niche advertising, and their combined newsletters, perhaps their most important publicity channel, reach over 20,000 readers.
 

Besides the 80,000-word novel, readers who buy the Kindle version of Draculas will also get another 80,000 words of supplemental features, including interviews, deleted scenes, alternate endings, short stories, excerpts and an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the writing of Draculas delivered through a collection of over seven hundred emails between the writers while they were brainstorming and writing the book.

The authors own all the rights to Draculas, so any subsidiary rights are 100 percent theirs to exploit.

On Nov. 13, the $2.99 Kindle version of the novel had an Amazon.com paid ranking of 596, and the paperback version, listed at $14.95, had a ranking of 379,166.

26. Milestones: records, prizes and news of note in book publishing

If you stacked all the Bibles sitting in American homes, the tower would rise 29 million feet, nearly 1,000 times the height of Mount Everest. More than 90 percent of American households own a Bible, and the average family owns three, according to pollsters at the Barna Group. But that doesn’t mean the Bible owners have absorbed much of the content. For example, half of Christians cannot name the four evangelical Gospels of the New Testament. A third cannot identify Genesis as the Torah/Old Testament's first book, according to a recent study conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life… Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, perhaps the year’s most talked-about literary work,  was not among the fiction finalists announced for the National Book Awards. Nine years ago, Franzen won the award for The Corrections. Franzen's latest book wasn't the only notable work to be snubbed. Among other non-nominees were Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn and Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists, Ron Chernow's 800-page biography of George Washington and Edmund Morris' third and final book on Theodore Roosevelt… At the Oct. 27 Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year awards, Raghuram G. Rajan's Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy from Princeton University Press beat out better-selling books by Michael Lewis, Andrew Ross Sorkin, David Kirkpatrick and others… McPherson & Co., publisher of National Book Award in fiction finalist Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon, usually prints 2,000 copies of a title. After the NBA short list was released, Barnes & Noble alone wanted that many copies of Lord of Misrule. So Bruce McPherson has decided to print 8,000 copies, telling the Wall Street Journal: "It's a gamble that I'm not used to taking."

27. Vargas Llosa awarded 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, whose deeply political work examines the perils of power and corruption in Latin America, won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature on Oct. 7.

Vargas Llosa, 74, is an anti-totalitarian intellectual whose work covers the range of human experience. He has written more than 30 works of nonfiction, plays and novels, including The Feast of the Goat and The War of the End of the World.

Llosa is currently in the United States, teaching Latin American studies at Princeton.

He has frequently criticized leftist governments in his home region, including those of Cuba and Venezuela.

In Peru, members of Congress took to the floor to praise him. People celebrated in Arequipa, the provincial city where he was born, with Peruvian television showing a band playing the national anthem in the streets.

Felipe Calderón, Mexico’s president, wrote in a Twitter message that the prize was cause for “Latin American pride.”

Vargas Llosa will receive 10 million kronor, or about $1.5 million.

28. Howard Jacobson's ‘The Finkler Question’ wins Booker Prize

This year’s Man Booker Prize went to three-time nominee Howard Jacobson for The Finkler Question, published by Bloomsbury in both the UK and the U.S.

Bloomsbury announced a new 50,000-copy hardcover printing, along with 30,000 trade paperbacks for export markets, and 75,000 trade paperbacks for the U.S.

The Bookseller says that Nielsen BookScan UK had sales of 8,300 copies prior to the award being announced.

Immediately following announcement of the award, the U.S. edition jumped to No. 72 at Amazon and No. 30 at BN.com, and broke into the top 10 at both sites the next day. The Kindle edition went to No. 137 when the award was announced, and rose to No. 16 the next morning.

The Guardian dubbed it "the first unashamedly comic novel to win" the Booker.

Jacobson, 68, is the oldest winner of the prize since William Golding in 1980, who was 69 when he won for Rites of Passage.

29. News of chicanery, dishonesty and tort-feasing in the book business

The former husband of Danielle Staub of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” is reportedly planning to sue the publishers of her tell-all book. According to TMZ, Kevin Maher is preparing to file a $10 million lawsuit against Simon & Schuster over statements about him printed in Staub's memoir The Naked Truth that he says are “patently untrue.” The book claims that Maher was "incarcerated for 18 months" for "criminal activity relative to Daniel (sic) Staub.” Maher recently settled a defamation suit against Staub after she made allegations that she was raped and abused by him during their marriage.

30. Texas bills Amazon for $269 million in uncollected sales taxes

The state of Texas has assessed Amazon.com $269 million in uncollected sales tax, interest and penalties for the four years running from December 2005 to December 2009, according to a note in the e-tailer's third quarter 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Amazon writes: "The State of Texas is alleging that we should have collected sales taxes on applicable sales transactions during those years. We believe that the State of Texas did not provide a sufficient basis for its assessment and that the assessment is without merit. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter."

The American Booksellers Association has long campaigned to require Amazon to collect sales tax in jurisdictions with sales taxes, and has corresponded for several years with the Texas's comptroller of public accounts on the issue.

ABA CEO Oren Teicher said of the Texas action, "We applaud the State of Texas for taking action against Amazon for its refusal to collect and remit sales tax despite its having clear nexus in the state."

Amazon has a fulfillment center in Irving, Texas, its Woot subsidiary is in Carrollton and it has affiliates across the state.

31. Evangelical Christian Publishers resolve copyright infringement case

The High Court of Justice in London in October issued a Consent Order under which Andrew (Amue) Ansell admitted to infringing a large quantity of Christian theological works by displaying them on his websites, including biblecentre.net, and agreed not to post any copyrighted material in the future.

The action resolves a nearly seven-year legal battle that Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) and its publisher coalition, represented by U.S. attorney Brian Flagler and UK attorney Martyn Bailey, have fought in the UK judicial system.

Amue/Ansell submitted a written apology for his actions, acknowledging that he was in violation of the law and Christian principles. Copyrighted works have been deleted from his servers and ECPA has submitted to him a letter informing him of future steps that would be taken should he infringe other materials published by any ECPA member.

In 2003, ECPA became aware of Amue’s site at www.biblecentre.net, which featured a collection of the full texts of hundreds of copyrighted Christian theological works displayed without permission. ECPA organized a coalition of its member publishers - Thomas Nelson, Zondervan, Baker Publishing Group, Tyndale, Moody, Logos Software and IVP UK, to address the infringement.

Amue first offered free access to the texts, then started charging a subscription fee and expanded the offerings on new websites at www.evanglibrary.info and www.evanglibrary.com. ECPA repeatedly asked Amue to cease infringing copyright in the works in numerous letters and emails over a period of over four years. Legal counsel was secured in 2006. Amue continually refused to either secure the necessary licenses or to permanently remove the works from his websites.

In May of this year, the High Court in London issued a Bench Warrant for Andrew Amue’s arrest for failing to appear at the hearing to enforce a March 2008 Order. Amue had been hiding from authorities, and eventually changed his name to Andrew Ansell.

32. Indiana AG files more complaints against vanity publisher Caswell

The Indiana Attorney General’s office on Oct. 14 filed 24 new consumer complaints against David W. Caswell and his vanity publishing company New Century Publishing for failing to print and promote customers’ books.

The amended complaint, filed in Marion Circuit Court, alleges that Caswell was paid more than $86,000 by 40 different wannabe authors for services never rendered.

The new complaints come in addition to 16 originally filed by Attorney General Greg Zoeller’s office in August. The lawsuit seeks an injunction against Caswell and Indianapolis-based New Century, restitution of the customers’ money and penalties up to $5,000 for each time Caswell is shown to have knowingly or intentionally deceived consumers.

The Indiana Business Journal first reported complaints involving New Century Publishing in July.

New Century ‘s business was to help authors self-publish their books, with the company handling half the printing costs and providing layout, editing and promotional services.

Many customers alleged that when New Century failed to deliver the books in the time promised, Caswell would promise to deliver them by a new date and also convince the authors to pay additional funds for a promotional website or a table at a book-signing event.

None of the authors mentioned in the lawsuit saw the websites or book signings materialize.

The lawsuit also alleges that Caswell and his company sought to confuse consumers as they “purposefully interchanged and substituted their corporate, legal, assumed, and fictitious names when soliciting and transacting with customers.”

Caswell has been sued before for questionable business practices.

The state sued Caswell and two others in 2005 for violating its Deceptive Consumer Sales Act while working at GCM Group of Indianapolis Inc., a career services firm. The defendants claimed they had access to a “hidden job market” to assist clients who purchased their services to secure employment.

Under the judgment in that case, Caswell agreed to pay $60,000, including more than $56,000 to the state, in civil penalties and litigation costs, in addition to more than $3,000 in restitution to three consumers. He also was ordered to cease doing business as a supplier of career services in Indiana.

The state also sued Caswell in 1990 for similar claims while he operated Thomwell Deil and Associates Inc. He then was ordered to pay a total of $39,600, including $16,600 in restitution.

In December 1993, Caswell pleaded guilty in federal court to four counts of interstate transportation of fraudulently obtained money and two counts of failure to file income tax returns. His 14-month sentence was upheld in September 1994 following a failed appeal challenging the calculation of the prison term. (Source: J.K. Wall, Indiana Business Journal, Oct. 15, 2010)

33. CIA sues former spy for publishing book in 2008 without permission

The CIA has filed a civil suit against a former spy who published a book critical of the agency without the necessary review of the material by the agency, in violation of a secrecy agreement.

The legal action is being taken against Ishmael Jones, the pen name for a nearly 20-year veteran of the CIA who says he worked deep undercover overseas, mostly in Arabic-speaking nations. In 2008, he published The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture under his pseudonym.

In a statement, the CIA said "Jones" violated the secrecy agreement he voluntarily signed as a condition of employment.

"Although Jones submitted his manuscript to the Agency's Publications Review Board (PRB) as his secrecy agreement requires, he did not let that review process run its course and instead published in defiance of the Board's initial disapproval," said the CIA statement.

Jones' real identity remains classified, mainly to protect the sources he worked with as a covert officer overseas.

Jones, who was contacted by CNN through his website, does not dispute the fact he went ahead and published his book in violation of his agreement, but says he did so after the PRB sent back a heavily redacted manuscript "which was essentially a stack of blank pages with a sentence every 10 pages or so."

"I decided to defy censors as a whistle-blower in order to expose something that puts Americans at risk," Jones told CNN.

He said his book, which remains available online - visit Amazon.com or http://www.ishmaeljones.com - contains no classified information, but it "exposes the CIA as a place to get rich, with billions of taxpayer dollars wasted or stolen in espionage programs that produce nothing."

In his book, Jones claimed that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress gave the CIA $3.5 billion to train and deploy more covert officers overseas, but the money was instead spent on contractors, buildings and personnel in the United States. He said 90 percent of CIA employees live in the U.S. where they are mostly ineffective.

"We need financial accountability and whistle blower systems to stop tremendous waste and theft," he said.

The CIA statement said the pre-publication review is "an indispensable tool to protect intelligence sources, methods and activities. In publishing without authorization, he (Jones) risked disclosure of classified information."

The suit seeks the recovery of all profits from the book and an injunction against Jones further violating his secrecy agreement.

Jones questioned the timing of the suit since his book has made very little money.

Mark Zaid, a lawyer who has handled many pre-publication challenges, said he believes the CIA is sending a message to the growing number of former intelligence officers who are writing books and appearing in the media.

"The message by the CIA - and I'm surprised it took so long - is telling former officers and employees there is a process to follow and you don't make the decision on what is or is not classified," said Zaid. (Source: Pam Benson, CNN National Security Producer, Oct. 19, 2010)

34. News from trade shows: Chinese children's book market growing

The Chinese Children's Book market is growing even faster than the country's overall economy, Ren Lei, account manager of Asia. Told an audience at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Oct. 8, "and 20 percent of foreign publishing licenses bought by the Chinese publishers are children's books."

At the briefing, Lei said about 90 percent of the 581 publishing houses in China produce children's books. Nine of those specializing in children's books are based in Beijing, two in Shanghai and 23 in other provinces.

Liu Chang, deputy editor-in-chief of the trade magazine China Publishing Today, said that according to statistics, 58 percent of the parents in China spend more than 30 Chinese yuan (about US$4.50) on purchases of children's books per month, which has made the book market grow at a double-digit rate in recent years.

According to China Publishing Today, the U.S. and European children's book share in the book retail market is about 20 percent, whereas in China it's only 12 percent now. "Among the different categories. children's literature is the largest segment accounting for about 40 percent," Liu said. The other categories are cartoon animation, picture books and children's popular science.

The most successful translated children's books are those of the Austrian writer Thomas Brezina - the "Tiger Team" series. The series has generated sales of 300 million Chinese yuan and nearly 30 million copies volume.

According to Chang, the most successful Chinese writers of children's books are Zheng Yuanjie, who wrote the Pipilu story series, with 10 million copies in print, and Yang Hongying, whose Naughty Boy Ma Xiaotiao series has about 20 million copies.

In terms of distribution, "the confrontation between traditional bookstores and the new online bookstores is on the rise," Liu said. China's largest online bookstore, Dangdang.com, expects to see its children's book sales surpass 400 million yuan by the end of this year.

One of the most successful children's publishing houses in China is the 21st Century Publishing House. During the first two days of the Frankfurt fair, the publishing house bought more than 100 titles and sold 20 titles, Ren Lei said. (Source: Veronika Licher, Xinhua, Oct. 8, 2010)

35. Istanbul’s annual literary feast highlights Turkish book market

Bookworms in Istanbul were treated to a weeklong literary feast at the Beylikdüzü TÜYAP Fair and Congress Center, where publishers from more than 30 countries showcased their newest publications as part of the 2010 TÜYAP Istanbul Book Fair. An estimated 400,000 persons attended the event.

The 29th edition of the annual fair, where Spain was the guest of honor, opened its doors with a ceremony attended by Spanish Culture Minister Ángeles González-Sinde Reig and her Turkish counterpart, Ertuğrul Günay.

In her opening remarks at the fair, Spanish Culture Minister Reig said she believed that the fair would make valuable contributions to relations between Turkey and Spain.

Turkish Culture Minister Günay noted that around 450 million books were being published in Turkey annually, pointing to the figures as a sign of the increasing number of readers. “Turkey’s population now exceeds 70 million. Some 40 million are under the age of 30. Turkey’s young population displays the growing demand for intellectual production,” Günay was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

Some 300 events, ranging from book signing days to book recitals and conferences, were part of the fair, which ran from Oct. 30  through Nov. 7. A total of 51 international authors, poets and literary translators - the majority of whom were from guest country Spain - attended.

A total of 550 publishing houses from 37 countries, among them Germany, France, Italy, Romania, Iran, Cuba, the United States, Finland, the Netherlands, Greece, India and Britain, took part in the fair.

36. 100 writers pull 10,000 fans to Vegas Valley Book Festival

At the Las Vegas Valley Book Festival, held Nov. 3-7, 100 writers drew 10,000 readers to four valley locations for the ninth annual Vegas Valley Book Festival.

More than 100 events, all free to the public, spotlighted adult literature, children's literature, comic books and food literature.

Among the local writers discussing their works were Matthew O'Brien (Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas), Alissa Nutting (Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls) and Donald Revell (The Bitter Withy).

The two keynote speakers were T.C. Boyle of Los Angeles and Dennis LeHane of Boston.

The Vegas Valley Book Festival is produced by the city of Las Vegas, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, BMI, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the local chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and Nevada Humanities. (Source: Corey Levitan, Las Vegas Review-Journal)

37. Major upcoming trade shows, book fairs and book festivals

November

Nov. 14-21. Miami Book Fair International, Miami Dade College, draws hundreds of thousands of people. http://www.miamibookfair.com.

Nov. 27-Dec. 3. Guadalajara International Book Fair, Guadalajara, Mexico. Claims to be the second-largest international book fair in the world, after Frankfurt, with 600,000 attendees. Guadalajara International Book Fair Is Second Largest Book Expo http://www.suite101.com/content/guadalajara-international-book-fair-is-second-largest-book-expo-a279578#ixzz0ywvkmkzR

January 2011

Jan. 7 -11. American Library Association's Midwinter Conference.  www.ala.org 

Jan. 11-13. Inspirational Value Book Show (IVBS).  www.ivbshow.com  

Jan. 16-17. Ciana Remainder Book Show, London.  http://www.ciana.co.uk    

February

Feb. 25-March 1. The National Association of College Stores Conference. www.nacs.org 

Ninth Hispanic Book Festival.  www.hispanicbookfestival.com or call Andres Puello, Festival Director, 281-558-3052

South Carolina Book Festival. http://www.scbookfestival.org

March

March 25-27. Spring Book Show, Cobb Galleria/Renaissance-Waverly Hotel, Atlanta, Ga. SBS is one of the largest remainder and bargain book shows in the world. www.springbookshow.com

National Association of College Stores (CAMEX). www.nacs.org

Bologna Children’s Book Fair.  www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com 

April

April 11-13. London Book Fair . www.londonbookfair.co.uk

April 30-May 1. Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. After 15 years at the UCLA campus in Westwood, the festival, which has grown into one of the biggest in the country, is moving to the University of Southern California's University Park Campus, near downtown Los Angeles. Last year, more than 140,000 people attended.

April 30- May 2. Museum Store Association’s Retail Conference & Expo

May

May 23-26. BookExpo America, New York.  www.bookexpoamerica.com  

National Stationery Show,  New York.

June

June 24-29. American Library Association, Washington, DC. www.ala.org

June 27–30. ICRS - International Christian Retail Show,  St. Louis, Mo www.christianretailshow.com

Printers Row Book Fair, Chicago. http://www.chicagotribune.com/about/events/printersrow  

The Australian Booksellers Association's, Melbourne. The International New Age Trade Show West 

July

July 21-24. Comic-Con International, San Diego, Calif. The grandfather of all comics shows, which began in 1970, and capped its attendance at 125,000 three years ago.
 

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