Following a discussion on the closure of Footprint Books I asked my friend Jennifer Jones to write us a few words about this. Footprint Books is an Australian book distribution company founded in 1999 by Kate O’Reilly and Simon Player, both of whom already had several years of experience in ...

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Something I used to do in the dim, dark past i.e. before I started studying at university, was to write an occasional article about what was happening in the book industry. I’ve had a couple of interesting things come across my desk recently so I’m going to share some of ...

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I’ve been a little slack with writing over the last few months. I’m part of a writing group and we meet online every two weeks to catch up and discuss each other’s writing. When I say ‘discuss’ I really mean ‘pull it apart and give each other ideas on how ...

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You understand I’m not totally up-to-date with the news. What I’m going to cover actually took place earlier this year. Gaming the system is not new, it’s happened in many different industries. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Years ago I heard The Bee Gees did this same thing ...

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I wouldn’t normally write today but by the time I get to it on Friday the website will be gone and if you have books there/are an author there/are a publisher there and you haven’t heard then you’ll be very annoyed. Actually, you’ll be annoyed anyway but I’m putting this here ...

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It’s one of those really exciting days when I’m wondering what I’m going to talk about so I click on a link and it opens up a whole new world to me! Here’s the link Pride and Prejudice and Zombies author sued by publisher. I spent a bit of time thinking about ...

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I’ve been pondering the vast leap in numbers of published authors now that many companies make it so easy to publish your own manuscripts and just wondering what that does to the market. I heard some numbers the other day and I forget the exact digits but my memory tells me it ...

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Supreme Court Rejects Google Books Appeal I find this article a little confusing but that may be just me. I think there have been several court cases, each won by Google with this last one being dropped. This case is about Google scanning in entire libraries of books and making them ...

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There are a couple of people who don’t fit into any category so they get an article to themselves with a few final words. Digital Dreaming by R. L. Black I was originally attracted by the typewriter, it’s a thing of sheer beauty and such amazing engineering but then I stood ...

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There were several publishers available at the Book Expo. I’ve showcased ASIM before and would have happily done so again but I didn’t think to take photos of them. There was also a shelf display for another publisher but without someone there to talk to I didn’t get around to taking a photo, Australian ...

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As promised here are some words about the support personnel I met at the Book Expo. I suspect I could get entire articles using some of what I’ve written here and each article would only scratch the surface. BookaBuy The lovely people at BookaBuy. Remember when I wrote about Book Clubs? ...

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A few photos from the Australian Discworld Convention in Sydney last weekend. Have I really been back less than a week? So much has happened it feels like a month. I raided the Dealers Tent and bought badges for my collection. One was given me for my volunteering work. The Be ...

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As a bit of change of pace I’ve browsed the web and found some interesting articles for you. Bookseller YA book prize goes to feminist dystopia I was interested by this headline and even more intrigued by the article. The book is about girls in boarding school vying for the chance to ...

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In this increasingly litigious society far too many people are worried about law suits, it seems one can’t say what one feels necessary, even using completely factual information, without worrying about facing a law suit. I am now considering how I can cushion this blog against them and I am one of ...

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