Tuesday, May 27, 2008

More book stuff

The US and UK publishing industries, despite some key differences, work very closely together, and I think this article by The Observer's former literary editor is pretty darn good. I wish Zadie Smith wasn't on his top 10 list (Truth and Beauty SUCKED), and that Amazon wasn't on there twice, but I think it's interesting that he writes that the whininess of publishing today represents "the birth pangs of a golden age."

"The market for the printed book is now global; the opportunities for the digital book are almost unimaginable. To be a writer in the English language today is to be one of the luckiest people alive."

Whether publishers or booksellers are as lucky is up for debate, but the reason I took this job is that more and more books are being printed - people just need to find them!

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