When we in the west hear the word kindle we immediately think of ebooks and reading. After ten years in which Kindle has become as synonymous with e-readers as Hoover has with vacuum cleaners that’s a natural association. So when someone tipped me off that Amazon was involved in a children’s book fair in Pakistan, Read More …
A writers workshop in Abu Dhabi that went from 12 to 2,500 members. A pay-to-get-in bookstore in Japan. A book exchange at a train station in Pakistan. How children’s books went from japan to Mosul in Iraq. And how the lyrics of the Moroccan national anthem came to be written. We start today with a Read More …
It’s been a while since the release of The Cursed Child, the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and the Hogwarts Library digital audiobook, and revenues have been hit, as The Bookseller reports. In the period, revenues were £32.8m, down from the previous year’s £40.3m. Pretax profit was £3.4m, compared with £3.5m. Nevertheless, the result showed that Pottermore Read More …
Unusually we Start the Day Global today in Michigan, USA, where this delightful story caught my eye over at Publishers Weekly. Girls of the Crescent: Teen Sisters Promote Stories of Muslim Girls When sisters Mena and Zena Nasiri, both avid teen readers, noticed a dearth of YA books featuring Muslim females like themselves, they took Read More …
As this curation is posted it’s Christmas Day 2018. Whether you celebrate Christmas as a Christian, or as a fun Santa event for the children, or whether it’s just another working day, there’s no getting away from the fact that the story of Jesus Christ began in that part of the Middle East that now Read More …
The International Children’s Content Rights Fair (ICCRF) in Chiang Mai winds up its four-day run today (Sunday December 2). Focussed on children’s content from ASEAN publishers and rights deals between ASEAN countries and the wider world, the ICCRF seeks to open up new opportunities in South East Asia. Regulars here at TNPS will know my views Read More …
While book fairs and festivals in India are booming, events dedicated to children’s books are still few and far between. The Neev Literature Festival that runs from September 27-29 will be bucking that trend. The festival, hosted by Neev Academy, an International Baccalaureate school in Yemalur, Bengaluru, explains The Hindu, pushes the boundaries by focussing Read More …
In a press release today the International Publishers Association announced its collaboration with the UN’s Sustainable Development Group to create a Book Club for children’s titles that will promote the Sustainable Development Group’s goals (SDGs). The Book Club initiative will put the spotlight on books as a tool to encourage children and young people to Read More …
Given China is by any measure the second largest book market in the world, it should come as no surprise that the Beijing International Book Fair is one of the largest and most important publishing events in the world. To coincide with the event, Publishing Perspectives ran an insightful interview with the Beijing IBF Director, Read More …
The Hindu Young World-Goodbooks Awards 2019 are open for submissions, but as so often with these awards the prize is off-limits to any authors who aren’t backed by a traditional publisher. Excellence in writing, illustration and publishing will be recognised, says The Hindu, explaining the awards will also, acknowledge innovative publishing trends. The awards are Read More …
In countries where, as the saying goes, “people don’t read,” it is often the “Three A’s” – Availability, Accessibility and Affordability – that are behind this apparent disinterest in books. Put simply, if the books aren’t available, aren’t accessible, and aren’t affordable, then many would-be readers will be missing out. Imagine living in Manaus, the Read More …
35 libraries from 19 countries were in the running, but just five have been shortlisted for the annual prize to be acclaimed 2018 Public Library of the Year, awarded to a public library that is either newly built or set up in premises not previously used for library purposes. The jury consists of members of Read More …
If you know how to use Word, you will be able to write an interactive ebook. Or so says French start-up Adrénalivre, which earlier this year had over 1,000 authors contributing interactive content. Having invested €100,000 in the design and development of interactive story writing software, the start-up has now launched the world’s first subscription Read More …
With a population of 20 million Sri Lanka is bigger by population than all but eight countries in Europe. That alone ought to put Sri Lanka on the radar of publishers as a lucrative market. Its 16.6 million Sinhala speakers is close to the population of the Netherlands. Its 4.7 million Tamil speakers give it Read More …
Few of us in the west can imagine the struggles faced every day in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where every time you or your children step out in public, even to somewhere as innocuous as a public library, might be the last thing you do. With the Taliban and Islamic State treating little children as Read More …
The Arabic Childrenʹs Literature Festival was held last month in Munich, reports Qantara, where at the city’s Gasteig cultural centre the International Youth Library presented a catalogue of Arabic-language children’s books for German readers. Qantara, noting that, Arabic childrenʹs books have been all but invisible in Germany (with) almost no translations into German and very Read More …
It would be impossible to try cover even a fraction of the publishing news that lands on my e-desk each day, but there’s so much happening in our industry that passes unnoticed. So here’s a selection of some of the past two days’ best publishing stories, taken from the TNPS twitter feed (@thenewpubstd). Apologies if Read More …
It would be impossible to try cover even a fraction of the publishing news that lands on my e-desk each day, but there’s so much happening in our industry that passes unnoticed. So here’s a selection of some of today’s best publishing stories. Apologies if some are behind pay-walls. Amazon Launches Kids’ (Hardcover) Subscription Service. Read More …
With the theme “Your Future … Just a Book Away” the just-ended tenth Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival in the United Arab Emirates drew 247,000 visitors, of which 52,000 were children. While the 2018 event fell short of last year’s record 306,000 visitors it was still an impressive turnout, and all the more so given the Read More …
In Argentina today the Buenos Aries International Book Fair kicks off. It runs from April 26 through May 14, and 1.2 million visitors are expected. At the other end of the scale, a smaller but no less significant book event is underway in South Africa. The Rutanang Book Festival runs April 26-28. Although it started back Read More …
