Amazon's fourth quarter results have just come in $1 billion (£632,62m) short of analysts' expectations, but because of a 55% increase in operating income to $405m (£256m), shares rose 6%. Read more
The New Year has started with a mass of news from the ebook front, where things are really moving very fast. In the States ebook sales surged after Christmas. In the UK the figures show that more than one million ereaders and more than half a million tablet devices were received as gifts over Christmas, with Amazon and Apple the leading suppliers of e-readers and tablets respectively. Read more
Do you want to find out how to publish your work as an ebook? This is something you may be thinking about, in view of the rapid growth in ebook sales. Many authors are suffering from a big contraction in their earnings. Read more
Amazon Kindle sales in the US and UK last year were eight million, making it their biggest selling product ever. An article in the UK's Daily Mail put this down to 'spinsters' buying romance to read on their Kindles (and other e-readers) because they were too embarrassed to be seen reading romances in pubic in book form because of the covers. Read more
The excitement surrounding the arrival of the i-Pad in countries outside the US has caught the attention of the media, reinforcing the idea that a mass audience is waiting to buy one and start using it to read e-books. The arrival of the Kindle aroused similar expectations and many articles presaging the end of the printed book. Read more
This has been one of those weeks when there’s been so much happening that it’s difficult to cover it in a single column. Apple has broken the news of its iPad and, amidst the focus on that, Amazon has already started to fight back. This could be a turning-point and how publishing, books and authors come out of all this is hard to predict. Read more
Is it possible that the short story is at last getting a new lease of life? The form, long beloved of writers, seems to be reaching new audiences through the Internet and benefiting from new opportunities in the form of prizes. Read more
This was the week when, in the middle of an unsurprising Booker and an unremarkable Nobel Prize for Literature, Amazon launched its much-heralded Kindle 2 international edition. Read more
Since News Review last reported on e-books and e-book readers in the spring (News Review 2 March) what's happened to the 'big story' of the book world? Well, everyone's been pretty preoccupied with what else is going on right now, with all eyes on the developing recession and how this is affecting booksellers and publishers. Read more
It may seem like old news now, but News Review has been on holiday so it seems worth tracking back to Amazon's announcement of its new version of the Kindle (see News Review 2 February), which became available last week, only in the US, although wider release is expected to follow soon. Read more
'How do you become a writer? Answer: you write. It's amazing how much resentment and disgust and evasion this answer can arouse. Even among writers, believe me. It is one of those Horrible Truths one would rather not face. The most frequent evasive tactic is for the would-be writer to say, But before I have anything to say, I must get experience...
At the US Book Show the energy was palpable; panels were sharper, more diverse, more geared to practical applications; and speakers were good, with costs, discoverability and AI under discussion.
A missile strike at a Ukrainian printer Factor-Druk has led to the deaths of seven employees, 22 people being injured, and the halting of all work at "one of the largest industrial printing facilities in eastern Europe".
The annual "What Kids Are Reading Report" has shown a drop of 4.4% in the number of books being read by children with "reading decline particularly acute in secondary schools". Read more
For decades, the Romance Writers of America (RWA) served as a champion for the mostly female authors of one of the country's most popular - and denigrated - genres of fiction. Read more
Caleb Carr, the scarred and gifted son of founding Beat Lucien Carr who endured a traumatizing childhood and became a bestselling novelist, accomplished military historian and late-life memoirist of his devoted cat, Masha, has died at 68.
Why are some authors and books iconic? Why do other authors and books tank? It's tempting to say that William Shakespeare is uniquely talented, and so is Stephen King. But, of course, there are plenty of amazing writers out there that you haven't heard of them.
Three years ago, Erin Decker was a middle school librarian in Kissimmee, Florida, increasingly frustrated by the state's book bans and worried that she couldn't make a difference remaining in her job.
So, she and fellow librarian Tania Galiñanes thought of a way to fight back.
Around the world, it's common for fiction writers to moonlight as translators. Even in places where there's a robust network of governmental support for writers, translation work provides, at least in theory, a welcome injection of income. Since it's difficult to make a living writing novels or stories, collecting an extra source of funding is important. Read more
For first-time writers, it's harder than ever to break out. That poses an existential crisis for publishing-and disturbing limits on your access to exciting new voices.