Martin Amis the GBP 3.000.00 an hour professor
Maev Kennedy reports in The Guardian that Martin Amis is paid GBP 3,000 an hour by Manchester University to be a visiting professor of creative writing. Not quite in the same league as the Premiership footballers, as the story suggests, but nice. His salary has been disclosed as GBP 80,000 a year or GBP 3,000 an hour: '... 12 90-minute postgraduate seminars, four public appearances and one session at the summer writing school'.
The normal fee for a visiting academic is reported to be between GBP 20.00 and GBP 50.00 an hour. 'Applications for the creative writing course increased by 50% when the news broke of Amis's new role' the report says.
Amazon shows Bloomsbury who's boss In the story Amazon 'punishes' Bloomsbury on terms Roger Tagholm of Publishing News reports that "AMAZON HAS REMOVED the 'Buy New' button on a range of Bloomsbury titles in what appears to be a terms dispute with the publisher. Titles include William Boyd's Restless, Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, William Dalrymple's The Last Mughal and Michael Ondaatje's Divisadero."
I didn't get it at first. Then reading further down I got it. By taking off the 'Buy New' button, shoppers are forced to buy from the Amazon market place and this most buyers are reluctant to do because the book would not be shipped by Amazon itself but from third-party vendors. And as a result Bloomsbury will lose sales. Amazon is banking on its brand loyalty. Book buyers seldom care what imprint a book carries.
But with a list that includes JK Rowling, Michael Ontaadje and William Dalrymple, this is a big gamble for Amazon. If they succeed with Bloomsbury, who will be next? Will anyone else be safe? And what else will Amazon do?
Suddenly it feels safe to be a small insignificant independent player.
Borders Online Book TV
A recent report in Booktrade.com says that Borders Books will launch an Internet television channel at www.borders.co.uk. It will feature interviews with bestselling authors, news on the latest books, and offer readers the chance to upload videos of themselves reviewing books.
This content is now available on www.bookzone.tv which is owned by Simply Media. The news is that this will be re-branded as 'Borders Book Zone' with the content being provided by Simply Media and will be a feature of the Borders online bookstore which is to be launched soon. (Borders currently uses the online retail engine provided by Amazon.com.) The video content will be an attempt by Borders at differentiation. When a customer clicks on a book he can be taken to a video, it is associated with, for him to view before deciding on the purchase.
It is left to be seen if this will catch on.
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