Latest news with #PublishingIndustry
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How untold stories in African languages could turn the page on publishing
African stories and languages could unlock billions for the continent's publishing industry if governments back local writers, a Unesco report has found. Africa's book market, now worth $7 billion, could reach $18bn with more homegrown books in local languages. The African book industry, from authors to distributors and publishers, represents 5.4 percent of the global publishing industry, according to a new report from Unesco – which found that African literature has a growing influence around the world. The report – which covers the 54 Unesco member states in Africa – demonstrates that this potential is largely underexploited, and examines solutions to increase publishing on the continent. "The African Book Industry: Trends, Challenges & Opportunities for Growth" reports that the continent has all the means to develop a lucrative sector that would create jobs. There are 6,400 publishers in Africa, publishing 86,000 titles per year on average. The continent is home to 8,000 public libraries, 270 annual book festivals and fairs, and 200 professional publishing associations. Current trends include an increase in formats such as comics and graphic novels, a new focus on publishing for children and young people, and African books being made into films. Africa has also seen rapid growth in digital reading. "Over the past years, we've seen a big push on digital platforms, and particularly in young publishers going this way," Caroline Munier, culture programme specialist at Unesco, told RFI. "This can play a transformative role". Read more on RFI EnglishRead also:Nigerian literary giant Wole Soyinka releases new novel in FranceAfrican book fair in Paris celebrates diversity of diaspora voicesInterview: Tanzanian-born novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, a Nobel laureate
Fast Company
06-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Amazon's layoffs at Goodreads: Another blow for the long-suffering book review platform?
Amazon famously started as an online bookstore. In the three decades since, it has disrupted how people buy, read, and review books through steps like undercutting local bookstore prices, launching the Kindle, and buying the book-review platform Goodreads. Now, Amazon has announced new job cuts, including at its Kindle and Goodreads teams, Reuters reports. In total, the company is reportedly cutting fewer than 100 jobs across its book division. Since 2022, Amazon has laid off about 27,000 employees as part of a cost-cutting strategy, according to CNBC. The online retailer claims its decision should streamline the impacted departments. 'As part of our ongoing work to make our teams and programs operate more efficiently, and to better align with our business roadmap, we've made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles within the Books organization,' an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters. Criticism over Goodreads stewardship Amazon bought Goodreads in 2013 and has since been accused by the publishing industry of neglecting the book tracker and having only bought it to prevent competition. Goodreads 'hasn't been all that well maintained, or updated, or kept up with,' Jane Friedman, a publishing industry consultant, told The Washington Post in 2023. 'It does feel like Amazon bought it and then abandoned it.' The online retailer also has a review system and launched a 'Your Books' feature in 2023 for customers to track all their digital and print titles and get reading suggestions (another option available on Goodreads).
Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
The American Dirt author returns — and this time she won't be cancelled
Even if you didn't read American Dirt, the sour whiff of controversy it provoked may have pricked your nostrils. After it initially received positive reviews, Jeanine Cummins's 2020 novel about a Mexican mother and son who illegally enter the US to escape a cartel was savaged by authors and critics as tasteless 'trauma porn' and an insult to Hispanic writers. This wasn't her story to tell, was the message. Cummins, who is not Mexican, had committed the grievous sin of imagination. Her publisher apologised for the way the book was marketed; her book tour was cancelled. Looking back, some valid points were made (the book's barbed-wire cover design was unfortunate), but much of the criticism felt like spite from loud mediocrities who were jealous
