Blog
In need of shelf-space?
10 January, 2011
These days, with location being everything, space at a premium and ‘reusable’ the buzzword of the noughties, these rather forward-thinking bookshops have made the most of available venues – turning movie theatres, churches, train carriages and even an old funeral parlour into shelf-space. See all the converted bookshops here, but my favourite has to be […]
The Blogging of War and Peace
7 January, 2011
Resolution the First, MMXI. Friends, blog-readers, gluttons for punishment; I wish to publicly declare my New Year’s resolution, in the hope that fear of the shame of openly admitting to failure will prevent me from ever breaking this resolution, as all my previous ones have been. I do therefore solemnly swear by all that I […]
The 100 Top-Selling Titles of All Time
6 January, 2011
The Guardian has published Nielsen’s list of 100 top-selling titles of all time – or at least from when Nielsen started compiling data in 1998. See the article here… Glancing down the list I confess to some titles completely taking me by surprise. I knew they’d done well, but did they really beat the sales […]
Wednesday Cover Story: The Flavour Thesaurus
5 January, 2011
The Flavour Thesaurus was one of the many books that featured as gifts under our Christmas tree this year (and considering every Waterstone’s I ventured into a few days before Christmas were out of stock – “it’s been very popular” – it probably featured under many others). This isn’t suprising considering it is an ingenious […]
Getting 2011 off to the right start.
4 January, 2011
As I try to get my brain into gear that we are now in 2011, I realise that my New Year resolutions are a bit thin on the ground. Perhaps I’m a cynic/realist/have the will power of a new born babe but I don’t think there’s much point to my pronouncing commandments such as ‘thou […]
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
22 December, 2010
Well that’s it for 2010 here in the Allison & Busby office! A big thank you to everyone – to all our blog followers, to our loyal book readers, to the booksellers who continue to support us, the literary agents who help build our list and of course to the Allison & Busby authors who provide us with […]
Time for Christmas markets!
21 December, 2010
The fact that we are experiencing a white Christmas does add a little something to the festivities. Ok, the man shouting expletives into his mobile phone (as he explains to whoever is on the receiving end that his train is delayed by an hour due to the weather conditions) does not fall in line with […]
Novel wallpaper…literally.
20 December, 2010
Here’s a novel (!) idea for home décor. Spineless publishing produces full text of your favourite classics with artfully cut out illustrations, all ready for you to hang on your walls. So, this Christmas, when the family becomes too much, you can stare over their shoulders and read away to your heart’s content, remembering to […]
Testing times…
17 December, 2010
Yesterday evening we enjoyed a very jolly office Christmas party. It involved a luminous tree; adequate amounts tinsel, tea light candles carefully strewn around the office (and not too close to our large archive of books), copious amounts of cava and mulled wine, a ridiculously large spread of food (note-to-self: remember, Chiara, when you next […]
Wednesday Cover Story: The importance of fonts
15 December, 2010
As any self-respecting cover designer will tell you, choosing a font is very important business. Just look at our moody vampiric swirls for the Morganvilles, or the art deco typeface used for the Laurie R. King series. Finding the perfect font is as important as finding or creating the perfect image for a cover. So, […]
Porn for book lovers (bookshelf series, 3)
14 December, 2010
Following my battle building bookshelves and search for more inspiring book-storage ideas, today I share with you the most recent discoveries. There is no doubt that some book collections are worth framing, but whether you have signed first editions of classics or just beautifully coloured paperbacks that would make a nice splash on the wall, […]
A great book to read, or wear, or…
13 December, 2010
We should stop thinking of ourselves as book publishers. That was one of the resounding lines echoed unnervingly in my head after an ebook conference last week. Too true, of course, when the rise of ebooks is plain to see and digital opportunities for publishers and authors abound. But this thought also coincided with a […]
IKEA… behind Scandinavian crime writers’ success?
9 December, 2010
In the Metro this morning there was an article on Scandinavian crime writers noting how interest in this particular area of crime is far from losing momentum. But did you know that there is a direct correlation between the increasing popularity of Scandinavian crime and DIY giant IKEA? According to author Matt Benyon Rees (whose […]
Wednesday Cover Story: I Hate Christmas (but I now love sprouts…)
8 December, 2010
This has got to be one of my favourite covers on our list. Simple and to the point. And how lucky we are that the brussel sprout, that un-loved Christmas vegetable, is green and not, for example, orange. The Christmas colouring for the cover just wouldn’t have worked, would it… But on this subject of […]
Support Reading with the Big Give Xmas Challenge
7 December, 2010
‘Tis the season of giving… and this week, giving is worth double. The Big Give 2010 Christmas Challenge runs from 6th – 10th December and means that any online donations to partnering charities made through The Big Give will be worth double the amount! One of the charities that is part of the initiative is […]
Fool-proofing your titles…
6 December, 2010
A bit of ‘science’ to help authors wishing to top the bestseller lists has surfaced over the past week. The people behind Lulu.com, the self-publishing website, have created a gizmo called Titlescorer. After analyzing the titles of the hardback fiction books on the New York Times bestseller list for the past sixty years, they say […]
Tag Your Bag
2 December, 2010
As anyone with the same appetite for books as the A&B office will know (and which Chiara has demonstrated in her recent hunt for new bookshelves), there comes a time when it is impossible to keep any more books. When your bookcases are so full that you’re stacking books on the floor around that piece […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Covering the AIDS issue
1 December, 2010
Today is World Aids Day and as I thought about the AIDS issue I had a quick browse on Amazon to see what books were out there on the topic. And my search brought up a fair amount, but mostly quite stern, scientific, textbook-looking books. Of course, AIDS is indeed a very serious topic and […]
I’d like to dedicate this week to…
30 November, 2010
Historical figures and events have days named after them. Allison & Busby authors are getting weeks celebrated in their honour! First we had the Morganville Vampire Week at Chrissie’s Corner Blog in honour of Rachel Caine‘s hit series (links to all the week’s posts can be found at here at our UK Fans of the […]
Vampires v Zombies
29 November, 2010
Hear ye, hear ye! In the battle of vampires vs zombies, the bloodsuckers may have peaked in popularity in the past year or two, but zombies are proving to be the slow and steady burners. Thanks to the Oxford English Corpus which tracks how language is evolving, we have at our disposal this handy graph […]
Onassis, a Robert Lindsay production…
26 November, 2010
This week I went to the Novello Theatre to see the play Onassis, by Martin Sherman (based on the novel Nemisis, by Peter Evans). It wasn’t what I had expected; less of a story with an actual plot than a sequence of vignettes – moments in Onassis‘ life in which the audience gets a glimpse […]
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