Tag Archives: The Sellout

Publishers say 2017 World Book Fair a profitable affair

Posted on by Leave a comment

As the New Delhi World Book Fair comes to a close today, the nine-day long event was an “excellent” experience with leading publishing houses making significant profit on sales compared to previous years. Vimal Kumar, General Manager at Speaking Tiger said they had “unexpected sales”, despite facing several technical glitches in the aftermath of demonetisation.

“Due to demonetisation we faced several problems since many a times card machines didn’t work due to lack of signals. But, it has been an excellent experience, rather unexpected sales for Speaking Tiger. Our sales have almost doubled this year,” he said.

Some of the top sellers at the stall included ‘Himalaya: Adventures, Meditations, Life’ edited by Ruskin Bond and Namita Gokhale, and ‘Murderer in Mahim’ by Jerry Pinto among others.

For Penguin India, which saw a hike of nearly 20 per cent in business from last year’s fair, the event being moved ahead by a month from the usual February, has worked favourably. Read more

Source: The Financial Express

Here’s the 10th and final list of speakers announced for Jaipur Literature Festival

Posted on by Leave a comment

By Craig Cranenburgh

The upcoming edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival marks its 10th anniversary and meteoric rise from a gem of an idea into becoming what is called the biggest free literary festival on earth. Over the years, the festival has hosted 1300 speakers and welcomed nearly 1.2 million book lovers. The festival, back its home in Diggi Palace, Jaipur, is expected to welcome over 250 authors, thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular culture icons this year.

In the lead up to the 10th year anniversary, the festival is releasing a list of 10 speakers every week. Here’s the final list of speakers announced:
 

2016 Man Booker Prize-winning author for his book The Sellout,Paul Beatty will be making his first appearance at the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF). Beatty’s The Sellout had also won the National Book Critics Circle Award. His career began as a poet in 1991, where he published the anthologies Big Bank Take Little Bank and Joker, Joker, Deuce and the novels, The White Boy Shuffle, Tuff and Slumberland. Read more

Source: My Big Plunge

The Bookseller magazine has published analysis finding a ‘shockingly low’ number of BAME authors in the UK top 500 titles of the year

Posted on by Leave a comment

A writer has more chance of making it into the bestseller charts if their name is David than if they are from an ethnic minority, according to new analysis from The Bookseller magazine which found a “shockingly low” number of books by British BAME (black, asian and minority ethnic) authors in the top 500 titles of the year to date.

Looking at last week’s book charts, the magazine found one book by a person of colour in the official UK top 50 – American author Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, which had just won the Man Booker prize. The first title by a British writer of colour, Matthew Syed’s look at the secrets of success, Black Box Thinking, was in 368th place.

But The Bookseller, which focused on diversity in publishing in the UK in its latest issue, found that last week was “not a one-off”. When it considered the top 100 bestselling titles for the year to date, there was just one British BAME author in the list – Kazuo Ishiguro with his novel The Buried Giant, which had sold just over 100,000 copies to make 59th place. By contrast, the list of 100 titles, The Bookseller pointed out, featured 11 books by authors called David. The next UK BAME author was Dorothy Koomson, in 156th place with the commercial novel That Girl from Nowhere, with Syed’s Black Box Thinking the third and final author in the top 300, in 169th place with sales of just over 57,000 copies. Read more

 

Man Booker prize 2016: Paul Beatty’s win and what is means for writers

Posted on by Leave a comment

the-sellout

The Man Booker Prize is considered to be one of the most-coveted literary awards for British and post-colonial novels (from countries that gained independence from Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries). But after a rule change in 2014, Britain’s richest writing prize now allows authors of any nationality to be eligible for the award. On October 25, Paul Beatty became the first American to be awarded the Booker for his satirical novel, The Sellout.

In fact, last year, US author Joshua Ferris’s To Rise Against At A Decent Hour was also on the list. However, closer home, Anuradha Roy’s Sleeping on Jupiter missed the shortlist this year. Here, we speak to several authors about the broadening of the prize and its impact on a global audience. Read more

Paul Beatty becomes first US author to win the Man Booker prize with racial satire The Sellout

Posted on by Leave a comment

paul-beatty

The Man Booker Prize has been won by an American author for the first time, for an expletive-ridden satire judges said “eviscerated” political correctness.

Paul Beatty’s The Sellout was awarded the 2016 prize of £50,000, in the third year since it has been controversially opened to American writers.

Judges said the book contained “absolutely savage wit”, managing to “eviscerate every social taboo and politically correct nuance, every sacred cow, while both making us laugh and wince”.

The novel tells the story of a disaffected black American narrator who seeks to reinstate slavery and segregation in his “agrarian ghetto” town.

Confronting the inflammatory issues of race in modern America, it has raised eyebrows for its language with nearly 200 references to “n—-r” and 233 “f—“.  Read more