Author RSSMagic fuels the fame game
by Cathy Macleod, week ending 8 April 2011.
MAGIC fascinates the real world, even in this Age of scientific wonders. I saw the proof of its power when newspaper editors pounced on a recent legal trial between two authors. It was a miracle of publicity, f...
How to get a book noticed
Cathy Macleod's Booktaste Blog.
SEX sells. We all know this. Ever since Adam and Eve donned figleafs the world has relished a risqué read. And once again comes the proof, with British newspapers and magazines revelling in muck that's 200 years old. Even...
Born in Britain: a rebellion of readers
by Cathy Macleod at www.booktaste.com, week ending 4 Feb 2011.
BOOK BURNING is something no democratic government would ever contemplate, yet Britain’s situation is equally severe: closure of public libraries. This weekend (Feb 5) readers throughout the ...
Shakespeare mystery tops Spring list
IN a book jungle that is overrun by vampires, wizards and cosmic weirdos, Shakespeare still prevails. The Bard tops the Spring list as most popular novel in the early 2010 catalogue at Darling Newspaper Press.
"Response to our Internet launch was overwhe...
Brat versus Raj is jewel in Amazon crown
WOW! It's gotta be good when Amazon, the discount king, lists a fiction title at $54. The book in question is Wee Charlie's World by Bryce McBryce. Seems that the brat who is the bane of the British Raj has become rare and valuable literature. Are good hu...
Books to bulge Christmas stockings
Publishers and booksellers are off at a sprint for Christmas, striving for a place up front, if not actually first, in the till tally.
Top seller for this year's final quarter, says Booktaste, is obviously going to be Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. This th...
Corrosive humour scuttles British myths
Cathy Macleod at www.booktaste.com, 1 July 2009. Like many others, I use and love the English language. Today it is the world language, predominant in science, trade and politics. And maybe it always was predominant. At least in Europe.
This mind-blowing...
Who’s reading efiction?
IN the vast sea of digital fiction, one recently voiced trade perception is that there are more authors than there are readers. Whoopee for readers! The choice of titles has never been greater, yet are these books worth reading?
As an avid reader, I welc...
Why pay? That is the question
Cathy Macleod, 18 Feb, 2009: To free or not to free, as the bard would have written. Aye, there's the point! Publishers worldwide are wrestling desperately with the notion that they should free their creations from the chains of a coverprice.
It is jus...
Obama Tells Me All
by Cathy Macleod, 29 January 2009
I met Barack Obama on my back verandah early morning, while sitting with a pot of tea at my elbow and honeybirds crooning. Such is the start to my day in the southern hemisphere.
The President was a few thousand mil...
Happy readers surf The Great Book Flood
Cathy Macleod, January 2009:One could write a book, and somebody probably will, about the pain and drama unfolding now in the book world. The question is would anyone read it?The answer is yes, yes, a million times yes! There will always be book readers, ...
Happy Reading Was Never Easier Than Now
says Cathy Macleod.Tralala, it has got me going lyrical . . .Surging, flooding, books galore, sweeping over Reading's shore. Where to dip and find a winner? How to tell a saint from sinner? Easy done, I promise you - here is all you have to do: Browse the...
Fiction heavyweights go digital
by Cathy Macleod.
Agatha Christie, Fay Weldon and Ann Morven have all embraced electronic publication as the ebook revolution gushes into the new year of 2009.
For evergreen Christie characters, such as Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, it entails a ref...
Digital sparkle brightens Christmas gloom
Helping bookstore earnings over Christmas 2008 is an exciting first-time phenomenon:
All the major chains are selling a new kind of book gift. It is not printed, it is an Electronic Reader.
The last two weeks of November saw a surge in their sales, and...