Book News, In Brief

Manga publisher Viz will be "standardizing the pricing" on all of their titles later this year. Currently, their Shonen Jump titles are $7.99, while their Shojo Beat books are $8.99. By November, they'll all be $9.99.


From The Guardian UK: The fat years of the printed word are over. Even if books get dirt cheap, readers simply don't have the time or motive to invest in them. [...] There's been a loss of authority in the serious book. Masochistic? Click here for more.


Either my continued digs at NPR for being classist and condescending were completely misunderstood, or the Stephanie Meyer reverse-backlash has begun. Every Prius' pre-set radio station claims, Real Men Read (And Love) Twilight — Really.


Sad news for sales reps. Publishers Weekly reports: Ingram Marketing Group announced today that about half of respondents it surveyed are “open” to using e-catalogues instead of print catalogs. Click here to read the whole article. Online. Instead of on paper.


Print on demand website SharedBook.com has devoted a forum thread to the open discussion of Google's controversial Book Search. (And by discussion, they mean unfounded doomsday soothsaying, aggressive & anonymous self-aggrandizement, and naive regurgitations of the Long Tail theory. Fun!)


I've been talking a lot of poop about comic book cover art lately, so when I saw Every Day Is Like Wednesday's post about the much maligned cover to Marvel Divas #1, I felt a touch of blogger kinship. Their angle: Yes, it is completely unfair to judge a book by its cover. On the other hand, what's so unfair about judging a book cover by itself? Click here to read.