The glass is half full (or more)

Around the internet on book selling, writing, and some great reading:

Despite the rise of e-book sales, publishers can expect print books to coexist with e-books for some time to come. Survey results show that consumers find most of their new reading by browsing in brick-and-mortar stores, especially for new fiction, nonfiction, and midlist titles. Bookstore manager Chris Morrow calls upon publishers to borrow successful models from other industries to enhance the publisher-bookseller partnership. For example, in the scan and pay model, vendors own the stock until the retailer scans it. The benefit to the retailer is that he doesn’t have to minimize inventory to maintain cash flow. He reports substantial increases in sales at his store under this model.

Ireland-based writer and teacher Carlo Gébler writes about the reality of the writers’ life.

I . . . never sit any more, like I once did, and do nothing, and let my unconscious offer whatever it wishes. The relationship is now the other way round. I demand, and this beautiful resource has to meet that demand promptly. Our relationship is crude and brutal.

But on the other hand:

I am also clear-sighted. I don’t go for the self-con: I know where I am, oh yes, I do, and I know what I am. I know exactly where I am and what I have achieved. My solution to the predicament of who I am and where I am is this: I am going to endure.

Finally, it’s always good news when great writing is recognized and its readership expanded. The shortlist for the Caine Prize for African Writing was announced today:

Selected from 126 entries from 17 African countries, the shortlist is once again a reflection of the Caine Prize’s pan-African reach. The winner of the £10,000 prize is to be announced at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on Monday 11 July.

Each short story is available in full text on the website.