Friday 18 July 2008

Bribery or Subsidy?

Remember that forthcoming collection of extracts from the German Book Prize longlist I mentioned? Well it turns out they asked the German publishers to pay a "voluntary" contribution towards the printing costs - but only if their book ended up on the longlist. Begging the question, of course, of what they would have done if anyone refused to pay.

But the publishers kicked up a stink - and rightly too - and now the organisation behind the Book Prize has decided to scrap that print costs subsidy. The book will be free in selected bookshops (which do have to pay...).

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