Archives for July 2006

UC System May Join Google Library Program The University of California is considering joining other academic libraries participating in the library program of Google Book Search, with the board of regents discussing the possibilities at a meeting last week. As the Daily Californian reports, the UC system has over 34 million books that “could be eligible for digitization” under such a program. UC is already a participant in the Open Content Alliance project, which covers just public domain titles, but “books bound by copyright currently make up about 75 to 80 percent of UC collections.” UC director for library planning […]

Monday, July 24   Our Usual Reminder If for some reason this has reached you even though you are not a paying member of PublishersMarketplace, please visit the link below to join us all the time for complete deal reports and more. Click to register http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/register.shtml Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes […]

Vrai Pynchon The description of Thomas Pynchon’s forthcoming novel AGAINST THE DAY referred to in Slate yesterday, pulled down from Amazon’s official product page but preserved by a site visitor on Amazon’s discussion board, is indeed by the author, confirmed by Tracy Locke at Penguin Press. Locke adds that the Slate piece incorrectly claimed she “disavowed all knowledge” of the post. “I explained to Troy Patterson that I was unaware that any sort of book description had been posted on Amazon and that I’d not seen it — and therefore could not comment on its accuracy.” Amazon’s Sean Sundwall tells […]

A Flat Quarter for Scholastic Scholastic announced flat sales for their fourth quarter ($334 million in the children’s book publishing and distribution, even with a year ago, and $601 million overall, up $9 million from last year) and lower profits, with net income of $38 million, versus $43 million a year ago. Sales for fiscal 2007 are projected to drop from this year’s $2.28 billion (which included last year’s new Harry Potter) to between $2.1 and $2.2 billion. Total Potter revenue for 2006 was $195 million, up from $20 million the year before. Press Release Uh Oh: Jones’ Idea of […]

Germany’s Continuing Hit The Guardian highlights German bestseller MEASURING THE WORLD, which has sold 600,000 copies in hardcover since last September, “nothing less than a literary sensation.… It hasn’t just delighted the readers. It has also enthralled Germany’s famously grudging critics, who have swooningly praised the novel and hailed its author – 31-year-old Daniel Kehlmann – as a literary wunderkind.” Quercus will publish in the UK next year. Guardian Fox Goes Graphic It’s Comic-Con time, and so the related press releases shall flow. Fox Filmed Entertainment’s Fox Atomic will create a line of graphic novels, to be published by corporate […]

Action at Retailers and Wholesaler Distribution giant Source Interlink — the largest ID magazine and book distributor, and the primary distributor of CDs and DVDs to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders — is featured in the WSJ’s Heard on the Street column as potentially closing in on a sale to private-equity groups or management following a long period of being shopped. “People familiar with the matter say no deadline has been set for bids, but a deal could come in the next two months.” For now, though, investors are betting the other way. They have massively shorted the company’s […]