Archives for May 2007

Amazon Buys Brilliance Amazon has acquired audiobook publisher Brilliance Audio from owners Michael Snodgrass, Eileen Hutton and a private equity group, for undisclosed terms. Brilliance will continue to run as an independent unit based in Michigan, under Snodgrass’s leadership. Amazon vp of books Greg Greeley says the purchase is part of “a three-pronged approach” to […]

S&S Replies Further to Guild Simon & Schuster is sending a letter to agents and authors that asserts the “Authors Guild has recently perpetrated serious misinformation” about changes in their contract language and criticizes the Guild for not “having undertaken any effort to have a dialogue.” They say that “contrary to the Authors Guild assertion, […]

New Name, Expanded Scope for Business Line Grand Central Publishing announced a new name this morning for the old Warner Business imprint — now to be known as Business Plus — and a new plan to extend the line to the UK. Executive editor Rick Wolff will continue to lead acquisitions in the US, and […]

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 time […]

Not the Lead Story You Expected Missed in the larger wave of publicity about Google’s rollout of their “universal search” initiative (more effectively blending multiple types of results — news, blogs, videos, images, books, maps, etc. — to a search query), the company also sort of announced what might or might not turn out to […]

Oregon Voters Reject Library Levy Jackson County, OR voters turned down an $8.3 million tax increase designed to reopen their 15-branch library system by a 60-40 margin — about the same as a vote last November (prior to the actual closing of the libraries in early April.) The head of the Save the Libraries campaign […]