Christopher G. Moore’s novel SPIRIT HOUSE will be offered as a free download for Kindle owners between August 1 and August 15, prior to its print publication on August 28. Publisher Morgan Entrekin says in the announcement, “We think this innovative partnership is a great way to expand Moore’s audience even further.”
Archives for July 2008
Ann Patchett on Touring
The most important things Ann Patchett learned about the art of book touring were conveyed at a Southeast Booksellers Association conference in the 90s by Allan Gurganus and Clyde Edgerton, she writes in an Atlantic essay. Edgerton advised, “You’ve got to drink plenty of water” or you get dehydrated. Gurganus noted, “The only thing worse than going on book tour, is not going on book tour.” Patchett says: “The reason I have so assiduously followed Clyde’s advice (I drink it by the bucketful whenever I’m out on the road) and chanted Allan’s words like a mantra in my head (It […]
Japan's Yohan in Bankruptcy
Book2Book reports that Japanese distributor of foreign books and magazines Yohan “went into bankruptcy today and all their employees were dismissed at once, the office was closed down immediately and the website appears to be closed. It is understood that it has gone down the bankruptcy route, rather than a supervised corporate reorganization. Yohan did not have any significant property and assets and reports suggest that there will be no payment of debts.” Their bookstore operations Aoyama Book Center and Ryusui Shobo are still operating, and are seeking to reorganize.B2B
Personnel News
Overlook Press has hired David Falk as director of sales & marketing, reporting directly to publisher Peter Mayer and also “assisting him in numerous sales and publishing related activities.” Most recently he was director of national accounts at Houghton Mifflin, and prior to that he was a buyer at Baker & Taylor and a store manager at Barnes & Noble. Daisy Hutton will join Thomas Nelson as vp of international licensing in September. She has been rights director at Harvard Business Press. Publisher of management research books and journals Emerald Group opened a US subsidiary based in Cambridge, MA in […]
Pelosi on Tour; Carr Care
First female Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was a lot more popular when she signed to write her memoir than she is now as she embarks on a two-week media tour to promote the 174-page memoir, KNOW YOUR POWER: A Message to America’s Daughters. As an LAT story points out, it’s not a political book, even though it comes during presidential campaign season: “Pelosi has charted her journey from homemaker to the first female speaker of the House in an upbeat account her publisher classifies as a self-help book, inspired by conversations with women around the country…. Though she […]
Earnings Bits
In a Bloomberg story before CBS’s earnings release tomorrow, investors and analysts express dissatisfaction with parent company CBS’s expensive $1.8 billion purchase of CNet and subsequent 30 percent drop in their stock since May. Portfolio manager John Miller (whose firm held 5.5 million shares this March) wishes CBS would sell Simon & Schuster and spend $1.5 billion on a stock buyback program. Other investors are hoping for news of a buyback, and CEO Leslie Moonves says in a phone interview, “Because of our strong balance sheet, we are still in a position to buy back stock. We haven’t ruled that […]