With the fading out of the Book Sense branding program, the ABA is renaming their annual prizes the Indies Choice Book Awards. The seven categories have been revamped as well, now honoring an Indie Buzz book (fiction), Best Conversation Starter (nonfiction), Best Author Discovery (debut), Best Read-Aloud Book, Best YA Buzz Book, Most Engaging Author, and the Read-Aloud Hall of Fame. Book finalists will be picked by a bookseller jury, but the pool is still limited to monthly Book Sense/Indie Next list selections. Most Engaging Author Award nominees must be “engaging at in-store appearances” and have “a strong sense of […]
Archives for February 2009
People and Awards
Marcy Goot joins Kaplan Publishing as executive director of marketing. Most recently she was vp of marketing for National Lampoon, after working for multiple book publishers. Also at Kaplan, Don Fehr has been promoted to editorial director, trade, and Ron Sharpe has been promoted to executive director of production and manufacturing. At ESPN Books, Richard (R. D.) Rosen has been hired as senior editor. An Edgar Award-winning author of several mysteries starring a major league baseball player-turned-detective, he was most recently a senior editor at Workman Publishing. Thomas Nelson’s Dale Wilstermann will move over to running the nonfiction trade group […]
Simon & Schuster Holds Steady in Fourth Quarter
CBS reported fourth-quarter sales after the close of the market, with sales of Simon & Schuster doing well given the economic climate, rising one percent to $245 million. Earnings suffered, however, as OIBDA declined 4 percent, at $28.3 million, and operating income was off 3 percent, at $26.1 million. The publisher took a $4.2 million “restructuring charge,” primarily due to the layoffs in December, though also including a modest charge due to the bankruptcy of Woolworth’s in the UK. For the full year, S&S had sales of $858 million, down three percent, as OIBDA of $88.2 million reflected a 9 […]
Crown Backpedals on Dodd Deal
Crown tells a Connecticut newspaper that an announcement of deal with Senator Chris Dodd to publish 13 DAYS: How the Financial Crisis Changed Washington this summer was “information prematurely sent by the publisher.” Executive director for publicity Katie Wainwright writes that “in fact, Senator Dodd and Crown do not yet have a signed agreement” (not unusual, of course) and adds that “if Crown and Senator Dodd reach agreement, Senator Dodd plans to donate his proceeds from this forthcoming book to charity.”Journal Inquirer
Young Lion Finalists
Here are the finalists for The New York Public Library’s 2009 Young Lions Fiction Award, given to an American writer age 35 or younger for either a novel or collection of short stories: Jon Fasman, The Unpossessed City Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric DisturbancesSana Krasikov, One More YearZachary Mason, The Lost Books of the OdysseySalvatore Scibona, The End
Waterstone's Exclusive Deal Provokes Indies' Ire
Sunnyside, Glen David Gold’s first novel since 2001, will be published in the UK by Sceptre this July – but only Waterstone’s stocks the hardback for an exclusive four-month window while all other booksellers will receive only a paperback later in the fall. The news has independents in a letter-writing campaign calling for a boycott of the paperback edition, while others have said they are considering removing the publisher from any recommended lists, or that they will “think twice” about ordering books from Sceptre in future. Waterstone’s sold 19 books with an exclusive time window in 2008 but it appears […]