We’ve been waiting to see if there would be any real news today, but it’s looking like a summer Friday, so there are just a number of short items below. This recent TechCrunch posting should serve as a warning to all, however. Amazon’s new open “Kindle Yourself” invitation to bloggers unfortunately also made it easy for people to register and claim blogs–like Tech Crunch–that do not belong to them. As part of that discovery, author Paul Carr told Tech Crunch he recently uploaded his book BRINGING NOTHING TO THE PARTY onto Kindle (since the print edition is available only in […]
Archives for May 2009
People
Josalyn Moran will join Chronicle as children’s publishing director, officially starting June 10 though also attending BEA with the company. Moran is charged with “overseeing and spearheading the growth” of the company’s children’s line, encompassing both books and “innovative formats.” She has been vp, children’s books at Barnes & Noble for the past nine years (and was associate publisher at North-South Books before working at the bookseller). The ABA membership formally ratified Michael Tucker of Books Inc. as president and Becky Anderson as vice president/secretary.
"Make Books" Makes Some Employees Vent
Just like the old adage about the production of sausages (and legislation), the making of Borders’ recent initiative to focus on a few selected “make books” has produced a venting of angry Internet posts from anonymous people who say they are employees (and former employees) of the chain. The intensity and number of the posts rose after the AP story on the program earlier this month, and a brief PW post summarizing the wire story. The posters allege intense pressure from Borders headquarters and store management to meet sales quotas on the make books. Many claim that early on executives […]
Secret Tapes of Late Chinese Premier Drive New Book
There’s a lot of international press for Simon & Schuster’s May release, PRISONER OF STATE: The Secret Journal of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang. As the subtitle promises, the book draws on previously-secret and little-known tapes recorded by the late Ziyang during the 1989 Tiananmen uprising (and crackdown) and smuggled out of China. The Times of London says, “So sensitive is this document, the first memoir ever to be made public by such a senior Chinese party official, that even its existence had been kept a closely guarded secret. Speculation had been rife during his nearly 16 years of house arrest […]
Amazon to Bloggers: Go Kindle Yourself
Amazon has created a self-service platform that lets any blogger to enroll and distribute their blog to Kindle users–after accepting Amazon’s terms of service. Just like the big newspapers, Amazon keeps 70 percent of the proceeds, and they have sole power to set pricing (which for most blogs in either $1.99 or $.99 a month.)Sign in page
Amazon Gets Closer to Publishing with "Encore" Program
Amazon has announced a new program in which they will harvest “information such as customer reviews on Amazon websites to identify exceptional, overlooked books and authors that show potential for greater sales.” Amazon then helpfully “partners” with the authors to reissue their books with “marketing support” and sales through Amazon, the Kindle store, and Audible but also–at least they hope–distribution to “national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers.” From the listing on the initial selection, 16-year-old Cayla Kluver’s self-published YA fantasy romance novel LEGACY, the “publisher” will be billed as Amazon Encore, which could be a nonstarter for many of […]