Following what some saw as a renegade initial renegotiation of terms of the Google Book Search scanning agreement with the University of Michigan, Google has announced new agreements with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Texas. While Michigan specified many of the particulars of their agreement (which gives the institution free access to the complete database that Google intends to license to other institutions as compensation for the books provide for scanning), the new announcement do little more than repeat blandishments about increased public access. (That access is still dependent upon the approval of the settlement of the […]
Archives for July 2009
August Indie Next Picks
Labor Day: A Novel by Joyce Maynard The Girl Who Played With Fire: A Novel by Stieg Larsson The Magicians: A Novel by Lev Grossman This Is Where I Leave You: A Novel by Jonathan Tropper The Arms Maker of Berlin: A Novel by Dan Fesperman The Weight of Silence: A Novel by Heather Gudenkauf South of Broad by Pat Conroy While I’m Falling: A Novel by Laura Moriarty Sandman Slim: A Novel by Richard Kadrey Undone: A Novel by Karin Slaughter In This Way I Was Saved: A Novel by Brian DeLeeuw Of Bees and Mist: A Novel by […]
People and Awards
Anova executive director Roger Huggins is to leave the company on July 31 when he intends to become involved in a “variety of publishing projects”. The Strand Magazine announced its Critics Awards on Wednesday night at a private cocktail ceremony in Manhattan. Richard Price won Best Novel for Lush Life and Tom Rob Smith won Best First Novel for Child 44. The Ted Hughes Award, launched by UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy to run over the course of her 10-year-term, will give out £5,000 annually to the poet who has made the “most exciting contribution” to poetry that year.
Bookselling News: Pages to Close; Helping Homeless Ex-Bookseller
The back-and-forth struggle for survival of Toronto’s Pages bookstres is ending the hard way: after 30 years, the store will close as the end of August. The store first warned of trouble last October, but in January it was reported that they had successfully signed a new lease at an acceptable rent. Now Torontoist says “in the end there simply wasn’t a choice. Rent is growing faster than sales, and for all that Pages is deeply loved, the cash crunch got to be too much.” Known for “curating the indie set’s reading list and nurturing Toronto’s newest and freshest literary […]
Amazon Drops Kindle Price to $299
Amazon has lowered the price of the basic Kindle 2 reader by $60 to $299. Having previously insisted that they could not afford to lower the price, spokesman Drew Herdener now says, “Whenever we are able to create cost efficiencies like this, we pass the savings along to our customers.”Bloomberg
People
Zondervan has hired Jason Vines from the auto business to serve as vp of public relations and communications. He previously held “top communications positions” at Nissan, Ford and Chrysler. Lucinda Blumenfeld writes to update the PT report we cited last week: As an agent at Fletcher & Co. she will represent narrative/prescriptive nonfiction, YA, and literary fiction. As marketing manager she is “developing marketing strategies and brand extensions for agency clients and scouting opportunities for writers within emerging technology, new media and social networking.” In the UK, former Century publishing director Mark Booth will join Hodder & Stoughton in September […]