After eight years of convening their annual meeting in New York, the AAP is moving next year’s general meeting on March 3 back to its traditional home in Washington, DC. It will be coordinated with the annual meeting of the organization’s School Division (which convenes that morning). The AAP says the move is “in an effort to maximize the opportunity for publishers to press their case with members of Congress on a range of important issues including copyright, domestic and international piracy, reading and literacy initiatives, the impact of the open source movement, and the 2010 outlook for K-12 publishing.”
Archives for October 2009
Wilson Leaves Headline After Just Five Months
After just five months as chief executive at the Headline group in the UK, Kate Wilson has left the company by “mutual agreement” according to a brief statement. Hachette UK adds that “after a period of consultation, a more detailed announcement will follow.” Wilson was supposed to be taking over from Martin Neild as he prepared to retire from the company in 2010. For now, deputy managing directors Jane Morpeth and Kerr MacRae will report to Neild again. In unrelated Hachette UK news, Jon Wood has been promoted to deputy group publisher, reporting to Malcolm Edwards in the new role–while […]
Amazon Settles Kindle-Deletion Suit
Amazon has reached a settlement agreement with the Michigan teenager who sued the retailer over the deletion of unauthorized editions of two George Orwell ebooks from Kindles in July. The suit was designed to acquire class-action status, but that became less of an issue “because of Amazon’s offer to fully reimburse affected consumers for all works previously removed by Amazon from devices and to restore notes and annotations.” Amazon will pay $150,000 to settle the suit–somewhat better than the $30 gift certificate offered to those who didn’t sue–but the law firm agrees to donate its portion of the award to […]
Two BAMM Disclosures
Books-A-Million announced that Anderson BAMM Holdings intends to sell up to 400,000 shares of stock in the bookseller–about 25 percent of its current holdings–“to assist its members’ in their estate planning needs.” The entity is the company’s fourth-largest shareholder, after three members of the Anderson family. BAMM stock has significantly outperformed its bookselling peers over the last year. Separately, in a filing with the SEC that revises the presentation of some basic data in answer to a variety of questions posed by the regulatory agency, Books-a-Million has broken out their e-commerce sales for the past three years. Sales of $25.17 […]
November Indie Next Picks
Chronic City: A Novel, by Jonathan LethemMennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home, by Rhoda JanzenThe Financial Lives of the Poets: A Novel, by Jess WalterLit: A Memoir, by Mary KarrInvisible, by Paul AusterA Friend of the Family: A Novel, by Lauren GrodsteinBeloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude, by Jim Perlman, Deborah Cooper, Mara Hart, and Pamela Mittlefehldt (eds.)Americans in Space: A Novel, by Mary E. MitchellLast Night in Twisted River: A Novel, by John IrvingThe Evolution of Shadows: A Novel, by Jason Quinn MalottThe Lacuna: A Novel, by Barbara KingsolverHardball: A […]
New Imprints from Sourcebooks and Rizzoli
Building on their success this year with YA novels and the growth of the children’s imprint Jabberwocky launched three years ago, Sourcebooks is creating a YA imprint called Fire, to launch in spring 2010 with seven titles. Editor Dan Ehrenhaft, who came over to Sourcebooks from Alloy Entertainment this spring, will lead the new line. CEO Dominique Raccah says “we want voices that will ignite, inspire, and surprise teens, regardless of genre.” The company says Fire will acquire fiction “in a variety of media, bringing worlds to life via the web, audio, digital–whatever teens are looking for, wherever they’re looking […]