Our apologies; yesterday’s notice about was accidentally confusing in that we truncated the name of the recently-deceased John Anthony Aldren Turner, 63. As noted, Turner was publisher/packager/sales director at illustrated books company Cynthia Parzych Publishing in New York, which he ran with his wife. In other sad news to share: Patricia Kienzle Ross, 66, died on December 5, from a rare neurological disorder. She used voice recognition software to dictate an as-yet-unpublished autobiographical novel, Sleight of Hand. An influential children’s book editor and author of many titles, Ross was a senior editor at Knopf-Pantheon Children’s when she left publishing in […]
Archives for December 2009
Bookselling: Indies Discuss Kiosk Platform; West Village Store Has New Lease
A number of independent booksellers organized a Twitter discussion about what a shared in-store kiosk platform might look like. Among the ideas/wish list: letting customers access a database of bookseller reviews (the top wish from Skylight Books and Rainy Day); view digital content (samples; book trailers); and browse inventory. The manager of Breathe Books Jenn Northington posted a brief summary, and you can view the posts and participants under the Twitter tag #indiekiosk The NYT reports that Left Bank Books in the West Village, which expected to close when its lease was not renewed, has found a new larger space […]
Stephen Covey Tries eRights with Rosetta; Amazon and S&S Tangle
Stephen Covey’s bestselling 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE as well as his 1991 book PRINCIPLE-CENTERED LEADERSHIP became available as ebooks on December 2, through epublisher Rosetta Books. Rosetta ceo Arthur Klebanoff indicates to the NYT that Covey is receiving “more than half of the net proceeds.” Amazon’s Kindle platform has been given a one-year exclusive on the titles “in trade for promotion,” while Rosetta’s license is “for a period of years,” according to Klebanoff. Covey’s company Franklin Covey already publishes certain products directly, without a publishing partner, though Covey and his son Sean tell the NYT they intend to […]
The New eRights Battle
As many readers know by now, last Friday Random House ceo Markus Dohle wrote to agents with the twofold purpose of summarizing some of the publisher’s ebook and electronic marketing initiatives, and reasserting their view that “the vast majority of [their] backlist contracts grant us the exclusive right to publish books in electronic format.” Since many agents disagree with that view, the letter was quickly interpreted as a warning shot to Jane Friedman’s start-up Open Road and any others who would aspire to electronic rights to legacy titles still active in the marketplace. And some saw the possibility that Random […]
More eNews: Kindle App Goes International; Shortcovers Adds Lots of PD Titles
Amazon launch the new international version of their Kindle for iPhone app–opening up purchase of some Kindle ebooks to iPhone customers in over 60 countries. Kindle for Mac and Blackberry are still listed as expected “in the coming months.”Release Separately, Shortcovers announced that they will make available 1.8 million public domain titles from the Internet Archive.Release
Lunch Weekly for Monday, December 14
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Camille Noe Pagan’s THE ART OF FORGETTING, a story of an […]