Penguin USA ceo David Shanks wrote to agents this morning on the current state of play as they move to an agency model: “In recent weeks we have been in discussion with our retail partners who sell eBooks, including Amazon, to discuss our new terms of sale for eBooks in the U.S. At the moment, we have reached an agreement with many of them, but unfortunately not Amazon – of course, we hope to in the future.” As a result, “your newly released eBook is currently not available on Amazon, but all of your eBooks released prior to April 1 […]
Archives for April 2010
Bookselling News: More from Burkle, and Two Closures
At Barnes & Noble, investor Ron Burkle filed a new statement with the SEC, reiterating their previous objections to the bookseller’s poison pill and recommending that BN “improve its corporate governance practices by adding three to four new, independent directors to the company’s board of directors.” Barbara’s Bookstore will close its Oak Park, IL location this summer after 20 years there. Yesterday a Cook County judge ruled against the bookseller in a longrunning dispute with their landlord over rent and taxes. Owner Donald Barliant “declined to say where the business would move or if it would remain in Oak Park.”Tribune […]
Awards, People and More
The New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers has named its new class of fourteen fellows. The list includes fiction writers David Bezmozgis, Maile Chapman, Mary Gaitskill, and Wells Tower; poet Geoffrey Brock; New Yorker staff writer Larissa MacFarquhar; graphic novelist and artist David Sandlin; and Pulitzer-winning author Annette Gordon-Reed. Jo Ann Miller, former editorial director of Basic Books, has formed J.A. Miller Associates to provide ghost writing, editorial collaboration, developmental editing, and author coaching. At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Maire Gorman has been promoted to the new position of vp of trade sales […]