The Cairo Book Fair, set to have opened last Saturday, was not officially cancelled but as you would expect, the event “has been abandoned, with many foreign exhibitors left stranded after failing to secure flights to take them out of the country,” the Guardian writes. China was supposed to be the guest of honor, but withdrew their delegation last week. The International Publishers Association had planned a board meeting in Cairo, which is being rescheduled to convene in Paris.
Guardian
Direct Brands is opening an office in Los Angeles, though the focus is “providing local support to partner more closely with the entertainment industry, akin to the New York office support for book publishing partners.” Beth Goss has been hired as evp, entertainment, based in LA, joined by Jenn Feldman, new vp sales/public relations.
Release
Kevin Moran has been named director of marketing at Skyhorse Publishing. He was formerly operations director at Overlook Press and prior to that, publisher of Hatherleigh Press.
Author and former Book-of-the-Month Club and Ballantine editor in chief Greg Tobin was named acting chief communications officer of Seton Hall University, responsible for university publications, media and marketing.
The first book in Seth Godin’s Domino Project with Amazon will be authored by…Seth Godin. POKE THE BOX runs 96 pages, to be published March 1 as a $12.99 hardcover, $7.99 ebook, and $75 limited-edition deluxe hardcover.
Product page
Barnes & Noble has announced the finalists for its 2010 Discover Great New Writers Awards, with the winners named on March 2:
Fiction:
Kim Echlin, The Disappeared (Black
Cat)
Nic Pizzolatto, Galveston (Scribner)
Eric Puchner, Model
Home (Scribner)
Non-Fiction:
David R. Dow, The
Autobiography of an Execution (Twelve)
Siddhartha Mukherjee, The
Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (Scribner)
Rebecca
Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Crown)
In a slow week for movies, The Rite starring Anthony Hopkins was number one at the box office. The movie is based on Matt Baglio‘s nonfiction book, and it’s the first release for agent Christy Fletcher‘s additional work as a co-producer.
Time
Less than six years after buying Bell, Book and Candle to keep a local bookstore in Port Orchard, WA, the renamed Bethel Avenue Book Company will close within the next couple of months. Co-owner J.B. Hall says, “The market share is just going away. The e-market is taking them all away.”
Local item
Samsung had to backtrack from its claim that over 2 million Galaxy Tab units sold last year, clarifying the figure referred only to shipments to retailers and carrier partners, not sales to end-users. Actual consumer sales so far were “quite small,” the company said.
Slashgear