Philip Patrick has joined Amazon as senior leader, rights and licensing. He was most recently with Crown as publisher of Three Rivers Press and publisher of ebooks and digital content. Severn House, Canongate Books and Granta Publications will now be digitally distributed by Ingram‘s Coresource. The shortlist for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction has been announced, with the winner to be named in late May: SERIOUS MEN by Manu Joseph (John Murray) COMFORT AND JOY by India Knight (Fig Tree) THE COINCIDENCE ENGINE by Sam Leith (Bloomsbury) THE NEWS WHERE YOU ARE by Catherine O’Flynn (Penguin) SUPER […]
Archives for April 2011
You Say There’s Been a Revolution
While executives debated questions of evolution and revolution at the London Book Fair, one of the rare aspiring authors in attendance was describing his participation in an actual revolution to prospective publishers from around the world. Google executive Wael Ghonim, who was one of the people behind the anonymous Facebook page and related efforts that helped galvanize and organize the uprising in Egypt, held half-hour sessions describing his experiences and his plans for REVOLUTION 2.0. Intended for release next January 25, rights are being represented here by Michael Carlisle of Inkwell Management (along with his partner Richard Pine, who stayed […]
At LBF, Questions of Digital Revolution vs. Evolution
As book fair business unfolds in rather traditional fashion–23,000 people having meetings with each other–a number of panels aired the anxiety-making question of the digital era: Is this revolution or evolution, and who of those 23,000 survives and prospers in that transition? An international panel of executives took on that topic in one of this morning’s panels, with Penguin ceo John Makinson beginning the conversation by allowing that “I’ve never been in a revolution…but it certainly doesn’t feel like evolution when I come in to the office every day.” Makinson noted that “at every step of the way something dramatic […]
Mehta Honored at LBF
At a lunchless lunchtime presentation at the London Book Fair today, longtime Knopf Publishing Group chairman and editor-in-chief Sonny Mehta was honored with the LBF’s Lifetime Achievement Award in International Publishing. In accepting the honor, Mehta said: “My own view is that awards should be given to writers, not publishers, so today I want to celebrate the writers I’ve had a hand in publishing, recognize the agents who brought their works to me, and trumpet the heroic efforts of my colleagues, first at Pan and Picador, and now at Knopf and Doubleday.” More broadly, Mehta suggested that “the universality and […]
Orange Prize, IMPAC Shortlists
The Orange Prize shortlist was announced yesterday: Emma Donoghue, RoomAminatta Forna, The Memory of Love Emma Henderson, Grace Williams Says it Loud Nicole Krauss, Great House Téa Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife Kathleen Winter, Annabel Release The IMPAC Dublin Literary Award shortlist of 10 authors includes Colum McCann,z Yiyun Li, William Trevor and Joyce Carol Oates. Full List
Coming May 3: $114 Kindle With Ads on Home Page, Screen Savers
Amazon announced Monday that it will issue a “new” edition of its wi-fi Kindle priced at $114, $25 less than the going rate for the current wireless edition. The catch–or hook, depending on your vantage point–is that this edition, which ships starting on May 3, will feature Special Offers, the retailer’s preferred name for ads that will run on the e-reader’s home page and screen savers. Among the deals on offer for the first few weeks include discounted Amazon gift cards, discounts on other Amazon products like jeans and swimsuits, and free gifts for signing up for an Amazon Rewards […]