Apple’s iBookstore has joined Kindle Singles in providing a store-within-the-store for short-form digital book content with Quick Reads, a compendium of short stories, longer pieces of journalism and manuals priced between 99 cents and $4.99. MacWorld To help publishers and authors maximize their interaction on Facebook, Odyl is officially rolling out a platform that will help them do so on a much larger scale. Aside from pulling reviews from Goodreads, administering galley giveaways and making book excerpts available to users who “like” Facebook pages, Odyl says its platform “collects rich audience data specific to titles and readers, providing an invaluable […]
Archives for September 2011
Author Bourdain Gets An Imprint
No Reservations television host and author of Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw, Anthony Bourdain, will develop an an eponymous line of books with his publisher Ecco, planning on issue three to five books a year. The announcement says he will “acquire books that reflect his remarkably eclectic tastes.” As usual, Bourdain was represented by his agent Kim Witherspoon at Inkwell Management, who negotiated the deal with Ecco president and publisher Daniel Halpern. In the release, Bourdain says, “I’m doing this because…I can. Anyone who loves books, I think, given the opportunity to work with a legendary character like Daniel Halpern, […]
Details on Amazon’s Prime eBooks Benefit Plan
Last week there was a new round of intensification in Amazon’s long-brewing efforts to enlist publisher participation for an ebooks free-access model as part of the benefits package for their Prime members, as we heard from multiple publishers. The WSJ ran with a brief story last night with only modest details, which may have inadvertently given the venture the appearance of broader scope than it has acquired so far. Meanwhile, core trade people we’ve spoken to on background-only have provided a colorful range of metaphors invoking pigs with wings and a frozen underworld–even as some whose businesses focus more on […]
People, Etc.
Faber finance director David Tebbutt was killed early Sunday morning and his wife, Judith, was taken hostage by suspected Somali extremist militants at a tourist lodge in the Kiunga marine reserve on the Lamu archipelago off Kenya’s northern coast. Tebbutt and his wife had been on holiday and had only arrived at the resort a few hours before the attack. Tebbutt joined Faber in 2002 and was previously managing director of The Harvill Press and finance director of Routledge. The Bookseller is collecting tributes to Tebbutt from trade colleagues. The Australian At Touchstone, Kaitlyn McCrystal has been promoted to associate […]
Borders: Chief Account Officer Terminated, Next Jump Countersues
VP and chief accounting officer Glen Tomaszewski was terminated from his position on September 2, according to an SEC filing last week. The legal battle between Borders and marketing firm Next Jump is not over yet, despite last week’s agreement that Next Jump would take down a website that redirected Borders Rewards customers to its own rewards site, OO.com. Next Jump countered with a suit of its own, Reuters reports, saying Borders allowed Next Jump to transfer customer accounts to OO.com, but then accused the marketing firm of stealing the accounts as a pretext for recovering damages, in essence “duping” […]
McGraw-Hill Will Spin Education Business Off As Separate Company
The activist investors have won, as McGraw-Hill’s board unanimously approved a plan to split the conglomerate into two companies, McGraw-Hill Markets and McGraw-Hill Education. What that really means is the slower-growing education business will be isolated from the more profitable financial and market-focused business. The actual division will not take place until the end of 2012, when MH Education will get a “tax-free spinoff” to shareholders. The independent McGraw-Hill Education will comprise their current education division, including the K-12, higher education and professional education business lines. A ceo will be hired for this new business, with current education president Robert […]