We’re glad we won’t have to spend the early days of the Frankfurt Book Fair wondering when Google will launch their long-expected UK ebookstore: it is live now. It looks just like the US version, except when visited from US IP addresses you mostly see blank carousels, so there is not a lot to check out. (We infer the store is IP restricted, since UK visitors report seeing a regular store display.) Strategic partner development manager Jason Hanley told The Bookseller, which has the first story on the store, that the Australian and Canadian versions will launch “soon.” As announced […]
Archives for October 2011
S&S Moves Up Isaacson’s Steve Jobs Bio to October 24
Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, 56, died Wednesday evening from complications of pancreatic cancer. “We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” the company said in a brief statement. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.” Soon after the news was released, Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of Jobs – whose publication date had already been pushed up to November 21 – went to No. 1 on Amazon and No. 3 on BN.com. Thursday morning Simon […]
Tomas Transtromer Wins Nobel Literature Prize
Despite a flurry of bets that installed Bob Dylan as the improbable front-runner, in the end, the Nobel Prize in Literature stayed close to home, going to Swedish poet and perennial favorite Tomas Transtromer, the eighth European winner over the past 10 years and the first Swedish writer to win the prize since 1974. In a statement the Nobel Prize committee said Transtromer, 80, won “because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality”. Transtromer’s Swedish publisher Bonniers had just released a collection of his work from 1954 to 2004 to celebrate his 80th birthday. “We […]
People, Etc.
At Scholastic, Dani Nadel has been hired as chief digital marketing officer for Scholastic book clubs and e-commerce, reporting to Judy Newman. She was most recently president at digital agency Publicis Modem since 2008. In addition, Tom Burke has been promoted to chief e-commerce officer, book clubs and e-commerce. Christopher Davis will join Open Road as evp and chief operating officer, overseeing operations and financial matters, reporting to Jane Friedman, starting October 17. He was previously the svp of business operations for AOL/The Huffington Post Media Group. At Scribner, Katie Monaghan has been promoted to deputy director of publicity. Liz Hartman has […]
Did European Court Just Block Open-Market Imports?
A European Court of Justice ruling in a case over an English pub owner who used a Greek decoder to let her access less expensive Greek broadcasts of Premier League soccer games may have an unusual application: It could settle once and for all the disagreements between US and UK publishers over how to handle open-market English-language exports into continental Europe. That’s because the ruling appears to limit territorial rights limitations within Europe. As interpreted by attorney C.E. Petit on his blog Scrivener’s Error, the court has said that “an identical work can essentially only be licensed once for redistribution […]
Random House Means to Play (in Transmedia), Partnering with Blacklight
Random House continues to push deeper into the murky but promising frontiers of “transmedia.” A few months ago the RH Publishing Group’s intellectual property development group was quietly christened Random House Worlds–meant to represent their broad development of content for multiplatform implementation, across books, interactive, film, TV, mobile, and more, working with partners from various media. RH Worlds is an evolution of what started as a unit to develop videogame properties in March 2010 under director of creative development Keith Clayton. Spokesperson Theresa Zoro says they regard the unit as “a service/development area, as opposed to an imprint.” In the […]