Consultant and former Bowker ceo Michael Cairns has taken a full-time position at SharedBook after working with them to launch their AcademicPub product. Cairns is chief revenue officer for the company, and will continue to focus on the development of AcademicPub–an online platform that lets educators create fully-licensed custom coursepacks, pulling together licensable publisher content, personal materials from their own computers and information from the web through an online interface. Angus Killick is joining Macmillan Children’s in the new position of vp, associate publisher, reporting to president Jon Yaged. Killick will coordinate publishing programs across the group’s imprints, lead the children’s […]
Archives for October 2011
Big Orders for Amazon Devices Weigh On Profit Guidance, and Stock Price
Amazon reported third quarter sales of $10.88 billion after the close of the market on Tuesday, yielding net income of just $63 million (or 14 cents a share), and the reaction from investors was negative. The stock had already declined more than $10 a share (or 4.4 percent) in regular trading Tuesday ahead of the earnings announcement, and it fell sharply in after-hours trading and again this morning. At press time time this morning, shares were down about $27, or 12 percent, trading at just above $200 a share. While sales were towards the high end of the company’s own […]
Subtext Joins the Social Scene
Social reading has yet to take off among ebook readers, but it’s already a hit among technologists and venture capitalists. The latest entry, launching today, is Subtext, an iPad app created by a group of people from the gaming world. With an announced $3 million in seed capital from Google Ventures, Mayfield Fund, New Enterprise Associates and Omidyar Network, Subtext is run by ceo Andrew Goldman, who was ceo of Pandemic when it was sold to Electronic Arts. Other founders include cto Adam Iarossi, a Pandemic colleague, and vp of marketing Rachel Thomas, who worked at game company Playdom, sold […]
People, Distribution, Etc.
Ingram Publisher Services is providing distribution for four new clients: business publisher The Planning Shop; home design and decorating/lifestyle specialist Moll Anderson Productions‘ forthcoming The Seductive Home series; Canada’s Dundurn Press; and Arundel Publishing, which specializes in YA, nonfiction, mysteries and thrillers. In personnel news, Joseph Calamia joins Yale University Press as an editor, reporting to the executive editor for science and medicine, Jean Thomson Black. Calamia recently earned a master’s degree in science writing from MIT and will acquire for the science list.
In Countersuit, Kampmann and Midpoint Trade Claim Kump “Misappropriated Trade Secrets”
On October 17 Midpoint Trade Books ceo Eric Kampmann and Midpoint director and minority shareholder Christopher Bell filed their response to Midpoint co-founder Gail Kump’s lawsuit, in which she alleged breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and other corporation law violations. After categorically denying Kump’s claims, Kampmann and Bell add five counter-claims of their own, asking for a total of $5 million in damages on the grounds that Kump misappropriated trade secrets, breached her duties as an officer and director of Midpoint, and created “torturous interference with ongoing contractual relationships.” They assert that Kump’s employment by the National Book […]
Announcements: Michelle Obama’s Book, Gaiman’s Audiobook Launch List,and Preparing for World Book Night
Crown said yesterday that their previously-announced April 2012 book with First Lady Michelle Obama will be called AMERICAN GROWN: How the White House Kitchen Garden Inspires Families, Schools, and Communities. The $30 illustrated book will go on sale April 10. The publisher released the jacket design as well. Neil Gaiman’s previously announced audiobook imprint for Audible Neil Gaiman Presents is live today with five launch titles from Jonathan Carroll, Alina Simone, M. John Harrison, Keith Roberts, and Steven Sherrill. An additional eleven titles, all produced through Audible’s ACX service and which include introductions by Gaiman, will be released soon, with […]