Late Thursday evening Amazon customers began to notice that buy buttons for Kindle books published by agency model publishers Random House, Penguin, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Hachette had disappeared, with Harper buy buttons dropping off after a twenty-minute interval. The deactivation was limited to the six agency model publishers, and affected Amazon’s US store only. At 1:28 AM Friday, an Amazon spokesperson told us and other outlets “the Kindle Store is experiencing a technical issue. We’re working to correct it.” A different spokesperson wrote back at 7 AM Friday to say “the issue had been fixed.” It remains unclear […]
Archives for November 2012
People: New Religion Imprint for Crown; Former Penguin Canada President Bryan to Bloomsbury
Crown will launch a new dedicated religion imprint, Convergent Books, in Fall 2013. Aiming to publish between 8 and 10 books annually, it will “explore the contemporary faith experience for a broad range of Christians who are drawn to an open, inclusive, and culturally engaged exploration of faith.” The line will be headed by publisher of Crown’s Christian imprints Stephen Cobb and run out out of Colorado Springs, CO. The first list includes titles by David Anderson, Philip Gulley, Elizabeth Esther, Holly Burkhalter and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. Former president of Penguin Canada Mike Bryan has been named executive director of Bloomsbury Information, reporting […]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Buys Wiley’s Culinary and Reference Books
A sale has been announced for another big package of Wiley trade properties that have been on the market since March: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired all of Wiley’s culinary book assets, along with Webster’s New World Dictionary and CliffsNotes. The cookbook line includes Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything franchise and books from authors such as authors such as Rose Levy Beranbaum, Marcus Samuelsson and Ellie Krieger, along with the Betty Crocker series, a Better Homes and Gardens line licensed from Meredith Corporation. Along with the books themselves, Wiley publisher Natalie Chapman will join HMH to overse the entire […]
Expanding Children’s
Next month Ruckus Media will expand their children’s ebook platform with a revamped Ruckus 2.0 app/store release and in advance, the company has announced a number of “ebook partnerships for digital distribution” with other publishers. Their new relationships include deals with Little, Brown Children’s, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s, Thomas Nelson and Charlesbridge Publishing, covering “about three dozen new titles” at launch with more titles to be added on a monthly basis thereafter. Licensed titles include THE POLAR EXPRESS, TOOT AND PUDDLE, many CURIOUS GEORGE titles, some Margaret Wise Brown titles, and HEAVEN IS FOR REAL FOR KIDS Release That announcement […]
People, Etc.
Abby Ranger has joined the early childhood group at Harper Children’s as senior editor. Previously she was an editor at Disney-Hyperion. In addition, Jocelyn Davies returns to the division as editor from Razorbill, where she held the same position. Donna Condon will move to Harlequin UK in January as editorial director, UK, responsible for Mills & Boon, Mira and Mira Ink. She has been senior commissioning editor at Piatkus Books. PGW will distribute Bilingual Books, which produces language learning product titles, as of January 1, 2013. 1973 National Book Award nominee for Apostles of Light, Ellen Douglas, 91, died Wednesday after […]
World Book Night Picks; Ferrari’s Wins Top French Prize
World Book Night has announced the 30 titles they will give away in the US and the 20 titles they will give away in the UK next April 23. The honorary national chairs in the US are authors Ann Patchett and James Patterson. US executive director Carl Lennertz notes in the announcement: “This isn’t a best-books-of-all-time list; these are contemporary or classic books that appeal to a wide range of new readers. We looked for diversity and variety in all things: subject matter, age level, gender, as well as ethnic and geographic considerations. Last year’s givers also got to nominate books…. And we thank […]