Smashwords‘ catalog of over 225,000 ebooks will be incorporated into Scribd.com‘s ebook subscription service. As part of the deal, the roughly 70,000 Smashwords’ authors and publishers will receive a free one-year subscription to Scribd’s service. Also, Oyster will include “select titles” from the Perseus Book Group in their subscription service.
One of the 2013’s unlikely stars, Phil Robertson of the Duck Dynasty, will be “on hiatus” in the year to come. Following his anti-gay remarks in a GQ interview, the A&E network “has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.” Robertson tried to ameliorate the situation with a formal statement, but it’s not an apology. He said, in part: “My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the Bible teaches, and part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.”
Robertson’s book Happy, Happy, Happy: My Life and Legacy as the Duck Commander has been a major performer for Simon & Schuster’s Howard Books this year, selling more print copies than any of the the other Duck Dynasty bestsellers the company has published this year. Publisher of Howard Books Jonathan Merkh said in statement, “While Phil Robertson has always been known for his opinions, we do not condone his recent remarks, nor do they reflect the views of Howard Books or Simon & Schuster. In our experience publishing the Duck Commander books he has always treated one and all with the utmost respect regardless of political leaning, sexual orientation or religious views.” Merkh writes that “we believe that the Phil Robertson we know is more properly represented” by the statement we have quoted in the previous paragraph.
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Hayley Gonnason has joined Simon & Schuster Children’s as publicist. Previously she was a publicist at Holiday House.
Emily Condlin has been promoted to senior paralegal in Penguin Random House’s legal department.