Barnes & Noble chief merchandising officer Mary Amicucci, considered by many on the publishing side as one of the few star staffers at the struggling chain, is leaving the company on September 29. The SEC filing says the company and Amicucci “mutually agreed” on the departure, adding that she “has made the decision to look for the next opportunities in her career.”
Archives for September 2017
Kobo Adds Audio Subscription, Sales
Kobo has launched a broad program of digital audiobooks, available for individual purchase but also available through a $9.99/month subscription, promising “the best value on a subscription plan in the category.” The service is also available in Canada ($12.99/month), the UK (£6.99/month), Australia ($12.99/month), and New Zealand ($13.99/month). CEO Michael Tamblyn says in the press release, “Last year, we built the Kobo Aura One eReader with the help of our best customers, and our new offering is no different. What we unequivocally heard was that they wanted the best deal on audiobooks, and we are pleased to offer the lowest […]
CNN Breaks Clinton Embargo
Thanks to a Jacksonville, FL bookstore, CNN is the first news organization to buy and read a finished copy of Hillary Clinton’s forthcoming What Happened. There is plenty of blaming everyone else, per other excerpts and pre-publication leaks: “The defeated presidential contender offers a patchwork of explanations for what, exactly, did happen last year — some of which she insists were outside her control and some she concedes were her own fault.” But they say Clinton takes some responsibility as well: “In a voice that swings from defiant to conciliatory to — at rare moments — deeply vulnerable, Clinton does […]
People: Dickerman Moves to FSG
Flatiron Books editorial director Colin Dickerman will move over within Macmillan to Farrar, Straus as vp and executive editor as of September 18. Dickerman had already acquired and edited some fiction for FSG, including Paul Beatty’s Booker-winning The Sellout, since when he first joined Flatiron it was a nonfiction line. Flatiron founder Bob Miller said, “I’m so grateful to Colin for being such an important part of the first four years of Flatiron Books. We’ll miss him here, but we’re glad he’ll still be part of the Macmillan family, and we wish him the best of luck at FSG.” Literary publicist […]
October Buzz Books Monthly
Our Buzz Books Monthly program continues with the October collection, available now on Amazon, iBooks, and NetGalley. You’ll find exclusive excerpts of seven titles due for publication during the month of October, and more — including, for the first time in Buzz Books, we audiobook versions of three of the featured titles, plus with a special bonus audio-only excerpt. (For now, the audio only works on iBooks and NetGalley EPUB versions; it does not work on Kindle.) Enjoy text and audio previews on musical detective story The Prague Sonata by Bradford Morrow; Sarah Bailey’s debut suspense thriller The Dark Lake; and Life Detonated by Kathleen Murray Moran, a memoir about […]
September iBooks Picks
iBooks has listed its best of September recommendations. (Titles excerpted in Buzz Books 2017 Fall/Winter are noted with asterisks.) Their top fiction list includes: Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward Forest Dark, by Nicole Krauss Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng* A Column of Fire, by Ken Follett Autonomous, by Annalee Newitz* Nonfiction features: Braving the Wilderness, by Brene Brown The Book of Separation, by Tova Mirvis A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, by Adam Rutherford Blue Ocean Shift, by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne The Vietnam War, by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns And their YA picks are: They […]