With the official opening of the holiday shopping season, bookstores are seeing a lift though total sales were well below last year’s holiday kick-off. In outlets monitored by Nielsen BookScan, book sales for the week (through last Saturday) were 15.396 million units–a three percent increase over the prior week, but 9 percent lower than the same Thanksgiving-week from 2008, which registered sales of 16.857 million units.
People: Ammer to Leave Random, and More
Longtime Random House executive Bonnie Ammer has resigned as evp, international sales, effective December 31. That department reports to newly-appointed president of sales, operations and digital, Madeline McIntosh. Previously Ammer was publisher-at-large, after serving as president and publisher of Fodor’s and running the Random House Information Group. Markus Dohle writes in a memo, “I have tremendous respect and gratitude for all Bonnie has accomplished for Random House, accomplishments for which her colleagues throughout the company worldwide and throughout trade-book publishing here and abroad hold her in high regard.” Publishing whiz and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ceo Barry Callaghan has hired Eric […]
Court Denies Request for Injunction Blocking Release of BN's Nook
A California judge acknowledged that “there is a genuine dispute over whether the nook was derived from information disclosed by” Spring Design to Barnes & Noble “or was the product of earlier independent development” by BN but denied Spring Design’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking release of the ereader. The judge did agree to expedited pre-trial procedures to move the process along.Ruling at Engadget
Dutton and Riverhead Create Redeemer Imprint with Author
Timothy Keller, author of The Reason for God and The Prodigal God and head of Manhattan’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church–at the center of “contextualized urban ministry, thoughtful preaching, and church planting” across major cities–has expanded his publishing relationship with two Penguin Group lines. His hardcover publisher Dutton and paperback publisher Riverhead are creating a Redeemer imprint with Keller, to launch in 2011, negotiated with David McCormick at McCormick & Williams. Redeemer expects to issue two books a year by Keller to start, with Dutton publisher Brian Tart editing. Keller says in the announcement, “I look forward to making this imprint a […]
More Imprint News: Turner Launches His Own Line, and OR Books' First Paperback Partner
Nine years at a London conference called Publishing in 2010 we babbled on about how editors would become the focus of many small imprints (akin to Hollywood’s production companies), and now comes news of veteran editor Philip Turner funding and launching an eponymous imprint starting next year. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group will “host” the Philip Turner Books line, which brings Turner back together with NBN president Rich Freese, who ran PGW when they distributed Carroll & Graf when Turner worked there. With no fixed number of titles a year, Turner intends to publish “when dynamic opportunities arise.” That first […]
eNews: DailyLit Goes Free; Forrester's 2010 Predictions
Having concluded that their readers “most appreciate the wonderful books, stories and installments available for free,” DailyLit.com announced that all of the service’s books and stories will be provided at no cost to the reader. Their model will be driven by sponsors–currently comprising publishers as well as author Diane Von Furstenberg, who is “giving the gift of her favorite book, free through January.”Blog post Though I’m not always the biggest fan of numerical guesswork from the likes of Forrester Research, this list of ten predictions for the ereader and ebook market for 2010 has plenty of good sense in it. […]