Long ago you needed forums on your web site. Then came e-mail newsletters. Next you needed a blog. And comments. Add RSS feeds, and an RSS reader. Your kids probably got you to text. Podcasts were the next big thing, followed by viral video, My Space, and Facebook. And so it goes: now it’s Twitter’s turn. From what was a community of a few million, Twitter suddenly hit its viral ramp-up stage within the past couple of months. Whether or not to join the crowd is the latest information-anxiety question on the minds of many people, particularly challenging for classically […]
More Big Cuts At Borders HQ
Borders Group is eliminating another 136 corporate positions, representing approximately 12 percent of their corporate employees, primarily from their Ann Arbor headquarters. The company says “the workforce reduction was spread across virtually all business areas, including marketing, human resources, field management and corporate sales. The reductions were made at various ranks, ranging from entry level to middle management.” New CEO Ron Marshall comments: “While reducing payroll is never easy and we respect the impact it has on employees and their families, it is one of the necessary steps we must take along with other non-payroll expense reductions to help get […]
Reed Elsevier Slashes Value of Stake in Houghton Parent Co.
When Reed Elsevier sold Harcourt Education to Barry Cunningham’s debt-driven publishing mashup (now operating as Education Media & Publishing Group) bankers forced them to take a small share in the company, valued at $300 million. But in yesterday’s earnings report, Reed disclosed that they have marked down the value of that stake in EMPG to 15 million euros. As the Independent notes, “Reed Elsevier’s valuation on its stake points to an overall equity valuation of ¬127m for EMPG, which has a debt mountain of over $7bn.” EMPG tells the newspaper that “across our group of shareholders, investors carry their investments […]
The Search for 28 New James Patterson Collaborators
James Patterson’s next novel AIRBORNE is an experimental, mostly electronic work. Instead of working with a single co-author, Patterson wrote the first and list chapters, with the other 28 short chapters each written by someone different. The writers were recruited through a contest held by Random House UK and Borders Australia. “Airborne will be released electronically, one chapter at a time, starting on March 20th. Later, a print edition will be published, but only as a prize of sorts for the participants in the competition – it will not be mass produced.”ReadWriteWeb
eGalleys: Is That How It Will Work?
Whenever I meet with other press and reviewers, as well as in-house publicists (and I got to do both at today’s lovely annual Little, Brown preview luncheon, introducing the touching and inspirational story of Rupert Isaacson’s autistic son Rowan as told in THE HORSE BOY) I ask if they are using electronic galleys yet. Publicists generally say they get few or no requests; some reviewers/editors/journalists would love to receive them, while others still prefer paper. On topic, Soho Press publicity director Sarah Reidy just celebrated via their blog: “I got my FIRST ever review copy request from a reviewer…for their […]
ABA Revamps Awards Program
With the fading out of the Book Sense branding program, the ABA is renaming their annual prizes the Indies Choice Book Awards. The seven categories have been revamped as well, now honoring an Indie Buzz book (fiction), Best Conversation Starter (nonfiction), Best Author Discovery (debut), Best Read-Aloud Book, Best YA Buzz Book, Most Engaging Author, and the Read-Aloud Hall of Fame. Book finalists will be picked by a bookseller jury, but the pool is still limited to monthly Book Sense/Indie Next list selections. Most Engaging Author Award nominees must be “engaging at in-store appearances” and have “a strong sense of […]