Podcaster/”book influencer” and author Zibby Owens is launching Zibby Books. Starting in January 2023, the line will publish 12 books a year, monthly, focused on accessible (“book club”) fiction and memoir, with distribution by Two Rivers. Former longtime publisher of Vintage/Anchor Anne Messitte is consulting publisher, and Catapult editor and co-founder of Black Balloon Leigh Newman is co-founder. Jaunique Sealey is vp of strategy & book club, and Maya Shanbhag Lang is vp of editorial & strategy. Aside from Messitte, the executive team are all authors. Zibby Books promises incentive programs to promote its books and support the community that does […]
Forthcoming: Michael Wolff Collection for October Recounts Steve Bannon Working with Jeffrey Epstein
Holt will publish a collection of new and old journalism by Michael Wolff on October 19: TOO FAMOUS: The Rich, the Powerful, the Wishful, the Notorious, the Damned. The apparently small number of new pieces feature “recent reporting about Tucker Carlson, Jared Kushner (President Jared, in a published excerpt), Harvey Weinstein, Ronan Farrow, and Jeffrey Epstein.” Wolff tells the NYT that Weinstein “called him during his 2020 rape trial to propose a biography. ‘This book is worth millions,’ Mr. Weinstein told him.” On Epstein, Wolff reports, “He wanted me to write something about him — a kind of a book […]
Protest Planned As NYPL Plans to Close Public Access to Picture Collection
We missed the NYT’s soft feature from early August with hard news for people in creative industries and beyond: The New York Public Library has come to the misguided conclusion that they will restrict public access to this extraordinary resource by early next year. “The collection will be archived, available to visitors only by specific request,” the NYT reported. Director of the research libraries William P. Kelly decided that it is more important to preserve the archive than have people use it. “Either it is ephemera and doesn’t belong in a research library, or else it is an archive that […]
Obituary: Peter Warner
Longtime president of Thames & Hudson for over 30 years before his retirement in 2010 — and author of books including Lifestyle and The Mole — Peter Warner, 79, died on September 9 from complications due to MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome). The family asks that in lieu of flowers or gifts, please honor him with donations to the foundation: www.mds-foundation.org/donate. A memorial service will be held at a later date, to be announced.
Winter Institute Will Require Vaccination, Limit Visitors
The American Booksellers Association is planning on convening a live Winter Institute 17 (aka Wi2022) in Cincinnati, from February 13 to February 16, and will open to registration on September 20. Vaccination will be required for attendance, though the organization is still determining “an appropriate screening method.” Along with that policy, “Due to COVID-related issues such as government mandates and social distancing, ABA has made the difficult decision to limit our attendance to North American attendees.” Attendees will need to pay careful attention to hotel and travel cancellation policies; as for the ABA’s attendance fees, refunds “will only be offered […]
Publishers and Amazon Once Again Move to Dismiss Bookseller Suit
The first version of a tortured lawsuit against the five largest trade publishers and Amazon, alleging that the publishers conspired to have Amazon extract tough terms from them, failed quickly and was withdrawn and “amended.” It rested primarily on allegations of abusive most favored nations clauses. So Amazon produced redacted contracts to demonstrate that the “MFN conspiracy theory was utterly baseless. Separate and apart from its mischaracterization of the purpose and effect of MFN provisions, the simple fact is that none of Amazon’s and the Publisher Defendants’ wholesale purchase agreements for print books contains any of the price or non-price […]