The Tamba Bay newspaper covers the CBA’s International Christian Retail Show in Orlando, with approximately 7,000 attendees (and no exhibit from Thomas Nelson). Non-book merchandise captures the paper’s attention more than books, including everything from “a Christian version of the wildly popular Guitar Hero video game to ‘witness wear’ clothing and skateboard art that proclaim faith in bold cultural statements.” With Nelson’s absence, the show appears to be in serious decline, with numbers well below the approximately 9,250 attendees recorded the two previous years. (Even that number is well below the show’s high-water-mark of almost 15,000 attendees from 1999.) Publisher […]
Knopf's Discreet Roman a Clef
Kathryn Walker’s forthcoming debut novel A STOPOVER IN VENICE, “about a young woman who leaves her husband, a famous musician, and their unhappy marriage for an adventure in Venice” features characters with similarities to her ex-husband James Taylor–along with Carly Simon, Jason Robards (an old friend of the author) and co-founder of the National Lampoon Douglas Kenney (the author’s boyfriend at one point). But none of this connections are even hinted at in the author’s bio or the presentation of the book, as the NYT notes. “So why isn’t Knopf doing some name-dropping to give the book a promotional boost? […]
Consternation in UK Over Asda's HP Paperback Discount
Sales of the paperback release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the UK were dominated by Asda after they decided to sell the book for just one pound for the first three days. Asda book buyer Steph Bateson says they sold just under 40,000 copies during the promotion, while Nielsen Bookscan tracked sales industrywide of 46,257 copies in that three-day period. Despite the money lost by the chain on the promotion, Bateson tells the Bookseller “I think we have shaken the other retailers up a bit, which was always our intention,” calling it a “genuine footfall and sales-driving […]
McGraw Hill Joins Equity Firms Interested in Reed Business
The Telegraph says that McGraw Hill is one of the few actual publishing companies to express interest in bidding on Reed Business Information, along with a number of private equity firms. Reed is making available 160 million pounds in loans and has arranged another 560 million pounds in credit from a consortium of bankers to make it easier to unload the unit in one piece. First round bids are due by mid-August.Telegraph
Personnel, Etc.
Book review editor (and arts writer) at The Tennessean Jonathan Marx e-mailed contacts to let them know he has left the newspaper to take a job as publications manager for the Nashville Symphony. Del Commune Enterprises is now scouting in France for Calmann-Levy and Le Livre du Poche and in Spain for Salamandra Ediciones. As of August 1, they will also scout for Jorge Zahar Editor in Brazil.
Mitch Albom's Kindle Exclusive
Amazon started selling bestselling author Mitch Albom’s “Commencement Speech To His Nephew’s Graduating Class: May 30, 2008, Nice France” today as an exclusive Kindle file, priced at 99 cents. (It’s fewer than 4,000 words.) The AP notes, “proceeds are being donated to a Detroit-based charity for the homeless — but it does offer a test for the digital device that has created a great debate about the future of books and great speculation over how much the Kindle is part of that future.” Amazon pitches it: “Albom created a memorable testament to what we know and what we need to […]