Yesterday the NYT posted their top ten books of the year. This time around the list overlaps with just three of their individual critics’ top 10 lists (whereas last year’s top 10 included five critics’ favorites). For the second year in a row, critic Dwight Garner’s nonfiction-focused choices were completely shut out from the overall top 10. The fiction list is surprising for its inclusion of two collections of previously-published stories: FictionFreedom, by Jonathan FranzenThe New Yorker Stories, by Ann BeattieRoom, by Emma DonoghueSelected Stories, by William TrevorA Visit from the Good Squad, by Jennifer Egan NonfictionApollo’s Angels: A History […]
People, Awards, Announcements, Etc.
Courtney Young has been promoted to senior editor for Portfolio, Sentinel, and Current. At HarperCollins, David Sweeney has been promoted to vp, special markets responsible for mail order, retail, wholesale and premium, taking on added responsibility of leading the premium sales team. Alexandra Harris‘s ROMANTIC MODERNS: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper, won the Guardian First Book Award. Melville House has agreed to publish the winner of the new Paris Literary Prize, to be given by the Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company to a previously unpublished writer working in English. The web site for […]
Amazon Unintentionally Drives Smashwords Move to Agency Pricing
eBook distributor Smashwords announced today in a posting from founder Mark Coker that as of today all of their titles are being sold on an agency basis. “Our authors and publishers spoke (and some wrote, screamed, begged and politely asked), and we listened,” Coker writes. Smashwords had been using a hybrid model–selling on an agency basis to the iBookstore and Diesel, and selling wholesale to Barnes & Noble, Sony and Kobo. Those three have all agreed to the new agency pricing, with Coker writing: “I think each retail partner decided on their own that what is best for Smashwords authors […]
Updates of All Kinds
1. Despite the skepticism expressed yesterday by co-author of the self-published success THE INVESTMENT ANSWER Dan Goldie about “whether there could be advantages” to having an established publisher take over, people familiar with the negotiations tell us that agent Laurie Liss at Sterling Lord Literistic is well along the path towards a sale, reportedly with multiple seven-figure bids offered and a deal announcement expected shortly. 2. If you read at least some mild skepticism in Barnes & Noble‘s report yesterday on the status of their investigation of strategic options for the company, then you will find credence in this report […]
Yes Virginia, There Is a Google eBook Service
Google has been saying most recently that they will launch their new ebook service in the US before the end of the year, and last night the WSJ reported that the company is “in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture”–missing the first night of Hanukkah, but with a good shot at arriving before Christmas. But “publishers cautioned [the service] has been delayed before and could be delayed again.” ABA members have begun executing contracts to participate, and numerous publishers have told us they have signed on, and “several publishers said they were exchanging files with Google–a […]
Penguin Will Finish Year With New Oprah Pick
Next Monday, December 6, Jonathan Franzen will appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show–and the host will announce her new book club pick. It’s a big fat paperback from Penguin, with an unknown page count but a listed shipping weight of 1.9 pounds. The print book has a list price of $20, but the ebook currently has an agency price of only $7.99.