The newest deal for Reese’s Book Club and Hello Sunshine will direct fans to purchase recommended titles from the Google Play store. They are pairing with Google Assistant and its universe of smart devices; the verbal instruction, “Hey Google, read with Reese’s Book Club” will be answered with commentary and reviews from Reese Witherspoon and personalized reading recommendations and other features. In its early days Reese’s Book Club struck a very successful exclusive relationship with Audible. As we reported exclusively in February when the club launched its new app and dedicated website, the Audible partnership was ended. Hello Sunshine ceo […]
DeepZen Partners With Ingram on AI-Produced Audiobooks
UK AI start-up DeepZen has partnered with Ingram Content Group to provide AI-generated text-to-speech audiobooks. DeepZen explains in their release that they have licensed voices from voice actors and narrators, “capturing all of the elements of the human voice, such as pacing and intonation, and a wide range of emotions that produce more realistic speech patterns.” The AI uses those licensed voices for machine-created narration that features “seven different emotions.” The production process “combines AI technology with human editing” and takes approximately three weeks to produce an audiobook. Samples from their audiobooks are provided here. DeepZen ceo Taylan Kamis said, […]
HBG, S&S Won’t Return to Office This Year
Following up on our recent return-to-office update, Hachette Book Group ceo Michael Pietsch announced to staff yesterday that they will not be expected to return to the office in 2021, and a 2022 date isn’t set (the company will still give four weeks’ notice beforehand). “Concerns about Covid-19 and the Delta variant, the possibility of transmission even by fully vaccinated individuals, the lack of a vaccine for children, and other factors led the Office Reopening Task Force to this decision,” he said. Offices are currently open “with capacity restrictions, for fully vaccinated employees who want to use them.” Also, Simon & Schuster […]
Sara Gran Launches Dreamland Books
Author Sara Gran has founded the independent publisher Dreamland Books. The publisher will release Gran’s forthcoming books, beginning with The Book of the Most Precious Substance in trade paperback on February 8, 2022, as well as two to four titles per year by other authors. According to a statement, “Dreamland Books was born both out of Gran’s life-long love of books (and years of working with them as an author, collector, retail bookseller, and rare-book dealer) and her frustration with the increasingly corporate culture of the new, mega-conglomerate publishing houses. The goals of the press are both creative—to publish extraordinary […]
Harper Still Plans to Reopen Office in October, Without Vaccine Requirement
Even as some publishers delayed their office reopening plans, Harper Collins is sticking with its program to reopen facilities in New York, Princeton, and Montage, PA on October 4, with employees working there 2-3 days per week. A spokesperson said, “We are moving ahead with the next phase of our gradual return to in-person work beginning the week of October 4. This is a pilot period during which we hope to learn more about how hybrid work functions at Harper Collins. Coming into the office during this interim period is not mandatory.” While working from the office is officially voluntary, some […]
People 9/21
Kirstin Berndt joins Portfolio/Sentinel as publicity manager; she was previously at Simon & Schuster. Heather Faulls joins as marketing manager; she was previously at Abel Bainnson Butz, LLP Landscape Architects.