Walter Isaacson discussed his forthcoming book THE INNOVATORS with Slate publisher Jacob Weisberg Friday morning at BEA. The book, which traces the lineage of technological innovation from Ada Lovelace (“I didn’t know much about her until my daughter introduced me”), Charles Babbage and Alan Turing to the founders of Intel to Twitter’s Ev Williams, was an antidote to his biography of Steve Jobs. “Almost every great innovator in the book had a great collaborator,” Isaacson said, adding he wanted to show “three to four great types of leaders” as opposed to the singular, uncompromising vision of Jobs. “People would come […]
Appeals Court Shows Sympathy for Both Sides In Hearing on Apple’s Stay
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Thursday morning on Apple’s motion to stay Judge Cote’s injunction — and in turn, delay the start of the damages trial, currently set for July 14. While the three judges did not issue any ruling from the bench, the immediate sense from their questioning was that one jurist will be in favor of granting the stay, another will vote to deny, and the third seemed undecided, at least outwardly. Apple’s lawyer urged the appeals court to grant the stay as the case is a “classic rule 23 review,” while also noting it’s […]
Announcements: Tor.com, the Imprint; Kirkus Prizes; and More
Science fiction & fantasy community website Tor.com is expanding its original fiction output with a new imprint devoted to publishing novellas, shorter novels, serializations, and other pieces of fiction exceeding 18,000 words. According to a blog post by the imprint, each DRM-free title will be available exclusively for purchase, and will also be available via POD and audio formats. A “select number of titles” will be considered for traditional print publishing as well. In announcing the imprint at an afternoon presentation at IDPF, Tor/Forge publisher Tom Doherty said: “We see it as a way of science fiction & fantasy to […]
People: Remembering Oscar Dystel, and More
Former ceo of Bantam Books Oscar Dystel, 101, “widely acknowledged as one of the great architects of modern trade publishing”, died Wednesday morning. As chief executive and publisher of Bantam from 1954 through 1978 (with another two years as chairman) Dystel was responsible for some of the most successful paperbacks in the 20th century including EXODUS by Leon Uris; JAWS by Peter Benchley; and Jacqueline Susann’s VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. In a statement Random House paid tribute to Dystel as “a mentor and muse for innumerable authors and past and present colleagues of ours throughout publishing. He was a giant, […]
Carmen Balcells and Andrew Wylie Join Forces for International Agency
Literary agents Carmen Balcells, and Andrew Wylie, are joining forces for a new international agency, Balcells & Wylie, according to a short two-paragraph email sent to clients of the two agencies and seen by Spanish newspapers. They say the email begins: “Yesterday May 27, Carmen Balcells and Andrew Wylie signed a memorandum of understanding in order to create an international agency called Balcells & Wylie.” It notes that, “We have admired each other for years, and we are now able to work more closely. Our goal is to give greater strength, scope and duration to the representation of clients, and we are excited […]
Fall/Winter BEA Book Buzz Preview: Fiction
As usual, our free Buzz Books samplers both open with Sarah Weinman’s broader surveys of over 100 notable books from the forthcoming season. We’ll be running portions of those overviews the next few days to help round out your BEA radar — and you can read the complete previews anytime in the new editions of Buzz Books. Download yours now from any major ebookstore — including Kindle, iBookstore, or Nook — or get the “trade edition” here as an EPUB or through NetGalley or Edelweiss. With thousands of downloads already, it’s the “big book” of BEA, letting you grab 30 […]