Smashwords‘ catalog of over 225,000 ebooks will be incorporated into Scribd.com‘s ebook subscription service. As part of the deal, the roughly 70,000 Smashwords’ authors and publishers will receive a free one-year subscription to Scribd’s service. Also, Oyster will include “select titles” from the Perseus Book Group in their subscription service. One of the 2013’s unlikely stars, Phil Robertson of the Duck Dynasty, will be “on hiatus” in the year to come. Following his anti-gay remarks in a GQ interview, the A&E network “has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.” Robertson tried to ameliorate the situation with a formal statement, […]
People, Etc
Rosetta Books announced multiple promotions: Nav Khalsa has been appointed digital marketing director; Greg Freed is production and distribution director; Michelle Weyenberg has been named digital marketing and promotions manager; Hannah Bennett is now production manager; and Peter Clark is production manager. Also, the head of Rosetta’s UK office Jonathan Ward will relocate to Beijing in January, where his duties will include supervising a new, exclusive partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Group to distribute their english-language ebooks catalog to libraries, schools, and other institutional accounts in China. Rosetta ceo Arthur Klebanoff notes that “The market in […]
Favorite Books of 2013, From the News Editor
So many best-of lists, many carefully aggregated on an ongoing basis for our consensus “Best of the Best” collection, but there is always room for one more. My reading year of 2013 gravitated mostly to my usual categories – literary fiction, crime fiction, memoir, and a smattering of biography – with a strong dose of mid-century suspense novels by women (I had good reason). So keep that in mind while examining my list of favorite books published this year: Consensus lists being what they are, several titles on the “Best of the Best” have my enthusiastic endorsement as well. The […]
The January Library Reads List
The new library initiative from 2013 announced the Library Reads list of recommended titles for January 2013: The Dead In their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World, by Rachel Cantor The Wind Is Not a River by Brian Payton Orfeo by Richard Powers The Kept by James Scott Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart The First True Lie by Marina Mander In other lists, Shelf Awareness posted their top books for […]
People
At Holiday House, Kelly Loughman has been promoted to associate editor and Sally Morgridge moves up to assistant editor. Samantha Ferguson has joined Insight Editions as international sales director and vp, business development. Previously she was director of animation sales at VIZ Media. Colin Wilson, author of over 100 books of fiction and nonfiction who remained best known for his first book, The Outsider, died on December 5 from complications of pneumonia. He was 82. To correct yesterday’s item, Zack Clark has been promoted to associate editor at Scholastic. On Wednesday, Robin Desser at Knopf was presented with the Center […]
Penguin Random House Takes Full Ownership of South Africa’s Random House Struik
Penguin Random House has taken full control over South Africa-based Random House Struik, buying out the 50.1 majority ownership stake owned by Times Media Group’s New Holland Publishing. Random House Struik came about from a 2008 merger between Random House South Africa and Struik Publishers, and the entity will “now work in close cooperation” with Penguin South Africa “with a view to integrating the businesses within Penguin Random House in 2014.” The purchase is consistent with PRH’s buyout of Penguin India’s longtime partner Ananda Publishers in October, and Random House’s acquisition a year ago of the other half of what […]