The ABA’s Winter Institute convenes this week, and each year the number of attending authors and books being touted grows ever larger (this year more than 70 writers are taking part in various luncheons and evening receptions over the three-day event.) As part of our coverage of Wi7, and repeating what we did for last year’s Winter Institute, we’ve culled a list of what we think are the most notable forthcoming Winter and Spring adult trade titles being touted in New Orleans this week to ten — offering a mix of reviews of those we’ve already read with “scouting reports” […]
McGraw-Hill Said to Have Second Pairing with Apple
You can expect the steady stream of speculation over Apple’s “education announcement” on Thursday at the Guggenheim Museum in New York to continue unabated. The WSJ cites a person “familiar with the matter” who says that McGraw-Hill “has been working with Apple on its announcement since June.” The paper notes that Cengage Learning, which has worked with Apple in the past, will attend Thursday’s event, though we imagine most educational and textbook publishers will as well. Ironically, the Journal doesn’t seem to recall that McGraw-Hill was supposed to be one of the marquee launch partners when the iPad debuted in early 2010, […]
People, Etc.
Betsy Mitchell will work for Open Road as strategic advisor for sci-fi and fantasy, and will “spearhead” their acquisition and publishing of backlist sci-fi and fantasy titles. Mitchell retired from her position as editor-in-chief at Ballantine Bantam Dell’s Del Rey Spectra in December. She started her own editorial services company. At Norton, Alane Mason has been promoted to vp, executive editor. She has been an editor for the company since 1999. Barnaby Dawe, marketing communications director at News International, is moving over to corporate sibling Harper UK, in the new position of chief marketing officer. He will report to Victoria […]
eNews: Amazon Trumpets Kindle Owners Lending Library; Plagiarized Titles Plague Kindle Store; and More
Amazon is delighted to declare “strong customer adoption” of the Kindle Owners Lending Library and oodles of money for participating Kindle Select (e.g. Kindle-exclusive) self-published authors. Interestingly, however, the extra money that Amazon claims participants received–“an incremental 26 percent in December”–is roughly equal to the proclaimed market share of No. 2 ebook player Nook, where Select authors and publishers can no longer sell. Which begs the question of whether participants are actually making more money in toto. Even the top 10 authors–whom Amazon says earned over $70,000–only got a 30 percent boost over their ebook sales with their lending library […]
People, Etc.
Barry Landis is joining Howard Books as vp, associate publisher next week. He has been running a Nashville-based consulting firm, Landis Entertainment & Media Partners, and spent 20 years working for multiple divisions of Warner Bros., including serving as president of Word Label Group. Stephanie Beam has joined Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division as new merchandising manager, eBooks. Previously, she has worked as national account sales manager at Sterling Publishing and Random House. At Sony, she will manage the Reader Store site merchandising and act as relationship manager for publishing partners. At Egmont USA, Greg Ferguson has been promoted to […]
Nancy Pearl Partners With Amazon For ‘Book Lust Rediscoveries’ Series
Amazon announced Wednesday morning that noted former librarian and frequent NPR contributor Nancy Pearl will launch a new curated line under the Book Lust Rediscoveries banner, reissuing out-of-print books originally published between 1960 and 2000 that Pearl had previously recommended in her title Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason. Part of the Amazon Encore imprint, the series will republish up to six titles a year in digital, paperback and audiobook editions starting in April with Merle Miller’s A GAY AND MELANCHOLY SOUND (originally published in 1961) and then in June with Rhian Ellis’s AFTER LIFE (originally […]