Jordan Fenn has joined McClelland & Stewart as publisher of a joint Fenn/McClelland & Stewart imprint, which will focus on hockey books. The first title will be the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Championship book scheduled for this June, with additional new titles are scheduled for this fall and next year. For the past 15 years Fenn was publisher of Fenn Publishing Company, which shut down in the wake of its parent company HB Fenn’s bankruptcy earlier this year. Both the NYT and AP offer extensive obits on Owen Laster, who died yesterday of cancer. In a statement WME literary department head […]
Riggio Sees Expanding Market, For Digital, Stores and Publishers Alike
Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio was the keynote speaker at this morning’s annual meeting of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), his first appearance there in 11 years, when he was excited about the possibilities the Rocket eBook held for his company and the industry at large. “Think of all that could have happened had we all led tje digital age together instead of following it,” Riggio said. His primary message was that “too many of us see bookselling as a zero sum game–that there’s a limit to how many books people will buy and how many books people […]
E-News: ALA Statement on “New Challenges in E-Environment”; Macmillan Sells E-Books Direct Through Diesel; and More
The American Library Association announced the creation of two new task forces, the presidential task force on Equitable Access to Electronic Content (EQUACC) and the E-book Task Force, to address “recent publisher changes affecting libraries’ ability to provide e-books to the public,” namely HarperCollins’ stance on capping e-book lending. In a meeting this week, the EQUACC recommended the ALA “conduct an environmental scan to understand the current landscape and project future scenarios”, work within and outside ALA “to improve access to electronic information for all, with a particular focus on people with disabilities,” identify and support new e-lending models, and […]
eNews: Avon Launches New Digital Imprint; Kobo Closes New Funding Round; and More
Yesterday Avon announced its digital-first imprint, Avon Impulse, which will feature ebook novels and novellas (with POD editions also available) by current Avon authors and aims to “seek new talent to nurture in an e-book marketplace that finds romance experiencing expansive growth.” The first title will be Katherine Ashe’s enovella, “A Lady’s Wish,” released next week, with plans to publish at least one new title every week going forward. Authors will not receive an advance, but will get 25 percent net royalties for the first 10,000 copies sold, and 50 percent thereafter. Unlike Harlequin’s digital imprint Carina Press, Avon Impulse […]
Fleetwood Mac Album Producer Sues HarperCollins For Breach of Contract
Ken Caillat is best known in the music business as the man who produced Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumours, one of the best-selling rock records of all time. That credential in turn garnered him a $555,000 advance from HarperCollins’ It Books imprint to write Starting Rumours, an oral history of the making of that record, which the publisher won at auction from Caillat’s agent Peter McGuigan of Foundry Media. But last month, Caillat filed suit against the publisher in Ventura County Superior Court alleging that he was rightfully owed his entire advance, and that HarperCollins had breached their contract by […]
Bookselling: Borders Lease Writedowns; Joseph-Beth Bankruptcy Proceedings; Easons Turmoil; and More
Borders‘ motion to vacate unexpired leases for four stores in the midwest was approved by New York Bankruptcy Court late last week, reducing the amount of rent Borders is obligated to pay by approximately $245,000 per month. Affidavit [PDF] Last week, Joseph-Beth Booksellers sought more time from bankruptcy court to file a reorganization plan, which was originally due on March 3. Ultimately that hearing was pushed back to March 23, but not without some harsh criticism from the unsecured creditors committee, which charged that Joseph-Beth’s “management and professionals have not yet defined the contours of their reorganized business and how they intend […]