The bankruptcy auction of the five remaining Joseph-Beth bookstores and their inventory will be held this Wednesday morning in Cincinnati. So far, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, co-founder Neil Van Uum is the only known bidder, but one of the lawyers conducting the auction, Ellen Arvin Kennedy, says “we are very optimistic that we will have several bidders who will want to purchase the stores and operate them as they are operating now.” Initial confidential bids, for all or part of the company, are due today. Liquidators are expected to make low bids as well. Van Uum tells the paper, “I’ve […]
Authors
People, Etc.
Philip Patrick has joined Amazon as senior leader, rights and licensing. He was most recently with Crown as publisher of Three Rivers Press and publisher of ebooks and digital content. Severn House, Canongate Books and Granta Publications will now be digitally distributed by Ingram‘s Coresource. The shortlist for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction has been announced, with the winner to be named in late May: SERIOUS MEN by Manu Joseph (John Murray) COMFORT AND JOY by India Knight (Fig Tree) THE COINCIDENCE ENGINE by Sam Leith (Bloomsbury) THE NEWS WHERE YOU ARE by Catherine O’Flynn (Penguin) SUPER […]
Orange Prize, IMPAC Shortlists
The Orange Prize shortlist was announced yesterday: Emma Donoghue, RoomAminatta Forna, The Memory of Love Emma Henderson, Grace Williams Says it Loud Nicole Krauss, Great House Téa Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife Kathleen Winter, Annabel Release The IMPAC Dublin Literary Award shortlist of 10 authors includes Colum McCann,z Yiyun Li, William Trevor and Joyce Carol Oates. Full List
People: Freese Leaves NBN; Burtenshaw Moves Up at Reed; and More
National Book Network president Rich Freese has left the company. His last day was Friday, April 8. President of NBN parent company Rowman & Littlefield Jed Lyons told us over the weekend that Freese’s departure was “very amicable” and the result of NBN’s announcement back in January that they would reduce their number of distribution clients. “We’ve been talking about it for weeks,” Lyons explained. “Since Rich’s principal role was in working on new business development, it didn’t make sense for him and the company to continue working together.” Lyons said there will be no additional changes to NBN’s executive […]
eNews: Harry Potter eBooks Now in Play; Europe’s Slow Start; and More
Last May JK Rowling‘s agents at the Christopher Little Agency upgraded their position on the possibility of Harry Potter ebooks from “monitoring” the field to “actively” evaluating and “”currently considering all the options and opportunities.” Now there is a fresh round of media attention as a spokeswoman for Rowling reiterates the same thing to the Daily Mail: “The ebook format is now something that is being actively considered.” Neil Blair from the Christopher Little Agency also stands on his previous remarks, saying “we are continuing with our evaluation of all options relating to Harry Potter ebooks.” The Daily Mail The […]
Briefs: Billy Joel Cancels Memoir; Open Road Projects $10M in Sales in 2011; and More
A little more than two months before HarperCollins was due to publish Billy Joel‘s memoir The Book of Joel, with a finished cover unveiled and a manuscript draft turned in, the book deal is off. “It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I’m not all that interested in talking about the past, and that the best expression of my life and its ups and downs has been and remains my music,” he said in a statement. Spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said that Joel’s memoir “was well into the editing process, but that Joel had not approved […]