With the continuing rollout of Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription program to additional territories, the total payout to participating authors continues to grow, even as the per-borrow payment remains near its lowest levels. Every month on or about the 15th, Amazon tells authors how much they will be paid on a retroactive basis, still terming the payment a “bonus” rather than something they earned and are entitled to receive. For January borrows, Amazon said they are adding $5.5 million to the payout pool, for a total fund of $8.5 million. That works out to just under $1.38 a book (covering approximately 6.175 […]
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Sean Shoemaker will take over as president of Publishers Group West, effective April 1, after Susan Reich retires. Shoemaker has been with PGW for the past 20 years. Perseus Client Services president Mark Suchomel writes: “In addition to a strong operations and finance perspective, Sean brings to the role a keen awareness of the needs of PGW’s clients and customers, and the value PGW brings to both. He has a stellar reputation as a straight shooter and is held in the highest regard by clients and his colleagues at PGW and Perseus. Importantly, Sean has the historical perspective and deep understanding of what […]
Another Found Manuscript: Dr. Seuss’s What Pet Should I Get?
In the fall of 2013 the late Ted Geisel’s widow Audrey and the author’s longtime secretary and friend Claudia Prescott rediscovered an original unpublished manuscript and sketches — along with other materials — first found shortly after Ted’s death in 1991, while cleaning his office space. Random House Children’s will publish the rediscovered WHAT PET SHOULD I GET? on July 28. And the publisher says in their announcement that “at least two more books will be published from the materials discovered, with titles and publication dates to be announced.” Called “nearly complete” as found, believed to be written “somewhere between 1958 and 1962,” the […]
People, Etc.
Director of order management at Simon & Schuster Francine Leinheiser will retire on February 27 after more than 38 years with the company, and 12 years in her current position. In a statement, vp, distribution & fulfillment Dave Schaeffer praised Leinheiser as “a true Simon & Schuster lifer,” adding: “We will remember her as an organizer, a communicator, a cheerful presence and a true professional who played a major role in our success in bringing thousands of titles to our accounts on time. Now she will have some time to read many of the books that she, like many of […]
Cynthia Bond’s RUBY is Latest Oprah Pick; Krakauer’s MISSOULA to Publish April 21
Oprah’s revived Book Club, which now only picks books about once a year, has selected Cynthia Bond’s debut novel RUBY as its latest choice. (Its previous selection, in early 2014, was THE INVENTION OF WINGS by Sue Monk Kidd.) The novel was published in hardcover last April by Hogarth to a modest reception. Those who reviewed it praised the book but it was overlooked by all of the major outlets, with hardcover sales as recorded by Nielsen Bookscan under 3,000. The publisher has announced a first paperback printing of 250,000 copies (with the Oprah book club logo) and a special digital […]
Still More On Harper Lee’s GO SET A WATCHMAN
Over the weekend pieces from the NYT, WSJ, and the AP filled in some blanks about the discovery of Harper Lee’s GO SET A WATCHMAN and how cognizant Lee is about the novel’s forthcoming publication on July 14. Though the Harper Collins press release from last week said the manuscript was discovered last fall, Lee’s lawyer Tonja Carter tells the NYT via emails and texts that she found the work “in late summer.” When Carter visited Lee and asked her about the manuscript and if it was finished: “She said: ‘Complete? I guess so. It was the parent of MOCKINGBIRD.” Separately, the WSJ reports that foreign rights […]