Malcolm Jones at Newsweek picks 10 summer reads: Nothing Daunted, by Dorothy Wickenden The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, by Mark Seal State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett Carte Blanche, by Jeffery Deaver In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson Bloodmoney, by David Ignatius Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, by Alexandra Fuller…
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BEA Attendance Nearly Flat
BEA has released preliminary attendance figures for this year’s show. The total was 21,664 people, almost even with last year’s final tally of 21,919 people. The falloff was slightly higher among “attendees” (as distinguished from exhibitors), who numbered 13,028–a decline of 6 percent, or 844 people, from a year ago. The organizers say over 500…
Agents at BEA: Nothing Is Off the Table
The newsmaking announcements at BEA might have been all about devices and digital, but the agents also showed up to talk about what is going on in their world of rights and royalties, and some interesting tidbits emerged. To start with, if you thought the 25 percent ebook royalty was settled, think again. On Tuesday’s…
Google Book Engineer Says His Staff Has Grown 50 Percent
Chief Engineer for Google Books James Crawford didn’t reveal much news at his presentation Thursday morning on Seven Years of Google Book Search, but he did mention–in contrast to unsourced allegations on the interwebs recently–that he has grown the engineering team by 50 percent since Google eBooks launched in December. Google has big international hopes…
More News from Publishers Launch: ABA to Test Bundling; HC Building App Studio; Amazon Readies for Brazil
ABA coo Len Vlahos revealed that they have arranged a bundling test for the fall with one publisher (and are talking to another). “When you buy the print book instore or online, you’ll get the ebook free for a fixed time,” and that ebook will be DRM-free “for this limited time period” to facilitate the…
USA Bolsters Online Book Pages
USA Today has soft-launched a revised and expanded books section on the newspaper’s web site, complicated with a dedicated sub-domain, books.usatoday.com. Among the features, their bestseller list has a graphics-enriched consumer-friendly new presentation (and is featured on the books home page as well). Importantly for publishers and publicists, the Book Buzz column will now act…