As Perseus expands their digital distribution to agents and authors, Bloomsbury is preparing a direct competitor to Constellation, Faber Factory and other ebook distribution platforms for publishers. Launching soon, the new service, called Bloomsbury Connect, has been in development for months under the direction of managing director, group sales and marketing Evan Schnittman. It’s a companion to the Bloomsbury Reader program, announced in April, which launched last week with almost 600 titles. As Schnittman explains, Bloomsbury Connect is a “service solution,” focused on publishers, while Bloomsbury Reader is a full “publishing solution” for out-of-print titles, focused on agencies and estates. Bloomsbury Connect […]
On Demand
People, Etc.
At Basic Books, editorial director since 2007 Lara Heimert has been promoted to editorial and publishing director. In her new role she will play a larger role in the presentation and publication of the imprint’s books while freeing Basic Book Group publisher John Sherer to concentrate on the new Perseus digital marketing initiatives and to focus on the efforts at Westview Press and Nation Books. At Little, Brown Children’s, both Connie Hsu and Kate Sullivan have been promoted to editor. Liz Gately begins scouting for De Boekerij and Meulenhoff in the Netherlands as of October 1. Books-A-Million has hired Tyler Novak as general counsel. […]
Harper to Put Thousands of Backlist Titles On Espresso Machines for Bookstores
HarperCollins has announced an agreement to make the bulk of their backlist trade paperback titles available for printing and sale by US bookstores with an Espresso book machine, currently comprising eight independent bookstores and up to another eight machines at university bookstores. Starting in November, they will make approximately 5,000 backlist trade paperbacks available. (The backlist titles not included–numbering about 3,500–are ones with physical attributes that don’t lend themselves to printing on the current machine.) The POD books will carry the same retail prices as the editions fulfilled by Harper, but in a significant change, the publisher will sell the […]
Briefs: Bloomsbury & PFD Partner On Digital Imprint to Republish OOP Titles
Bloomsbury and PFD have joined forces to republish more than 500 out-of-print titles digitally beginning in September. The Bloomsbury Reader, as the venture is called, will bring back books into print from political diarist Alan Clark, Booker Prize winner Bernice Rubens, and poet & critic Edith Sitwell. Bloomsbury and PFD told the Guardian they hope other literary agencies will make use of the new service as well. 57 remaining Whitcoulls stores and five Borders shops were sold to Farmers Department Store owners the Norman family by administrator Ferrier Hodgson for an undisclosed sum. Owner David Norman told BusinessDay the company […]
Briefs: Coulter Mob; Fire Hit Book Cellar’s Building; Amazon’s Japanse POD; BN’s Sinking Shares
Crown has announced the title for Ann Coulter‘s latest, publishing June 7: DEMONIC: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America. If you need or want an explanation, the release is here. A large fire closed a large area in downtown Brattleboro, VT on Sunday night, striking the building in which The Book Cellar is located (along with nine other businesses). According to local reports the fire itself struck the fourth and fifth floors of the building the most severly. The Book Cellar’s Ana McDaniel told a local news station, “We are in shock right now. It is a bit of […]
Canongate’s Classics Play
Canongate has launched an on-demand classic program reminiscent of the Faber Finds line, reissuing over 100 Scottish classic as ebooks and print-on-demand-only paperbacks. One twist is that the editions are sold exclusively through The Book Depository until March, when they will expand to other retailers. They also received funding from Creative Scotland.CoverageBook Depository shop