HarperCollins will launch another digital-focused imprint, Harper Teen Impulse, publishing short fiction for teens. The new line launches December 4 with a novella by Sophie Jordan, BREATHLESSS, and a futuristic novella from Scott Westerfeld, STUPID PERFECT WORLD, both selling for $1.99. The company indicates it will publish up to 4 ebooks a month, priced from 99 cents to $2.99. Harper Children’s president and publisher Susan Katz says, “We’re seeing short-form content becoming more popular in the digital marketplace, and HarperTeen Impulse allows us to experiment with new concepts and deliver content quickly.” The name echoes Avon Impulse, another of Harper’s […]
eNews
News Corp. Said to “Express Interest” In Acquiring Simon & Schuster
After expressing at least theoretical interest in bidding for Penguin when that merger deal was all but finalized, News Corp. has reportedly moved to the next most likely potential target: Simon & Schuster. The WSJ, which often has a good line on parent company News Corp.’s strategy, is clear in their lead that the company simply “has expressed interest to CBS about acquiring its Simon & Schuster book business,” which is a soft starting point. To underscore that, “the people described the talks as preliminary and cautioned that a deal isn’t imminent.” But it does indicate that News Corp. remains […]
Nook Adds Beta Text-to-Speech Feature; Penguin Library eBooks Sold At Consumer Price
Though not an advertised feature, Nook appears to have added text-to-speech “read aloud” capability for all ebooks in its latest releases. The National Federation for the Blind posted about the “beta” feature–which appears as an “accessibility” setting–last week: “We selected enable accessibility (beta) which will actually provide speech to read Nook books. That’s quite momentous, and would be even better if it were documented somewhere we could find it, or if any of the customer service reps knew about it. Still–it’s more than we’ve seen previously.” In August, the California Public Library Authority reached a settlement with the NFB over […]
eNews: Penguin Expands eBook Library Lending Pilot with Baker & Taylor; Sourcebook’s “Put Me In The Story” Children’s Book App
Penguin is expanding its library ebook lending pilot programs through a new distribution agreement with Baker & Taylor that will make their titles available to public libraries in Los Angeles County and Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the NYT reports. Penguin tells us they “hope it is up and running before the end of the year.” The new initiative will employ the same lending terms as Penguin’s pilot with 3M and the New York public libraries from earlier this year: Titles are available for library lending six months after publication, sold at standard ebook prices, available for one-lend-at-a-time, with each purchase valid […]
People, Etc.
Allan Adler has been promoted to general counsel and vp, government affairs at the Association of American Publishers. Peter Berkery, Jr. will serve as executive director of the Association of American University Presses, starting March 1, 2013. He has been vp and publisher for Oxford University Press’s US Law Division for the past four years. Longtime Crown editor and executive Charlie Conrad was laid off earlier this week, after 22 years at the company (first Bantam Doubleday Dell and then Random House Inc.). Spokesperson David Drake tells us “the change did not involve a broader reassignment of responsibilities or roles within […]
eNews: Hachette Commits to EPUB3; Fictionwise Will Shut Down on December 4
Long on-the-verge EPUB3 may finally land. Hachette Book Group underscored their commitment to new standard and the enhanced content it supports, announcing that they will release 16 titles in EPUB3 between this November and next March. Beginning with titles across a variety of nonfiction genres and children’s books, they plan to “publish all standard novels in EPUB3 by March 2013” as well. The news had been widely expected ever since Barnes & Noble bought the company in 2009, prior to launching the first iteration of the Nook, but Fictionwise will officially shut down on December 4, according to an email […]