The Perseus Books Group’s digital distribution platform Constellation is adding a service offering targeted at the many literary agencies helping their authors epublish, called Argo Navis Author Services. After presentations to a small set agencies, Perseus is announcing that Janklow & Nesbit and Curtis Brown “are planning to make [the service] available to their clients.” Separately, co-head of publications at ICM Sloan Harris confirmed to Publishers Lunch that the agency is close to finalizing a deal to participate in Perseus’s initiative. “They are not going to be an exclusive destination for us,” Harris said, “but I expect that they will […]
eNews
Audible Lines Up Film Stars for Audiobooks; Hay House Launches Film/TV Divisions
Audible is going Hollywood, enlisting a number of accomplished actors–including Annette Bening, Colin Firth, Dustin Hoffman and Kate Winslet–to narrate a new line of audiobooks, featuring many classic works selected by the performers. Scheduled for release beginning in early 2012, the offerings include these pairings: Kim Basinger (The Awakening by Kate Chopin) Annette Bening (Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolfe) Jennifer Connelly (The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles) Colin Firth (The End of the Affair by Graham Greene) Anne Hathaway (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum) Dustin Hoffman (Being There by Jerzy Kosinski) Samuel L. Jackson (A Rage […]
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. […]
New Kindles for UK and Germany
We kept refreshing and updating our Amazon story yesterday, so a couple of details were missing from certain editions. A UK version of the least expensive regular Kindle–the non-touchscreen model–is available for pre-order, for release on October 12, at £89 (or roughly $140). A German version is priced at 99 euros. Both are ad-free models. Most press still missed out on the real prices of ad-free touchscreen Kindles: $139 for Touch and $189 for Touch Global 3G. The former is the same as the Nook Touch launched earlier this year. Kobo’s touchscreen device is $129, and their non-touchscreen reader is […]
Live From NY, It’s The $199 Kindle Fire and New Kindle Touch Devices
It was within a block of the West Side’s fragrant horse and carriage stables that Amazon set up tent this morning–literally with a large, air-conditioned tent on the street as a holding pen for press-conference visitors–to introduce their new devices: the Kindle Fire tablet, the new line of Kindle Touch ereaders, and an inexpensive version of its original Kindle model. Bloomberg jumped the gun by about 25 minutes quoting unnamed Amazon executives about the specs, but Wednesday’s press conference made it official: the Kindle Fire Tablet will have a 7″ full-color touchscreen and Wi-Fi, weigh 14.6 ounces, and will retail […]
eNews: Bloomsbury Reader Launches To Rescue OOP Works
As announced in May, Bloomsbury has launched their digital and POD imprint for out-of-print works, Bloomsbury Reader. Called a “digital global publisher,” their initial list of roughly 560 books focuses on authors and estates represented by their “founder partner” PFD/The Rights House, though they continue to invite the participation of other estates and agencies. Ingram has a new partnership with logistics company SBS Worldwide to provide their client publishers with greater supply chain visibility on their titles. The two companies will “also consolidate on major freight lanes and offer competitive rates on global transportation.” Kobo announced a new update to […]