On the heels of other recently announced self-publishing and digital publishing initiatives from Bookends, Dystel & Goderich and Anne McDermid Associates, The Knight Agency said on their blog that they will launch an “assisted self-publishing program” to help clients digitally publish backlist titles and select frontlist titles. They intend to charge their standard 15 percent commission for services including content editing, ISBN number assignment, cover design and consultation, and developing a marketing plan, and will “pay all upfront costs with the exception of copyediting.” The agency stresses on its blog that “we did not enter into this lightly, but felt […]
eNews
McDermid Agency Launches Separate Digital Publishing Consulting Service
Anne McDermid and Associates is launching dropCapLiterary, which will consult with authors to provide “advice and instruction on marketing, promoting and selling their work in the new digital age.” Run by technology host, journalist, and strategist Amber Mac and McDermid agent Chris Bucci, dropCapLiterary will operate independently of the literary agency, open to all authors, “regardless of representation,” charging fees for negotiated services. That menu of optional services includes: “building and enhancing an author’s online platform; developing an online marketing strategy tailored for each book; managing available ebook and enhanced ebook rights; determining marketing strategies for ebooks; and collaborating with […]
Rosetta Launches New Line of eBook Originals
Rosetta Books is launching a Crimescape digital imprint, featuring short-form true crime writing from established authors. They are starting with six titles, adding at least two new titles a month. All titles will be Kindle exclusives for one year. Running 10,000 to 20,000 words, the initial selections are all priced at $2.99. Founder of CrimeLibrary.com Marilyn Bardsley is overseeing the line for Rosetta, “focusing on writers she has worked with over the years” but also open to submissions. Rosetta founder Arthur Klebanoff sees it as “example of how an original ebook line can be established in an area of traditional […]
Mondadori to Put Thousands of eBooks on Kindle
Italy’s Mondadori will make “more than 2,000 ebooks” available via Kindle stores in the UK, Germany and the US. They expect to add another 1,000 titles before the end of the year, and hope to have 80 percent of their 10,000-title list as ebooks “by 2012.” Remarks from deputy chairman and chief executive Maurizio Costa at least imply that an Italian Kindle store might not be far off, following Amazon’s recent launch of an Italian web site. Italy is on Kobo’s list of local ebookstores planned for the coming months as well, though today’s release only mentions Amazon. Barnes & […]
People, Etc.
OverDrive has hired Brian Gurewitz as director of content sales. He was formerly president of library sales for Random House’s Books on Tape. Katie O’Callaghan is joining the Harper as associate director, marketing, working across all of the Harper imprints including Harper, Harper Business, and Broadside Books. She was most recently senior marketing manager at Ballantine Bantam Dell. The Los Angeles Times book review will no longer employ freelance book reviewers or non-staff columnists. LAT spokesperson Nancy Sullivan tells PW, “This was a cost-saving move, strictly related to our budget.” She said “staff writers from outside the book department will take […]
Other Major eBook Apps Fall In Line with New Apple Rules
As expected, Apple’s new rule requiring content-based apps that sell outside of Apple’s own channels to remove any external purchasing links is being enforced broadly across all the major players. Yesterday the Apple Kindle app was updated, with the company saying in a forum posting “in order to comply with recent policy changes by Apple, we’ve removed the ‘Kindle Store’ link from within the app that opened Safari and took you to the Kindle Store.” Barnes & Noble announced that their Nook for iPad app will “soon be updated,” at which time you can expect their purchasing link to be […]