Penguin’s genre community Book Country, which focused on romance, mystery/thriller and science fiction & fantasy upon arrival in April 2011, will formally relaunch on Wednesday with a broader array of categories and services. Book Country’s genre map has expanded to include literary fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction, New Adult, and several sub-categories within Young Adult. In addition, Book Country, which now has 8300 members as well as eight authors who landed publishing deals, will launch a bookstore that allows community members to sell titles, both through Book Country as well as through all major outlets that Penguin distributes to. Book Country […]
eNews
Briefs: Banks and Perseus Funds Sue Frank Pearl’s Estate; German Publisher Is Rowling Winner; And More
The estate of financier and Perseus Books founder Frank Pearl, who died in May 2012, is being sued by Bank of America, TD Bank, Eagle Bank and even Perseus Funds for more than $50 million, according to the Washington Post, alleging he “sought to avoid payment to creditors by fraudulently moving $59 million in life insurance proceeds and other assets from his estate into Perseus Trust, which he had created for his wife” after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in November 2011. Bank of America seeks $22 million; TD Bank and Eagle Bank are asking for more than $16 million […]
eNews: Google Play in 9 More Countries; BookVibe’s Tweet-Based Recommendations; And More
Google Play has expanded into nine more European countries, including Denmark, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and Sweden, bringing the total to 26. The NYT’s Bits Blog writes up its impressions of BookVibe, a book recommendation service created by fledgling startup Parakweet that “basically analyzes the tweets of accounts that you follow on Twitter and compiles a list of book recommendations based on which titles those people are talking about.” (BookVibe emerged out of BEA’s Publishing Hackathon earlier this summer.) Parakweet recently raised $2 million in seed funding for this and other services (including TrendFinder, for movie […]
Inkling Raises $16 Million, Hires Executives, Adds Content Partners
Last month start-up Inkling raised another $16 million in series financing, led by previous funder Sequoia Capital. That’s on top of at least $23 million reported raised in previous equity rounds. As part of their expansion, they have hired three executives to lead marketing, business development, and finance and operations. Gus Gostyla has joined Inkling as vp, business development (he was head of business development at Flipboard); Hema Padhu is vp, marketing (after holding the same title at ModCloth); Stephane Panier is vp, finance and operations, after working in similar positions at GoodData and Google. Inkling announced two strategic partnerships […]
AAP Trade Sales Fall Some In February, Further In March
The AAP released catch-up Stat Shot statistics from February and March that show overall trade sales declining from one month to the next through the first quarter of 2013, mostly due to the absence of hits to take the place of the Hunger Games trilogy a year ago. February trade sales (from a pool of almost 1,200 reporting publishers across all sectors) declined 6 percent, to $421 million; March trade sales fell further, by 8.6 percent, to $449 million. (January sales, as previously reported, had been down by just $3 million.) Those comparisons will likely fall again in comparison to […]
People, Etc.
Senior marketing manager at Grove/Atlantic and Mysterious Press Jason Pinter will leave the company on July 19 to launch Polis Books, a digital publishing startup focusing on new and backlist fiction from contemporary authors in crime fiction, science fiction & fantasy, and romance/erotica/commercial women’s fiction. Pinter told us Polis Books will formally debut next month (and is looking to hire an additional acquiring editor) and publish its first list this fall. Polis will offer authors “modest advances to begin with,” as “it’s important that our writers know we are investing in them” and royalties beginning at at 40 percent of […]