The digital-first mystery and thriller imprint that William Morrow first announced when they hired executive editor Dan Mallory last August will formally launch in October under the name Witness. The first 10 titles releasing that month are largely from UK authors including Stephen Booth, Frances Fyfield, Emlyn Rees, and Rory Clements. (Mallory was at Little Brown UK’s Sphere before moving to Harper, where he launched the UK digital-first line The Mystery Vault.) Witness will also release Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot short stories as digital singles, and has acquired more than 100 titles. Witness is considered part of Morrow and Harper’s broader Impulse […]
eNews
Digital Briefs: iPad Sales, and txtr Expansion
Apple reported second quarter earnings after the close of the market on Tuesday, saying they sold another 19.5 million iPads (in all sizes) during the quarter. That’s only slightly lower than the 22.9 million iPads sold in the previous holiday quarter–for a total of 143.4 million iPads sold worldwide since the device launched just over 3 years ago. Berlin-based txtr says they have rolled out local ebookstores across the world English landscape, adding new storefronts recently in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Canada. The company has started selling their Beagle ereader directly to consumers in Europe online for […]
Singles’ Gatekeeper
A wise executive explained not too long ago: “Even well-meaning gatekeepers slow innovation. When a platform is self-service, even the improbable ideas can get tried, because there’s no expert gatekeeper ready to say ‘that will never work!’ And guess what – many of those improbable ideas do work, and society is the beneficiary of that diversity.” Except, apparently, for short length ebooks, where Amazon’s hired gatekeeper David Blum “is using his deep connections in the New York media world” and “cherry-picks [fewer than 15] pieces from the more than 1,000 unsolicited manuscripts he receives each month” for Kindle Shorts. Rather […]
People, Etc.
At Bloomsbury, Rachel Mannheimer has been promoted to editor, and Melanie Sankel has gone from associate director of sales for Fairchild Books to director, adoption sales at Bloomsbury Academic. After Skyhorse and Start Publishing’s intended joint acquisition of Night Shade Books’ assets ignited public controversy over the original terms of sale (and now, after a revision, the sale “is in a holding pattern right now waiting for all the authors’ feedback”, a Skyhorse spokesperson told us) the two publishers have bought a different science fiction & fantasy publisher, Underland Press, for an undisclosed sum. The deal for the six-year-old press, according […]
Kobo Launches Bigger High-Res eReader; Scores Hosseini Exclusive in Brazil
Kobo still believes in eInk dedicated readers, reinforced in today’s announcement from the London Book Fair: Later this month they will release an oversized eInk reader with a 6.8-inch display (most other readers have screens that are 6 inches or smaller). They say the 265 dpi device “offers 30 percent more reading surface and the closest experience to print-on-paper,” and with a 1GHz processor they also say it’s “the fastest eReader on the market – 25 percent faster.” Called the Kobo Aura HD, Kobo’s evp and general manager of devices Wayne White calls it “the Porsche of eReaders…designed for those […]
People, Etc.
At Workman Publishing, Vaughn Andrews will join the company as creative director for the Workman imprint on April 22. Most recently a freelance designer, he worked for 26 years at Harcourt, including serving as executive art director and creative director. Raquel Jaramillo, who has been acting creative director for two years, will return full time to her position as director of children’s publishing. At Touchstone, Jessica Roth has been promoted to publicity manager. At Yale University Press, Jaya Aninda Chatterjee has been promoted to assistant editor for politics and international relations. William Boyd‘s new authorized James Bond novel, publishing this […]