The Guardian has entered the digital books space with Guardian Shorts, which will provide “detailed guides to topical news stories, public policy, sports and cultural events” through ebooks ranging from between 5,000 and 30,000 words. Pricing will range from £1.99 to £3.99 “depending on subject area, length and how much new content they contain.” They launch the program with PHONE HACKING: How the Guardian Broke the Story, which packages the paper’s extensive coverage of the scandal with a new final chapter by Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger. The ebook is priced at £2.29/$2.99 and available on Kindle now and on iTunes […]
Web marketing/promotion
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 […]
eNews: BookLamp’s Recommendation Engine Enlists Publishers; UMich Press Serializes Novels on Facebook; and More
Book recommendation service BookLamp will reportedly launch in August after a lengthy development period, with more than 20,000 available books from Random House, Kensington and other publishers. The idea is to search through full-text books and analyze them in order to make reading recommendations. Ceo Tom Stanton told Mashable that he doesn’t anticipate selling books or advertising on the site. BookLamp’s efforts at text analysis and recommendations have been underway since 2008, focused on science fiction and fantasy books to start, and according to site postings have mostly lacked a sufficiently large database to search against and analyze. A video […]
More eNews: Dystel & Goderich Will ‘Formally Represent’ Self-Pubbed Work By Clients, Kindle Heads to France, and More
Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, which represents several notable self-publishing successes including J.A. Konrath and John Locke, announced on their blog they will officially “represent” clients who want to self-publish and help them with the process. As they explain: “what we are going to do is to facilitate e-publishing for those of our clients who decide that they want to go this route, after consultation and strategizing about whether they should try traditional publishing first or perhaps simply set aside the current book and move on to the next.” DGLM will charge their regular 15 percent commission for services in […]
eNews: Apple Set To Lose ‘Appstore’ Suit; Carina Press Profiled; and More
A judge hearing Apple’s lawsuit against Amazon for using the term ‘appstore’ (which Apple believes is trademark) said in a hearing Wednesday she is “probably” going to rule against Apple because Apple hasn’t demonstrated confusion among consumers. U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton said she will review court filings before issuing a final decision. Bloomberg Fast Company profiles Harlequin’s digital-only imprint Carina Press and its executive editor Angela James. Carina plans to publish 190 books this year, and though Harlequin never breaks out revenue for individual imprints, director of digital publishing Malle Vallik said, “We’re doing very nicely, above where we […]
Harry Potter Portal “Pottermore” Gears Up for Launch
With the final Harry Potter movie releasing in exactly a month, an online promotion challenged Harry Potter fans to decode the name of a new Potter-related website: Pottermore.com. The tease has led to all kinds of unbridled speculation. The folks at fan site The Leaky Cauldron have seen the site and say “it is, in a word, breathtaking. That is all we are permitted to say at the moment.” (And they understood it’s not a new book, even though a lot of fans are not listening.) Take note that the Pottermore name was trademarked by Warner Bros. in mid-2009. The […]