Canada’s iBookstore went live with paid books yesterday according to users (or today according to other official announcements). This morning Simon & Schuster Canada and Hachette Book Group both announced that they are among publishers now selling through the store, and Harper Canada has confirmed to us they are live in the store as well. Today Amazon announced they are taking pre-orders for a new version of the SuperKindle, shipping as of July 7. The new model is priced at $379 (compared to $479 for the original model), and is said to have “an all new, high contrast electronic ink […]
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People: Hitchens, Merwin, and More
In a brief statement yesterday, Christopher Hitchens explained his sudden book tour cancellations: “I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me. I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice.” News outlets concluded that the treatment is related to esophageal cancer, which is linked to both smoking (Hitchens was a heavy smoker until recently) as well as drinking alcohol. Two-time Pulitzer-winner (most recently in 2009 for the collection The Shadow of Sirius) W.S. Merwin has been named the Library of […]
Barnes & Noble Drops, Amazon Stops
The clobbering of Barnes & Noble’s stock continued yesterday after our post following their conference call, down over 19 percent for the day on trading volume more than four times higher than usual. It was the largest one-day drop in the bookseller’s shares since November 2001. At current prices that leaves the company’s market capitalization at a little over $750 million (and remember that it was just 9 months ago that the company itself decided the BN College unit was worth $460 million). In a rough day across Wall Street, Amazon shares declined as well, down approximately 7.5 percent. As […]
People, Etc.
Rachel Vogel has joined Movable Type Literary Group as associate agent and international rights manager. She was at Lippincott Massie McQuilken. She’ll specialize in upmarket fiction and narrative non-fiction. Mary Glenn has been promoted to associate publisher for McGraw-Hill Professional’s business group. Moises Martinez has been promoted to director, Spanish language sales at Random House, leading domestic sales for Spanish titles from Vintage Espanol and Random House Mondadori. At Granta and Portobello in the UK, Kelly Pike joins the company as publicity manager in mid-July. She was a publicity manager at Saqi and Telegram Books. National Book Network has created […]
People, Etc.
Penguin Australia marketing and publicity director Dan Ruffino is being promoted to group digital director for Penguin Group worldwide, starting September 1 based in New York. He will report to chairman and ceo John Makinson and “focus on digital publishing and new digital revenue opportunities; direct to consumer communication and business intelligence; and global partnerships.” Makinson comments: “He is a hugely talented marketing professional who has spent the last six years thinking about ways to make our content more enticing to the consumer. He has all the right qualifications and qualities for the job, but, above all, he has the […]
Meyer Tops A Million
Little, Brown Children’s says that it has sold over a million copies of Stephenie Meyer’s novella A THE SHORT SECOND LIFE OF BREE TANNER since its release on June 5–making it “the biggest selling new book of the year so far.” In other publisher announcements, Bantam will release Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow’s THE GRAND DESIGN on September 7.