At Random House Children’s, Till Wirth has joined the new media marketing team in the new position of manager, digital content and product development, and Liz Cosulich has been promoted to subsidiary rights associate. In the publicity department Dominique Cimina has been promoted to publicity manager and online media specialist; Meg O’Brien moves up to senior publicist and online media specialist; Casey Lloyd, Emily Pourciau, and Elizabeth Zajac were each promoted to publicist; and Jessica Shoffel has become an associate publicist. At Plume, Mary Pomponio has been promoted to publicity manager. Longtime publishing executive and founder of Limelight Editions Melvyn […]
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Music Players Provides eBookstore Retail Solution
MediaNet, a digital music distribution player, has launched an on-the-fly ebookstore service that may be of appeal to independent booksellers and others looking to enter ebook retailing. The company says that their open API makes it possible to have an ebookstore “installed and ready to go within 48 hours.” They are working with EPUB files (and pdf’s) and claim a catalog of over 200,000 titles. The press release and online documentation do not provide any details about terms, or how they are dealing with a hybrid world of agency and wholesale selling models, divided tax responsibilities, etc.
People and Awards
Sarah Knight will join the Simon & Schuster adult trade imprint on May 24 as a senior editor, acquiring both fiction and nonfiction. She was most recently an editor at Shaye Areheart Books, will begin her new position on May 24th. At Tor and Forge, Justin Golenbock was promoted from Publicist to Senior Publicist. Goldberg McDuffie Communications announced the promotions of Grace McQuade to managing director; Angela Baggetta Hayes to director of GMC Digital; Megan Underwood Beatie to deputy director of GMC Digital; Kathleen Carter to publicity manager; and Liza Lucas to Senior Publicist. Dennis Hayes joined National Book Network […]
Open Road to Release Styron eBooks, But Random House Not Ready to Release Other Authors
Open Road will go ahead with their planned republication of backlist works by William Styron in ebook form starting May 4. Initially the ebooks will only be available on Kindle, the NYT reports, though the company intends to have distribution through other online retailers as well. (The company declined to indicate for now whether they are selling on an agency or wholesale basis.) While Random House is not contesting this agreement, spokesman Stuart Applebaum says the house’s position on electronic rights to older works remains as stated by ceo Markus Dohle last year (“Random House considers contracts that grant the […]
More People News and Announcements
Brad Parsons will join the Hachette Book Group on May 24 as associate director of their online marketing team, focusing on fiction. He will report to executive director of online marketing Kelly Leonard. Currently senior editor for books at Amazon, Parsons has been with the etailer since 1999. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced two electronic agreements today. They have partnered with NetGalley to deliver galleys, promotional materials, and other digital content, and they have also joined Edelweiss’s interactive digital catalog system.
Sales Fall 4 Percent at WH Smith; Publishing Remains Soft for Courier
The UK’s WH Smith reported results for the six months ending February 28, with high street sales of 503 million pounds down 4 percent, both in absolute terms and on a comp-store basis. Books as a category were also down 4 percent compared to a year ago. The company says “the books market was soft during the key Christmas period, but performance varied by sub-category with the poor publishing schedule in non-fiction acting as a key driver behind the market decline.” Nonetheless, they insist that “we continue to implement our strategy to build on our authority as a popular book […]