Macmillan president Brian Napack addressed Digital Book World this morning on the “the cheery, happy pleasant topic of people stealing your stuff.” He noted, “Piracy is happening. The question is how bad is it in the trade publishing business?” Napack said that “anyone who says that piracy isn’t an issue doesn’t understand,” showing a list of numerous NYT bestsellers, all available on some torrent site for free. Among Macmillan’s own examples, a search of Vuze (“a slick little thing if you want something for free” that searches all the torrent sites) showed 29 places to get pirated Sherrilyn Kenyon books, […]
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Bookselling: Two More Store Closings
Greenville, SC’s The Open Book intends to close shortly after almost 40 years in business, with a closing sale starting this week. Owner Duff Bruce says, “It is emotional, I am emotional about the business, I am emotional about the customers, but you have to be a realist.”Local coverage Ohio’s The Mystery Company will also close shortly, after seven years in business. Jim Huang says in a blog post “business here has been rough for a while, especially since gas prices spiked in the summer of 2008.” Plus: “Independent booksellers need to find ways to participate in print on demand, […]
Today's Amazon Press Release: Exclusive Kindle Book by Paulson Speechwriter
Speechwriter for Henry Paulson when he was secretary of Treasury Stacy Carlson has written a book, YOU, ME, & THE US ECONOMY, that is being published as an ebook only through Rosetta Books, exclusive to Kindle for a year. “A plainspoken look inside the Treasury Department” that “explains the events and issues through a personal narrative,” with a foreword by Paulson.Release Their second release of the day notes that Amazon Encore will publish four entrants from last year’s version of their Breakthrough novel contest–which has yet to create a discernible breakthrough.Release
A Year Later, Borders CEO Marshall Leaves for A Better Job
When we reported Borders ever “disappointing” holiday sales earlier this month, we noted that the last time the chain did that poorly they changed chief executives–and lo and behold, after just a year in office, ceo Ron Marshall is departing, to take the ceo job at another unnamed publicly-held retailer. The company is initiating a search through Korn/Ferry, so clearly Marshall surprised the company by heading for the door. Chief merchandising officer Mike Edwards takes the interim ceo post, having worked at Borders since last September.Release
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May Wuthrich will join Rob Weisbach Creative Management as a senior associate, developing her own clients as well as contributing to the company’s efforts for their other clients. Wuthrich has worked in film development, scouting, and electronic business initiatives. Barbara Marcus, whose one-year consulting arrangement with Penguin Children’s was already extended for six months longer than planned, will move on at the end of this month. Judy Pray is now a senior editor at Workman’s Artison Books. She was at Clarkson Potter. Michael McKenzie has been promoted to senior publicity director at Ecco. At F+W Media, Tim Langlitz has moved […]
Layoffs at Ingram and BN.com
A total of 57 employees at Ingram Content Group’s LaVergne location were laid off on Friday from across the organization. Spokesperson Keel Hunt says “this is unfortunate, but in the dynamic arena of content delivery it’s important for Ingram to be right-sized and as efficient as possible.” He tells us the reductions were “a result of the reorganization, announced last summer,” that merged various business units including Ingram Book, Ingram Digital, Lightning Source and Ingram Publisher Services into the overall Ingram Content Group. He adds, “when we announced the reorganization, we of course began a process to identify ways to […]