Screenwriter, filmmaker and author Nora Ephron, 71, died Tuesday night in a Manhattan hospital from complications of the blood disorder myelodysplasia, diagnosed six years ago. She was equally known for writing and directing films such as SILKWOOD (1983) WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989) and, most recently, JULIE AND JULIA (2009) as she was for her journalism and books, among them the novel HEARTBURN (1983) and essay collections CRAZY SALAD (1975), I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK (2006), and I REMEMBER NOTHING (2010). “She brought an awful lot of people a tremendous amount of joy,” Ephron’s longtime publisher Knopf said in […]
Marketing
Initiatives: Faber In Audio Co-Venture with Canongate; Hay House Enrolls Bloggers
In the UK, Faber has entered in an audio co-publishing venture with Canongate (which acquired audio publisher CSA in 2010). Canongate will produce and sell audio editions of up to about a dozen Faber titles annually, the Bookseller reports. (Faber will continue to publish audio versions of their poetry books independently.) In the US, Hay House has started a blogger review program, BookNook, that is similar to Thomas Nelson’s Book Sneeze initiative. They aim to create “one central place for bloggers to share their thoughts and experiences about Hay House products,” providing free review copies in exchange for “an honest […]
People, Etc.
At Kirkus Media, vp business development Meg LaBorde Kuehn has been promoted to chief operating officer, part of the company’s expansion into new lines of business, including digital marketing solutions for publishers and a growing suite of services for unpublished and self-published authors. Kuehn will report to company president Marc Winkelman and lead the business teams of Kirkus Media, including sales and marketing, technology development and author services. In addition, Casey Gannon moves up to marketing director, Perry Crowe has been named director of Kirkus Editorial (their new book editing division), and Ryan Leahey has been named indie editor, all […]
Samples for the Holidays
Both Hachette Book Group and Penguin have released free holiday sampler ebooks. (The metadata for each is a little strange depending upon which ebookstore you check. At Amazon, HBG‘s is sub-tagged as “Fiction > Action & Adventure.” At Barnes & Noble, Penguin‘s is listed as “age range: 12 years.”) For a mighty digital list price of 99 cents, Houghton has a Best American Sampler from across their annual series of Best American writing. And, to file under TMI from searching, apparently there is also a robust line of “samplers” of dirty pictures available via ebooks as well.
US World Book Night Line-Up Announced
World Book Night US has announced the 30 titles they will distribute for free on April 23. Anna Quindlen has been named honorary national chairperson. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (Ballantine) Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger (Da Capo) Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Beacon Press) Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Tor) Little Bee by Chris Cleave (Simon & Schuster) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic) Blood Work by Michael […]
Price Check In Aisle Amazon (A One-Day Offer)
In other Amazon news, there’s much consternation over the company’s one-day promotion to encourage people to use their mobile Price Check app. To be clear, the promotion does not apply to books–just to toys, electronics, sporting goods, music and DVDs. The offer, good for Saturday, December 10 only, provides a 5 percent discount (capped at a maximum of $5) on up to three qualifying times. Users must run the latest version of Amazon’s price checking app, and enable the geo-location feature. More broadly, however, Amazon wants to encourage shoppers to “submit” local price data to the etailer, presumably to sharpen […]