Barnes & Noble spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating tells the WSJ that “demand for the nook in our stores and online has surpassed our expectations.” While the first wave of pre-orders will ship to customers on November 30, those who purchase the units now are being told their orders will ship on December 11. Keating says “we are working hard to meet demand for the holidays.” Harlequin announced the launch of Carina Press, a digital-only publishing house that will sell directly to consumers and “operate independently of their traditional publishing businesses.” Angela James is joining the new operation as executive editor. […]
New Imprints
Cash-Starved Weinsteins Switch Book Operation to Perseus Joint Venture
Weinstein Books, which has published a modest output since its founding in 2007 while the larger would-be Weinstein empire has run through its cash, is switching from an independent imprint to a joint venture with Perseus Books as of December 1. The model follows the deal recently struck between Perseus and the Weinstein’s erstwhile partner Tina Brown, now at The Beast. The two companies will “jointly develop new book ideas and Perseus will be responsible for all JV staff and for executing all core-publishing activities.” Perseus will also take over distribution of the Weinstein Books backlist. Weinstein Books publisher Judy […]
People and More
At Penguin Canada, editor Nicole Winstanley will take over as publisher as president David Davidar takes on additional responsibilities as ceo of Penguin International. The unit will also launch an Allen Lane Canada imprint in 2010, with Diane Turbide running the new nonfiction program as publishing director. Managing director Andrea Magyar will give up most of her editorial responsibilities to become vp of business development. Focusing on custom publishing opportunities, she’ll report directly to Davidar. Speaking of imprints, at last week’s Bouchercon Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch mentioned briefly that the house is working on a new crime fiction imprint. […]
Thomas Nelson Adds A Self-Publishing Line
We always wondered who would be first to find a way to say “yes” to the slush pile, and it turns out to be Nelson. Oddly, Nelson is outsourcing the job to self-publishing giant Author Solutions, which will design, publish and distribute the books under the name West Bow Press. Nelson won’t edit the books either. So what will they do? Share revenue, and “monitor sales to identify potential big sellers.”WSJ
New Imprints from Sourcebooks and Rizzoli
Building on their success this year with YA novels and the growth of the children’s imprint Jabberwocky launched three years ago, Sourcebooks is creating a YA imprint called Fire, to launch in spring 2010 with seven titles. Editor Dan Ehrenhaft, who came over to Sourcebooks from Alloy Entertainment this spring, will lead the new line. CEO Dominique Raccah says “we want voices that will ignite, inspire, and surprise teens, regardless of genre.” The company says Fire will acquire fiction “in a variety of media, bringing worlds to life via the web, audio, digital–whatever teens are looking for, wherever they’re looking […]
S&S Creates Gallery Books As Pocket Returns to Mass-Market Only
Simon & Schuster is taking their successful Simon Spotlight Entertainment line and merging it with Pocket Books’ hardcovers and trade paperbacks to create a new imprint, Gallery Books. Pocket itself will return to focusing entirely on mass market publishing, as partner for all of the S&S imprints and continuing with paperback originals for “rising authors” such as Kresley Cole and Thomas Greanias. The new line is expected to launch in spring 2010. CEO Carolyn Reidy writes to employees that “as a company we need to insure that each of our imprints has sufficient strength and support, especially in this difficult […]