At Scholastic, Lynne Karppi has been promoted to Director of Creative and Product Development for the Consumer Products division. Andrea Colvin has been promoted to Director of Publishing Operations for Open Road Integrated Media. The Romance Writers of America announced its Golden Heart and RITA Award winners at its annual conference in New York last Friday. Full List Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, will self-publish her children’s book about 9/11, THE LITTLE PEAR TREE and donate the proceeds to charity, according to her spokesperson. A source told the Daily Mail that Ferguson reported got “her people” to send around […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Politico and RH Team Up for 2012 Election eBooks; Bundling; Pan Macmillan Digital Backlists; and More eNews
Politico and Random House are partnering to publish four “instant” digital books throughout the 2012 Presidential election beginning this fall. The as-yet-untitled series, with books to be in the 20,000-30,000 word range, will be reported and written by Politico chief white house correspondent and Playbook founder Mike Allen and former Newsweek editor Evan Thomas, with Jon Meacham to edit. Meacham pitches it as “a kind of Theodore White for the digital age” and tells the NYT that “an impetus here is to encourage people to think of book publishers in a more periodical way.” Politico editor-in-chief John Harris adds in […]
Briefs: Pottermore Details Leaked; BN eBook Market Share; Indies Charging For Events, Again; And More
The Times UK claims they received an “official marketing memo” by mistake with details about JK Rowling’s Pottermore website, which officially launches Thursday at 7 AM EDT at an event at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. According to the story, Pottermore is “a sophisticated online game that contains clues to prizes that are hidden in the real world. These are an unstated number of magic wands secreted in Britain and America, and possibly other countries.” The Times notes it’s still not clear whether the treasure hunt is Pottermore itself, or a marketing ploy, or if the “leak” is […]
Rep. Michele Bachmann Said to Have Book Deal With Sentinel
The NYT says that Republican presidential candidate and Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann will publish her memoir through Penguin’s Sentinel, according to “two people familiar with the negotiations.” Sentinel’s Will Weisser said “we have nothing to announce at this time, adding “we did have a wonderful meeting with her.” Politico writes that Bachmann, who is represented by agent Alex Hoyt, was swayed by Penguin CEO David Shanks. As “a Republican and an observant Catholic — both rarities in New York’s publishing world — Shanks convinced Bachmann that, as a conservative himself, he’d be the right man to handle her book and […]
BEA Shorts: New Kobo Touchscreen Reader; New Twilight Graphic Novel for October
As Borders ceo Mike Edwards recently leaked in part, Monday morning at BEA the Kobo executive team announced their new ereader — a $129.99 model with an eInk Pearl screen—which raises the bar for tomorrow’s announced features and price point for Barnes & Noble’s expected touchscreen ereader. Kobo will have the new model on display starting tomorrow at their BEA booth, and visitors to Borders’ Columbus Square location can test it out between noon and 2 PM Tuesday. Kobo says the new model will ship in early June, though Borders’ release says it won’t ship until July. Kobo’s wi-fi model will […]
Michael Crichton’s Last Book, Finished By Robert Preston, Set for November
When Michael Crichton died in November 2008 he was working on another thriller. At the time, Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham told us that he left behind approximately 90 manuscript pages of a novel-in-progress, along with detailed notes for the rest of the book. The following spring an assistant discovered a different, completed Crichton manuscript that was published later that year as PIRATE LATITUDES. Now HarperCollins has announced publication this fall for the completed version of that manuscript Crichton was working on before he died. Completed by Richard Preston, it will be published as MICRO, about a biotech company in Hawaii […]