* Originally scheduled for publication in May, a spokesperson at Spiegel & Grau tells Quill & Quire that Sara Gruen’s much-anticipated novel APE HOUSE won’t be ready until late 2009 or early 2010. * As threatened, Source Interlink filed suit in a Manhattan US District Court against American Media, Bauer Publishing, Curtis Circulation, Distribution Services, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Hudson News, Kable Distribution Services, the News Group, Time Inc and Time/Warner Retail Sales & Marketing, asking for what Reuters calls “emergency court intervention to stop the defendants from monopolizing the wholesale magazine distribution market.” They allege the “goal is to […]
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New Child Safety Regulations Postponed for a Year
On Friday the Consumer Product Safety Commission approved a one-year stay of enforcement of the newly added certification and testing requirements for manufacturer and importers of products for children. They note: “The stay of enforcement provides some temporary, limited relief to the crafters, children’s garment manufacturers and toy makers who had been subject to the testing and certification required under the CPSIA. These businesses will not need to issue certificates based on testing of their products until additional decisions are issued by the Commission.” Among the new regulations to which the stay does not apply are the ban on small […]
Layoffs Hit Big University Presses
Cambridge University Press is laying off almost 160 people in the UK. Chief executive Stephen Bourne says: “We know that this is an incredibly difficult time for those staff that are affected and we will be doing all we can to support them through these changes.” He added, “This has been a very hard decision to make. There are parts of the business doing very well and a lot of them are overseas but two parts are not and one is simply not viable in the long term.” Hardest hit is their Cambridge Printing Services unit, where 133 jobs are […]
Neale Donald Walsch Admits Lifting Essay, Withdraws Blog
Author of the best-selling series Conversations with God Neale Donald Walsch notes in a blog post that a Christmas essay he posted on Beliefnet.com was in fact the almost verbatim work of Candy Shand. Her ten-year-old article had been widely circulated electronically, reprinted in Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul and then formed the basis of an illustrated gift book, CHRISTMAS LOVE, published last summer by Gibbs Smith. Walsch says the essay had been “in my computer file for at least seven years” and “was written in the first person, describing an experience that occurred with my son 20 […]
Lerner Pulls Angel Girl
Lerner Publishing Group, also duped into publishing Herman Rosenblat’s fake Holocaust love story in the children’s book ANGEL GIRL (released this September), is recalling the book. The company is “issuing refunds on all returned books” and “no longer offering the book for sale.” They say in a statement they were “shocked and disappointed to learn that the widely publicized” story was fabricated. Author Laurie Friedman, who had interviewed the Rosenblats to retell their story for children, says “throughout the development of this book, the Rosenblats reviewed my manuscript and assured me of the authenticity of the details of their story. […]
Berkley Cancels Holocaust Memoir as Author Confesses
On the quietest Saturday of the year, Berkley cancelled publication of Herman Rosenblat’s ANGEL AT THE FENCE: The True Story of a Love That Survived, scheduled for release in February. In a short statement the publisher, which initially defended the book following a long piece in The New Republic, said the cancellation came “after receiving new information from Rosenblatt’s agent, Andrea Hurst.” They also said that they “will demand that the author and the agent return all money that they have received for this work.” (The NYT said later that it was sold “for less than $50,000.) In a statement […]