A packed crowd (helped, no doubt, by the drink-ticketed cocktails on tap for the first hour) turned out at the Sheraton Towers ballroom for Digital Book World’s opening ceremonies & reception. After brief remarks from F+W ceo David Nussbaum and a short speech from Harper Collins president of sales Josh Marwell on behalf of the Goddard Riverside Community Center, F+W president David Blansfield hosted DBW’s first ever Publishing Innovation Awards: Fiction: DRACULA: The Official Stoker Family Edition (PadWorx Digital Media) Non-Fiction: Logos Bible Software (Logos Bible Software, Inc.) Children’s: A Story Before Bed (Jackson Fish Market) Reference: Star Walk for […]
News
With Sale of Day by Day Kiosks to Calendar Club, Borders Raises Some Cash
It remains to be seen whether publishers will accept Borders’ proposed plans for renegotiating credit arrangements by the reported February 1 deadline, but the retailer will get at least some cash from the sale of its seasonal calendar kiosk service, Day By Day Calendars, to competitor Calendar Club LLC. The purchase, under negotiation for some time, closed last Wednesday and was announced to Borders staff on Friday by CEO Mike Edwards. In a telephone interview, Calendar Club CEO Marc Winkelman said the deal has been in the works since the fall, when Borders approached Calendar Club along with other prospective […]
People, Etc.
Lynne Missen will join Penguin Canada as publishing director of children’s books on January 31. She has been executive editor at Harper Canada Children’s. Pamela Paul has been named children’s book editor for the New York Times Book Review, starting today. She is a journalist and book critic, the author of three nonfiction books, and is a columnist for the NYT‘s Style section. Her new position with the NYTBR is part-time. Pamela Clements has joined the United Methodist Publishing House as associate publisher for Abingdon Press’s Christian fiction program, and a new Christian Living line that debut in the spring of 2012, […]
The UK Reckons with More Trouble at HMV/Waterstone’s and British Bookshops
HMV announced earlier this week that it may face difficulties meeting its credit covenants, which come due in April, and the company enlisted KPMG to help renegotiate terms. Separately, the Guardian reported that at least one credit insurance company removed their coverage a week ago for all goods supplied to HMV. Analysts reignited the facile running five-year-speculation on whether Waterstone’s will be put for sale, even though it doesn’t really fix anything . Disposing of the bookstore chain “would let [HMV] clear the decks to play another day,” analyst Nick Bubb told Bloomberg. “The danger is, they don’t sell Waterstone’s, […]
People, Announcements, Etc.: Investment Answer Author Dies; RH Launches Online Book Club Videos
Gordon Murray, who attracted attention recently for self-publishing success with THE INVESTMENT ANSWER, a short book of investment advice he co-authored when he learned he had terminal brain cancer, died on Saturday. The 60-year-old suffered from glioblastoma. The book will be republished by Business Plus on January 25. Random House is working with Pulpwood Queens Book Club founder and author Kathy Patrick to start an online book club featuring interviews with RH authors. The first season has 12 episodes planned, featuring authors including Pat Conroy, Fannie Flagg, Lisa See, and Susan Vreeland. A new episode will be posted weekly at […]
Knopf Clarifies Lawrence Wright’s Upcoming Scientology Book
Numerous media reports have created a wave of confusion over author Lawrence Wright’s work-in-progress on the Church of Scientology and director and high-profile Scientology defector Paul Haggis. In a telephone interview on Friday, Wright’s longtime editor at Knopf, Ann Close, clarified several key points. Knopf purchased North American rights to the book from agent Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency in early October, prior to Frankfurt. But that sale was too late to be included in the agency’s Frankfurt catalog–which was the source for a Gawker post earlier this month, which claimed the book proposal was still being shopped, and […]