Barnes & Noble has closed down its how-to site Quamut, designed to provide simple instructional pieces on a variety of subjects using a mix of user-produced wikis and professionally produced guides. Despite the change (and the message that greets those who try to access the Quamut.com site), B&N continues to run in-house ads for the site on its online store.CNET
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Reader's Digest Will File for Chapter 11; Owner Ripplewood's Stake to be Wiped Out
The publisher of Reader’s Digest magazine said Monday it will file for bankruptcy protection in what they term a “pre-arranged” bankruptcy. Under the plan, the WSJ report, Reader’s Digest Association will cut its debt to about $550 million from $2.2 billion. An investment group led by private-equity firm Ripplewood Holdings, which bought the 87-year-old magazine in 2007 for $1.6 billion, will see its investment wiped out, and lenders led by JP Morgan & co., will take control of the company. The operations outside the U.S., which generate a majority of the company’s revenue, aren’t part of the proposed bankruptcy filing.WSJ
Book Tour Experimentation: Margaret Atwood's Road Show, Twitter Book Tours
Margaret Atwood may have promoted previous books remotely via the LongPen, but for her upcoming novel THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD she’ll be a little more ever-present. The Toronto Star reports Atwood will tour the U.S., Europe and Canada “using a live performance with original music, local actors and the author herself as narrator.” Toronto Star Atwood is also starting a tour blog and using Twitter, as is Joseph Finder, who launches a Twitter Book Tour today for his new thriller VANISHED, running for the next three days. Finder website And Simon & Schuster’s worldwide publication of Philippa Gregory’s THE […]
The Dan Brown Media Extravaganza Begins
We’re less than a month away from the publication date of THE LOST SYMBOL and that means the onslaught of quasi-meaningful articles attempting to analyze Dan Brown as a cultural phenomenon is well under way. The Guardian wonders if the simultaneous ebook release will “spell the end of the printed word,” though evidence is limited to a few people’s speculations: “The ebook is very quickly becoming a publishing reality and The Lost Symbol will be one of the fastest-selling books of recent times,” said Joel Rickett, editorial director of Viking UK. “Once people can flip between books, look up references […]
Cengage Learning will Rent College Textbooks Directly to Students
Cengage Learning announced Thursday that it would start renting books to students this year, at 40 percent to 70 percent of the suggested retail price. The NYT reports that students using Cengage’s rental option “will get immediate access to the first chapter of the book electronically, in e-book format, and will have a choice of shipping options for the printed book.” Once the rental term (60, 90 or 130 days) expires, students have the option to buy the textbook or return it. Several hundred titles will be offered initially in December, with more to follow next July. “The Internet has […]
Judge Clears Hachette But Will Let Suit Against Rita Cosby's Book Go to Jury
Judge Denny Chin (co-star of the Google Books Settlement case) ruled that lawyer Howard K. Stern’s $60 million suit against Rita Cosby for her book about the death of Anna Nicole Smith, BLONDE AMBITION, can proceed to a jury trial. Chin wrote, “printing a claim that [Larry] Birkhead and Stern had sex would be a way to make it to the top of the bestseller list, and a reasonable jury could find that Cosby ignored the inherently improbable nature of the statement in her zeal to write a blockbuster book.” The judge also found that some statements “are so inherently […]