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* Amazon and Penguin have selected the 100 semifinalists in the second Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Now Penguin editors get to browse those manuscripts and select three finalists, to be named May 15. * For those who remain self-publishing, trade publishing veteran Karen Mender and longtime book publicist Diane Mancher at One Potata Productions are launching a Self-Published Book Expo, a one-day show in New York on November 7. It will highlight service companies along with individual titles, and offer advice on marketing and publicity. * Media veteran Thembisa S. Mshaka’s PUT YOUR DREAMS FIRST: Handle Your [entertainment] Business, […]

First noted last night in brief Twitter reports, Reed Business Information group publisher for the publishing magazines Ron Shank confirms that his publications are “included in the larger RBI action of reducing staff today.” Calling it “stressful and unfortunate,” Shank says “we are losing three staff editors, all of whom have made valuable contributions to the business over many years. Their duties will be assumed by existing staff and we will not cut market coverage in any category.” He notes, “We continue to find new business and partnerships with many clients, but also see measured belt-tightening by advertisers and delays […]

Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener said yesterday the company is fixing the “glitch” that removed the sales ranking from what they now say was 57,310 books worldwide. Without explaining the error itself (or the provocative customer service e-mail) any further, Herdener admitted, “This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.” He says that affected books were in “broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also […]

The Yale Daily News says that press YUP director Jon Donatich reports sales over the past year have been down 7 to 8 percent. “Our books are working,” Donatich said. “But the marketplace is very soft.” They are looking at shorter print runs and “an expanded digital platform.” The AAUP confirms that 62 university presses surveyed reported an average drop in sales of 10 percent over the second half of 2008. Director of the University of Pennsylvania Press Eric Halpern confirms their sales are down about 10 percent, too.YDN In related news, nearly half of the 120 print jobs proposed […]

Bill Clinton at the end of his 45-minute talk at the AAP annual meeting returned to the primacy of books: “We need them for persepctive; facts are not enough…. You ought to feel that you are in a noble profession. You ought to pollute it as a little as you can and make some money…. I don’t care what will happen with technology, we’ll all still need to read.”

The 39th annual meeting of the Association of American Publishers began in New York city this morning before about 150 industry executives with an appreciative farewell to outgoing president Pat Schroeder, the late addition to the program of a brief address on education from former US president Bill Clinton, and an interview between AAP chairman Richard Sarnoff and Google svp for corporate development and chief legal officer David Drummond who noted, with at least an element of seriousness, “I was scheduled to be at this meeting last year” to discuss the settlement of publishers’ lawsuits. Reflecting on the busy year […]