Idlewild Books, the four-year-old travel guide and literature store that opened on 18th Street in Manhattan, has now added a second location (in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood) which will concentrate on foreign-language books, and specifically literature in French, Spanish, and Italian. “We love the neighborhood–with its strong Italian roots and growing reputation as New York’s Little France–and our neighbors have already made us feel welcome,” the store wrote in an e-mail to customers. 25 full-time employees and 4 part-timers were laid off from the Brigham Young University Bookstore on Friday. “As with bookstores across the country, in recent years, the […]
NBC News Forms Digital Publishing Unit
In an indication of the extent to which digital publishing can empower new entrants from other parts of the media world, NBC News announced today that it is forming NBC Publishing. Based in New York, the unit is run by general manager Michael Fabiano, and they have hired Brian Perrin (who was at Rodale) as director of digital development, and Peter Costanzo (who was at F+W Media) as creative director. Fabiano reports to svp of NBC News Cheryl Gould, who is the “executive in charge” of NBC Publishing. She says in the announcement “this business enables NBC to use video, […]
People, Etc.
Laurie Chittenden has joined Hyperion an editor-at-large, where she will will focus on acquiring a mix of commercial nonfiction and fiction book projects. She spent the past five years at William Morrow as executive editor, and returns to the publishing house where she began her career in 1993. Steve Kasdin has joined Curtis Brown as director of digital strategy, to “supervise their e-book program” and help “coordinate their dealings with publishers and etailers.” Kasdin was at Amazon on the Kindle team before relocating back to the East Coast. Meanwhile, the Jean Naggar Literary Agency has posted an open invitation to […]
Awards: Newbery and Caldecott Winners; NBCC Award Nominees; and More
The ALA presented their many Youth Media Awards this morning on the closing day of their winter meeting in Denver. (Thanks to the organizers for the live webcast of this year’s presentation.) The Newbery medal went to DEAD END IN NORVELT, by Jack Gantos (FSG); the Caldecott went to A BALL FOR DAISY, illustrated and written by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade). Among other honorees, John Corey Whaley won the YA Michael L. Printz Award for WHERE THINGS COME BACK (Atheneum) and Susan Cooper won the Margaret A. Edwards Award for “significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.” For the complete list of medalists […]
Some Things iBooks Author Is, and Isn’t
After Thursday’s morning press conference, Apple published some online documentation that cleared up at least a few details regarding their new iBooks Author software. Once books are created, they can be offered for sale in the iBookstore (under its standard revenue split) or given away there for free. All books must be no larger than 2 GB (and the software can easily create very large files). Creators can also turn iBooks Author files into PDFs or iBooks documents that they can distribute independently–but only for free. Apple requires that if the ebooks are to be sold, “you must do so […]
RCS Entertaining Offers For Flammarion Sale
Italian publishing giant RCS, which owns Rizzoli and Corriere della Serra, has confirmed what a number of stories out of Europe had been reporting for the past few days: they are exploring the possibility of selling off Flammarion in France, which it has owned since 2000. RCS said Friday in a statement obtained by Bloomberg that there will be a preliminary review of any expression of interest “in relation to assets not straightly included in the core business, comprising Flammarion, and non-core assets.” Earlier this week EconomiaWeb reported that Gallimard expressed an interest in buying Flammarion, with RCS seeking at […]