Walter Isaacson has a short essay at Time.com about the genesis of his Steve Jobs biography. Key portions are at this open link at Poynter. Jobs called Isaacson in the summer of 2004 to arrange a meeting in Aspen: “It turned out that he wanted me to write a biography of him…. Because I assumed that he was still in the middle of an oscillating career that had many more ups and downs left, I demurred. Not now, I said. Maybe in a decade or two, when you retire. But I later realized that he had called me just before […]
Knox Activity
Amanda Knox’s grandmother Elisabeth Huff tells the Telegraph that approaches for book representation and deals began almost immediately: “I had an insane man come to me yesterday to talk to me about book deals. What an insane idea. That is totally crazy, the girl was not even home yet, we didn’t know if she was even going to get out of there. It was after the verdict. He knocked on the door and wanted to discuss book deals and media deals.” For her part, she believes it would be “a good idea” to share some of any potential profit with […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Editor-in-Chief of School Library Journal and publishing group editorial director for Library Journals LLC Brian Kenney is leaving to become director of the White Plains Public Library in New York. The Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony will honor Elie Wiesel with the Norman Mailer Lifetime Achievement Prize. Their biography award is going to Keith Richards to be presented by President Bill Clinton, and their prize for distinguished writing is going to Arundhati Roy. Add to the list of works by Nobel winner Tomas Transtromer published in the US his The Sorrow Gondola, issued last year by Green Integer (which is distributed by Consortium). They are reprinting […]
Levy Home Entertainment Is Sold
Levy Home Entertainment chair Barbara Levy Kipper and vice chair Jim Levy are retiring from the company and LHE has been sold to an entity run by former Chas. Levy Circulating president and coo Dennis Abboud. He left Levy in 2000 to found Infinity Resources, a marketing and service company he continues to run as ceo. PW says the company will be rebranded within six to nine month as Readerlink Distribution Services. Abbound says in a statement they “will strive to become the ‘reader link’– the essential link between our publishers, our retail partners and their customers. Our new strategy […]
Google eBooks Launch in the UK; Weltbild Adds German Readers
We’re glad we won’t have to spend the early days of the Frankfurt Book Fair wondering when Google will launch their long-expected UK ebookstore: it is live now. It looks just like the US version, except when visited from US IP addresses you mostly see blank carousels, so there is not a lot to check out. (We infer the store is IP restricted, since UK visitors report seeing a regular store display.) Strategic partner development manager Jason Hanley told The Bookseller, which has the first story on the store, that the Australian and Canadian versions will launch “soon.” As announced […]
S&S Moves Up Isaacson’s Steve Jobs Bio to October 24
Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, 56, died Wednesday evening from complications of pancreatic cancer. “We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” the company said in a brief statement. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.” Soon after the news was released, Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of Jobs – whose publication date had already been pushed up to November 21 – went to No. 1 on Amazon and No. 3 on BN.com. Thursday morning Simon […]