David Rosenthal‘s new imprint at Penguin, launching in November, will be called Blue Rider Press. The release informs us: “The Blue Rider, or in German, Der Blaue Reiter, was an iconoclastic movement in music and painting now seen as a driving force of modern art. Established in Munich, Germany in 1911, The Blue Rider was a loose association of painters determined to promote individual expression and break free of any conventional artistic restraints.” Among the newly-announced authors for the line are Senator George McGovern’s What It Means To Be A Democrat and a parody, Goodnight iPad, for this fall, and New York […]
James Frey and Oprah Winfrey Make Amends
Oprah Winfrey is going to stretch two days out of setting her conscience to rest on James Frey before her show goes off the air. Though the conversation was lengthy in Monday’s first installment, together they cover already plowed ground. Frey told Oprah in early 2006 “I think I made a lot of mistakes in writing the book and promoting book” and that remains his theme: “I wrote a book and I published it as something that it wasn’t and I was dishonest in promoting the book,” he said on today’s episode. There is still some of the classic Frey […]
Hastings Will Start Selling E-Books as Q1 Earnings Slide
Hastings Entertainment reported a drop in net income for its first quarter, down to $400,000 (or 5 cents per share) compared to $1 million (or 11 cents per share) a year ago. Total sales declined by 3.8 percent, to $124.1 million. Overall book comps decreased 9.1 percent for the quarter; new book sales fell 8.6 percent in the period, used books sales declined 19.6 percent, and value books gained by 8.7 percent. Publishers are blamed for a “weaker slate of new book releases.” The retailer says there was a 22 percent drop in “titles for which we purchase more than 1,000 copies.” […]
Technology and Treats (Part One: Appiness)
Last year we happily experimented with creating web apps to organize and inform the BEA experience, and now we are back with new and improved versions. Two new features come directly from user feedback: 1. The iOS and Android versions use some HTML 5 magic to work offline as well as online. That means that when the mysterious Javits Center electromagnetic force field renders you unable to connect to either a cell tower or wifi at 21st-century speeds, the Publishers Lunch BEA to Go app will still let you search the events schedule and exhibitor directory. Just make sure that […]
Technology and Treats (Part Two: Bloginess)
We’re also unveiling another months-in-the-making upgrade to PublishersMarketplace.com and Publishers Lunch today. The Publishers Lunch news page and archive has left behind the 10-year-old platform we’ve been working with and moved to WordPress, with a new design and a number of new features. For now the change in your daily mail is simple: click any headline and it will take you to the site-based permalink, where we welcome your comments. Also, readers are so accustomed to getting Lunch by e-mail that they often didn’t know how to find the story links to share via blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. In the […]
Technology and Treats (Part Three)
The updated Publishers Lunch Deluxe and the improved BEA apps are our biggest technology launches since the quiet introduction of Nielsen Publishers Marketplace BookScan at the end of last year, which gives agents access to unlimited use of Nielsen BookScan’s “industry standard” sales data (and comprehensive bestseller lists) right through the familiar and intuitive PM interface. We are now allowed to consider applications for service from other industry professionals as well. Visit this page for more info and to apply. On the digital front, we’re continuing to enroll a wonderfully diverse group for our Publishers Launch Conference at BEA: eBooks […]