Malcolm Jones at Newsweek picks 10 summer reads: Nothing Daunted, by Dorothy Wickenden The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, by Mark Seal State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett Carte Blanche, by Jeffery Deaver In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson Bloodmoney, by David Ignatius Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, by Alexandra Fuller Once Upon a River, by Bonnie Jo Campbell Tigerlily’s Orchids, by Ruth Rendell The President and the Assassin, by Scott Miller New York Magazine picked the hottest fiction galleys from BEA (not all of which were actually available as galleys): The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey […]
UK Site Tries to Combine Kickstarter and Byliner Models
At the Hay literary festival over the weekend, writer Justin Pollard, publishing veteran John Mitchinson and Crap Towns author Dan Kieran launched Unbound.co.uk, a site that aims to serve as a mash-up of Kickstarter and Byliner for books. The Kickstarter part is a fan-sourced funding mechanism that solicits pledges to finance proposed, with a roster of benefits for contributions form £10 up to £250 (or the opportunity to bankroll an entire project). The Byliner part is that, once financed, the site also serves as the publishing platform–like it or not, as far as we can tell, and takes 50 percent […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Emma Donoghue and Michael Winter are among the nominees for Canada’s Trillium Book Awards, whose winners will be announced on June 17. National Post Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor reported receiving an advance of $1.175 million from Knopf for her forthcoming memoir last year, according to financial disclosure forms. Newspapers report the sum as if it is the entire advance, but our readers will know it likely represents only a third or a fourth of the total advance to be paid over time. A $1 million advance is what the NY Post is reporting Jennifer Hudson and agent Mel Berger […]
Bookselling: The Travel Bookshop For Sale; Fire At Ben Franklin Bookstore; and More
The Written Word will open in Brush, CO in August in a 1500-square foot space, with owner Marlene Gippin focused on bringing a “community-based and affordable” store to the town. Fort Morgan Times A fire broke out on May 27 at Ben Franklin Bookstore in Salem, Mass., causing severe damage to the store and to its inventory of books and killing one of two cats known to be in the building (the other was still missing.) The bookstore announced earlier this year it was going out of business. Worcester Star-Telegram The Travel Bookshop in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood is for […]
REDGroup Fails to Reach Deal With Creditors, Will Stop Taking Stock on June 1
The bankruptcy saga of REDGroup Retail appears to be in its closing stages thanks to a number of developments over the weekend. Administrators Ferrier Hodgson failed to reach an agreement with creditors on a reorganization plan, laid off an additional 34 employees at REDGroup’s Melbourne headquarters, and on Monday informed suppliers that the company’s remaining stores in Australia would not accept stock after June 1, with any orders made on books not yet delivered should be cancelled. In a letter to landlords and suppliers, REDGroup’s administrators said they had hoped to find a way to keep the remaining 9 Borders […]
BEA Attendance Nearly Flat
BEA has released preliminary attendance figures for this year’s show. The total was 21,664 people, almost even with last year’s final tally of 21,919 people. The falloff was slightly higher among “attendees” (as distinguished from exhibitors), who numbered 13,028–a decline of 6 percent, or 844 people, from a year ago. The organizers say over 500 fewer authors were enrolled as attendees, accounting for much of that decline. But overall, Reed’s business at Javits grew with the inclusion of BlogWorld attendees, giving them a total of 23,067 people in the building. Show director Steve Rosato writes on his blog that “the […]