Random House Publishing Group executive director of publicity & public relations Carol Schneider will retire from the company at the end of November. President and publisher Gina Centrello writes that “her decision will bring to a close one of the most remarkable and accomplished careers, as a publicist, publicity director, and corporate spokeswoman, in our company, as well as in our industry. In 32 years, from typewriters to tweets, Carol has been a publicity trailblazer for the Random House Group imprints.” Barnes & Noble evp for digital education Tracey Weber, who started in April, is leaving the bookseller to run […]
Amazon to Borrow Nook’s Lending Feature; Company Discloses $269 Million Sales Tax Bill from Texas, and a Patent Lawsuit
On Friday Amazon announced on their Kindle forums that “later this year” they will borrow Nook’s “Lend Me” feature and make ebooks available for limited lending, using the same basic rule set: “Each book can be lent once for a loan period of 14-days and the lender cannot read the book during the loan period. Additionally, not all e-books will be lendable – this is solely up to the publisher or rights holder, who determines which titles are enabled for lending.” Everyone’s having lots of fun citing Jeff Bezos’s remarks on Nook’s Lend Me feature to Deborah Solomon in the […]
Nook Accidentally Reveals Accessory for Color Reader; Launches Nook Kids with Features that Would Work Great On a Color Touchscreen
Now for equal time for Nook. Expectations that the company will introduce a touchscreen color model of Nook rose with CNet’s discovery over the weekend of a rogue product page on Barnes & Noble’s web site of a “Nook Color Screen Film Kit” accessory. (The page was subsequently taken down.) Nook did launch a NookKids.com where they preview ebook versions of picture books that have a read-aloud feature built in–just the kind of material that would make sense on a color ereader (as well as via apps, of course). The WSJ says they will have about 100 picture books available […]
People, Etc.
Following last week’s intense gossip among agents that former Simon & Schuster publisher David Rosenthal has been negotiating to set up an imprint at Penguin, Crain’s ran a short item memorializing the rumor. The parties are not commenting.Crain’s At the Simon & Schuster imprint, Michael Szczerban has been promoted to associate editor. Former President George Bush will appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show on November 9, the release date for his book DECISION POINTS. Steven Spielberg is going to direct the film version of Daniel H. Wilson’s forthcoming novel ROBOPOCALYPSE, with photography scheduled to begin in January 2012 for theatrical […]
Pearson Raises Earnings Guidance, But Beware the Press Coverage
The good news is that Pearson issued a brief third-quarter trading update (with no actual sales or profit figures) in which they raised their profit expectations for the full year. The funny part is the way that reputable news organizations (like the BBC and the Telegraph), suffering from ebook fever, come to the erroneous conclusion that “Pearson said that surging demand for e-books had helped drive a better-than-expected performance.” (They are fooled in part by the stock line that Penguin ebook sales increased threefold, which was also the case at the six-month mark–and this time a year ago ebook sales […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, October 25
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Anna Funder’s ALL THAT I AM, about German refugees from Hitler’s […]