Following initial teasers in the Drudge Report, former President George Bush’s memoir is showing up on news desks. The NY Times says Bush writes that he considered dropping Dick Cheney from the ticket in 2004 in favor of Senator Bill Frist as “one way to demonstrate that I was in charge.” The funny part is that it was Cheney’s idea. They note the book indicates “Cheney clearly pushed Mr. Bush toward war” in Iraq. Cheney asked in 2002, “Are you going to take care of this guy, or not?” He does give “a more expansive self-critique than he did while […]
eBooks Come to Australia
The Australian version of the iBookstore has gone from a display mechanism for public domain works to a genuine ebookstore five months after the iPad launched there. Macmillan Australia, Hachette Book Group Australia, Harper Australia, Wiley Australia, Hardie Grant and Murdoch Books all say their books are now on-sale in the store. Meanwhile, the Austrlian Publishers Association says they are fielding multiple complaints from other publishers who are frustrated about the process of engaging Apple in making deals. But Macmillan’s head of digital Victoria Nash says they only “received confirmation from Apple of the launch 10 days ago.” Separately, dominant […]
As In the US, Ian Fleming Novels Are Issued As eBooks Directly from the Estate
In the UK, Ian Fleming Publications is launching 14 backlist James Bond novels as ebooks, which they are publishing directly rather than with their print partners at Penguin UK. In this case, there was no dispute about the rights: the books were signed before electronic rights were contemplated. While it’s getting a lot of coverage in the UK media, IFP did the same thing in the US in 2008. here their ebooks are sold through Amazon and the Sony estore only. Managing director of Ian Fleming Publiciations Corinne Turner says, “We are not taking on the publishers, we are just […]
More on eBooks and Territory
Diesel eBookstore celebrates the restoration of the final agency model publisher to their store with a look at agency six months later. Writing that “the A5 performed an impressive near-checkmate on the eBook chessboard,” they look at the pros and cons of operating in a partial-agency world. Among the weak points–related to the two stories above–are limitations to selling agency ebooks exclusively in the US: “Without exception, all A5 publishers now offer their eBook titles in the US only. Needless to say, our foreign customers are very upset. We, here at Diesel, have been very vocal with our A5 publishing […]
People, Imprints, Awards, Etc.
Lindsay Sagnette will join Crown as senior editor, acquiring hardcover fiction, reporting to Molly Stern and starting November 15. She was most recently an editor at St. Martin’s, following stints at Riverhead and Grove/Atlantic. Jeanette Perez is being promoted to senior editor at Harper One, acquiring primarily non-fiction in the areas of personal growth, health, lifestyle, and memoir. Kristin Daly Rens has been promoted to senior editor at Harper Children’s imprint Balzer & Bray. Atria is launching an imprint in conjunction with music label Cash Money Records, which issues records from Lil Wayne and others. Publishing under Cash Money Content, […]
Harlequin Continues Pattern: Sales Slide, As Profits Stay Strong
Harlequin parent company Torstar reported that book publishing had “stable results” in their third quarter. Following their recent pattern, sales fell slightly, down $5 million at $117.5 milion (CA) as operating profit for the segment rose $100,000 to $23 million, the seventh consecutive quarter of earnings growth.Release