Leigh Haber will work for Chronicle Books as an editor-at-large, acquiring and developing at least five books a year and focusing on wellness topics–spiritual, emotional, physical, personal and social–for the publisher’s lifestyle category. Haber will remain based in New Jersey. She is currently a consultant for companies including Blurb, and most recently was executive editor at Rodale. At Grand Central Publishing, Sara Weiss has been promoted to assistant editor. Susan Driscoll will become president and ceo of Wolters Kluwer Health, succeeding Gordon Macomber. In agency news, the Irene Skolnick Literary Agency will work with Lippincott Massie McQuilkin to sell and […]
AAP and BISG Will Finally Join Forces In Search of Improved Industry Stats
After years of compiling separate but equally incomplete publishing industry statistics, the AAP and Book Industry Study Group (BISG) have finally found common ground and will pool their resources in the future. Their goal is “to develop a new data model to track book publishing industry statistics and to dramatically improve our capacity to estimate the size of market sectors and theindustry as a whole.” Over the next few months the two organizations will interview and survey their members and other interested parties to refine their plan. Management Practices, Inc. which has collected data for the AAP for years, will […]
A Wimpy Holiday On the Way
Abrams’ Amulet imprint has announced the fifth volume of Jeff Kinney’s bestselling Wimpy Kid series for a November 9 national laydown. The title won’t be revealed until July, but they have confirmed purple as the color of the new book’s cover. Kinney will sign in the Abrams booth at 11 on Thursday at BEA, and they are giving away wimpy water bottles and bookmarks. Kinney says the new book “is about change and the different ways Greg and his best friend, Rowley, deal with it. To me, this book is the lynchpin in the series, and I’m excited to be […]
eNews from the Publishers: Ballantine and Harlequin Try Digital Shorts that Connect to Longer Works; Sesame Street eBookstore Opens with Subscription plan
Ballantine will publish a 6,000-word digital short story from Steve Berry in September for $1.99 that bridges to his November 23 book release THE EMPEROR’S TOMB. The WSJ calls it “a literary appetizer, inexpensive enough to attract potential readers who might otherwise not be willing to buy a new novel from an author whose works they haven’t yet read.” Matt Schwartz at Random House says, “realistically, it would be hard to get something like this in print. But the e-book format is very flexible. What this does is offer an affordable entry point into Steve’s world.” In the press release, […]
From the eVendors: Libre Raises Another $8.1 Mil; Overdrive Debuts Consolidated Apps; Self-Publishing from BookMasters; Follett Integrates Moodle with CafeScribe
LibreDigital announced another round of financing, raising $8.1 million in a round led by new investor S3 Ventures, with participation from existing investors Adams Capital Management and Triangle Peak Partners. Libre has been in search of the right application of their technology for over ten years (when they started as Newsstand to provide digital copies of newspapers) and now they are riding the ramp up in the ebook market. CEO Russell Reeder says the funding “will be used to accelerate the delivery of e-books, and expand our technology offerings to include new solutions that help publishers better promote and sell […]
People, Etc.
Liz Johnson is joining Thomas Nelson as the marketing specialist for the Max Lucado branding team. She worked in publicity for WaterBrook Multnomah for four years. NBN has taken over sales, marketing and distribution for city travel guide publisher Not For Tourists. They had been distributed by Langenscheidt.