Boston Globe books editor for the past seven years Jim Concannon is leaving the paper to work as news editor at Harvard’s public affairs office.Phoenix In the UK, publishing director at Chatto & Windus for the past 12 years Alison Samuel announced that she will retire at the end of the year. Editorial director Clara Farmer will move up to publishing director in January. Samuel says in the announcement: “I wanted to go out on a high. How could I possibly better the last 18 months in which Rose Tremain won the Orange Prize, Alice Munro was awarded the Man […]
Over 2 Million Units for Dan Brown, and More Numbers from Publishing's Big Week
Yesterday Random House announced sales of “more than two million” units of Dan Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL in all editions (including audio and ebook) throughout the world in the first week on sale, through Monday. They call it “the biggest one-week sale in Random House history for a single title.” Per yesterday’s Lunch, Nielsen BookScan UK reports through The Bookseller that over a quarter of those units–at least 551,000 copies–were sold in the UK. Doubleday’s Suzanne Herz indicated to the AP that “around 5 percent, or 100,000 copies” were sold as ebooks, and the WSJ confirms that sales within the […]
Best Buy Will Sell eReaders, Including New iRex, Chainwide
IRex is providing additional details about their marketing of their new digital reader in the US this fall–which will be sold through Best Buy, where the NYT reports that the chain “is training thousands of its employees in how to talk about and demonstrate devices like the Sony Reader and iRex, and adding a new area to its 1,048 stores to showcase the devices.” Up until now, the retailer has sold ereaders online and only “in limited tests in stores.” Best Buy scp for entertainment says “we feel that this is a technology that is beginning to emerge and that […]
People: Coyne's New Agency, and More
Former Endeavor agent (and Rugged Land publisher before that) Shawn Coyne has established his own firm, Genre Management, “a boutique agency with a select number of clients.” Coyne says that all of his signed clients from the former Endeavor have followed him to his new agency, including golf commentator and personality David Feherty, and his new clients include Alexis Stewart and her partner Jennifer Hutt Koppelman (for a humorous women’s advice books), and Valerie Mendes (director Sam Mendes’ mother and acclaimed YA Novelist in the UK doing her first adult novel). Today’s deals at PM also record his sale of […]
Google Settlement Parties Request Postponement of Hearing to File Amended Deal
Authors Guild and the AAP, with no opposition from Google, have asked Judge Denny Chin to postpone the hearing scheduled for October 7 “so that the parties can (a) amend the Settlement Agreement and (b) seek approval of an amended settlement agreement.” They have asked the Judge for a “status conference” on November 6 instead, to “discuss the parties’ progress.” They confirm what was indicated in the Justice Department’s filing last Friday, saying “it is because the parties wish to work with the DOJ to the fullest extent possible…in negotiations in an effort to address and resolve the concerns expressed” […]
Oddsmakers Favor Amos Oz for Nobel
The betting has begun on this year’s selection for the Literature prize (though bear in mind that bookie’s favorites rarely prevail). Ladbroke’s has Oz at 4/1; Algerian novelist Assia Djebar at 5/1; Juan Goytisolo at 6/1; Joyce Carol Oates and Philip Roth at 7/1; Syrian poet Adonis at 8/1; and Thomas PynchonItalian scholar Claudio Magris, Italian novelist Antonio Tabucchi and Haruki Murakami all at 9/1.Guardian