Penguin Withdraws from eMusic Penguin’s “very senior management” has overruled Penguin Audio’s limited experiment with unprotected MP3 digital audiobooks as part of eMusic.com’s recently launched initiative and the company is withdrawing their files. But it appears to be a policy statement rather than a judgment based on the company’s experiences so far. Publisher Dick Heffernan […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, October 22
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 […]
Lunch for Friday, October 19
Blair Bidding The auction for Tony Blair’s book begins on Monday, and one participant says that as many as 10 publishers (or allied US/UK companies) are expected to bid. Blair held meetings with publishers in both the US and UK (and most US publishers sent at least one representative to sit in on the UK […]
Lunch for Thursday, October 18
Plame Book Is Real; Embargo Isn’t (Any More) Valerie Plame’s book FAIR GAME: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House is arriving on schedule, and the AP bought a copy in advance of Tuesday’s laydown. “The book represents the first time that Plame has publicly discussed the scandal in detail. After […]
Lunch for Wednesday, October 17
Booker Record Intact; Enright Wins The Booker judges continued their streak of overlooking the bettors’ favorites, passing over Lloyd Jones and Ian McEwan to honor “the rank outsider” (Times) Anne Enright’s “exhilaratingly bleak” THE GATHERING and thumbing their collective noses at the British literary establishment along the way. Chair of the judging panel Howard Davies […]
Lunch for Tuesday, October 16
Personnel News Former ceo of Blackwell Publishing, and chief operating officer of the merged Wiley-Blackwell STM publishing unit Rene Olivieri has resigned, the Bookseller reports. That unit has been run by Wiley’s Eric Swanson since the merger. Olivieri co-led the transition team along with Wiley Europe svp Stephen Smith following the company’s purchase of Blackwell […]