First US News & World Report put “bodice rippers” at No. 3 on their list of 10 Recession Winners and now the NYT has a more detailed piece on continuing resilience in the market for romance novels and other genre fiction. Parsing the numbers, though, is a little less clear than the article might indicate. Harlequin–which reported results over a month ago–is cited prominently. But North American sales, excluding the impact of foreign exchange, rose less than 1.5 percent for 2008. (The sharp drop in the Canadian dollar last fall increased the value of the company’s US sales, and as […]
Experiment Launches, People, and More
Matthew Lore has announced the launch of The Experiment, a nonfiction trade publisher launching this fall and backed by Richard Gallen, focused on health, nutrition, fitness, psychology, relationships, self-help, parenting, sexuality, science, and the environment. Lore, who previously oversaw Marlowe & Company and then was executive editor at Da Capo Press/Lifelong after Avalon was sold to Perseus, says “we’re called The Experiment because every book is a test of new ideas and because the curiosity and clear-headed thinking that characterize scientific experimentation are more crucial in publishing now than ever before.” PGW will distribute the line, which starts with six […]
Scott Turow Leaves FSG for Grand Central
Scott Turow is leaving behind his hardcover publisher since 1987 Farrar, Straus for his longtime paperback publisher Grand Central, starting with a sequel to PRESUMED INNOCENT for publication in May 2010. He told the NYT “in an interview that it no longer made sense to have one house publishing his books in hardcover and another releasing them in paperback. Such arrangements were common when he first sold the rights to Presumed Innocent in 1986 but are much rarer now, especially for a bestselling author.” Agent Gail Hochman says, “We’re not unhappy with anything we’ve gotten, but it stretches the boundaries […]
Orange New Writers Prize Shortlist
The list includes on author, DuPree, from the once-controversial Macmillan New Writing imprint: An Equal Stillness, by Francesca Kay Miles From Nowhere, by Nami Mun The Personal History of Rachel DuPree, by Ann Weisgarber The winner will be named June 3. (The shortlist for the “regular” Orange prize will be announced at the London Book Fair, on April 21.)Site
Curious Monkey Teaches Little Kids to Play with Parents' iPods, and More eNews
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has teamed with ScrollMotion to launch a $9.99 CURIOUS GEORGE’S DICTIONARY app. For pre-schoolers and first graders who get their hands on a parent’s iPhone/iPod Touch, it provides a multimedia teaching experience that “concentrates on essential educational development material, including the alphabet, shapes, numbers, colors and the concept of opposites, such as big/small and tall/short, all through the antics of the classic character Curious George.” In other e-news culled via the Automat: * St. Martin’s Read-It-First is a little bit like a house version of DailyLit: they send shorts excerpts of new and forthcoming books by e-mail, […]
People, and More
Erin Stein has joined Little, Brown Children’s as senior executive editor of franchise and licensed book program, managing ongoing franchises as well as movie and media tie-in programs, overseeing new licensing opportunities and helping to shape the middle grade and YA paperback program. Previously she was at Harper Children’s. At Kensington, Peter Senftleben has been promoted to assistant editor. The BISG provided the wrong link to their TRENDS survey of publishers’ sales yesterday; the correct link is: http://www.digisurvey.com/login.php?u=trends&p=survey