Motoko Rich continues her series on “The Future of Reading” by looking at P.S. 225 librarian Stephanie Rosalia, part of “a growing cadre of 21st-century multimedia specialists who help guide students through the digital ocean of information that confronts them on a daily basis.” These new librarians believe that literacy includes books, but also exceeds them via Powerpoint presentations and social networking sites. “The days of just reshelving a book are over,” Ms. Rosalia said. “Now it is the information age, and that technology has brought out a whole new generation of practices.” Yet school librarians are often the first […]
People
Becky Cole has joined Plume books as a senior editor. She was formerly at Broadway Books for over ten years. Former Golden Books editorial director Sharon Shavers Gayle, has joined Mary Jack Wald Associates as an agent, effective immediately. Among her first clients are Denise Lewis Patrick, Gregg Loomis, and John Peel. At Sterling, Anne Rogers has been promoted to director, special markets; Ron Davis has been promoted to vp, special & international sales, digital & gift; and Kate Rados is now director, digital markets. Alex Hippisley-Cox is to oversee all UK media relations and communications for the 2009 Frankfurt […]
Ron Howard Says Dan Brown Has Finished Next Book
The director made the disclosure to Entertainment Tonight in an interview from the set of Angels and Demons in Geneva. Spokesperson Suzanne Herz commented only that Brown “is making great progress,” and said “we do not yet have a title or publication date to share.” Reuters
ABA Cuts Dues and Staff
ABA president Gayle Shanks writes to booksellers to announce a 50 percent reduction in dues for member stores on their calendar 2009 renewals “to help and support booksellers in these extraordinarily difficult economic times.” A hiring freeze for the organization’s staff has resulted in a 12 percent reduction through attrition. Other cost-cutting measures include a wage freeze and suspension of pension contributions, as the ABA aims to juggle “how to provide more services while relying less on financial support from booksellers.”Shanks letter
Does Free Distribution Matter?
Publishers have been experimenting with promotional free downloads of books, and worrying about the risks of electronic piracy but there has been precious little data and analysis to work from. For the past eight months Brian O’Leary at Magellan Media has partnered with Random House and O’Reilly Media to rigorously study the “impact of free distribution on paid content,” which meant examining both giveaways and unauthorized peer-to-peer distribution. The ultimate objective is to develop “a model that describes instances in which free distribution works or may not work,” taking into account the variety of complex influences. The work is still […]
Meyer Drives Lagardere to Finish the Year Ahead
Lagardere has announced preliminary figures for their fourth quarter and fiscal year. The pulishing unit had sales of 595 million euros for the final quarter powered by the “exceptional performance” of Stephenie Meyer in the US a “sold” sales of illustrated books in France, offsetting a “slowdown in sales” in the UK. Meyer sold 8 million books in the US in December alone, and over 28 million books in the year. Though they publish her in the UK as well, “success of Stephenie Meyer only partially compensated for the departure of James Patterson to another publisher and the non-recurrence of […]