The NYT provided advance publicity this weekend for former Hyperion editor-in-chief Will Schwalbe’s new venture, Cookstr.com. Katie Workman is both editor-in-chief and chief marketing officer. Going live later this month, it presents recipes from chefs who are also well-known cookbook authors (and often Hyperion authors, such as Nigella Lawson and Jaime Oliver), and aims to sell print copies of those cookbooks as well. Schwalbe says they will start with about 2,500 recipes from 100 cookbooks. The article says that Nielsen Bookscan recorded cookbook sales for 2007 of 13.9 million copies, down almost 7 percent from 14.9 million copies sold in […]
Self-Published Cookbook Goes National
Wona Miniati and Deana Gunn say their self-published COOKING WITH ALL THINGS TRADER JOE’s has sold 20,000 copies in the past year, with another 15,000 recently shipped to stores, and now Borders is carrying the book chainwide. Published without the participation of the grocery chain, the book presents recipes based on prepared ingredients carried by Trader Joe’s.WSJ
Studs Terkel Dies at 96
The AP was the first to report his passing on Friday. Among many honors, Terkel won the Pulitzer in 1985 for his remembrances of World War II, The Good War. Below are links to a few of the many articles about his life and work.Chicago Trib editorialWhy Terkel Mattered: Patrick Reardon in TribBob Minzesheimer at USATEdward Rothstein: An appraisal, NYTNYT Obit (William Grimes)LAT USAT
More Obituaries: Marilyn Ferguson, 70; William Wharton
Marilyn Ferguson, author of THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY, “a galvanizing influence on participants in scores of alternative groups that coalesced as the New Age movement,” died October 19 at home.LAT And William Wharton, 82, author of the NBA-winning novel BIRDY, died last week,MSNBC
Currency Exchange Holds Lagardere Back
Lagardere Publishing reported third quarter sales ending September 30 of 637 euros, down by 1.6 percent compared to last year in absolute terms. (You’ll notice our report likely diverges from others, since the official company release charts results for the nine months of the fiscal year and concludes they are still rising; we actually break out the calculator to look at quarterly numbers). The company does not usually quantify currency effects, but this time around the impact was so significant they couldn’t help themselves, noting that “because Lagardere Publishing generates over 40 percent of its revenues in the dollar and […]
Test Program for Universal Online Catalog
The innovators at Above the Treeline will begin testing an online interactive catalog of books from multiple publishers. The six-month pilot program features books from Chronicle, Harper, Wiley, Penguin, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Thomas Nelson, and Tyndale House. Called Edelweiss, the new interface aspires to let retailers “manage their catalogs easily in a single online library, to view dynamic, enriched content about new titles, and to efficiently integrate orders and bibliographic information back into their point-of-sale systems.” CEO John Rubin explains to BTW that they have tried to redesign the catalog to work as an interactive online product rather […]