Julie Bennett is rejoining Ten Speed Press as editorial director, reporting to publisher Aaron Wehner. She previously worked for the publisher for nine, most recently as senior acquiring editor. Dawn Yanagihara also joins the company as senior editor. She worked in a number of roles at Cook’s Illustrated and then was at Weldon Owen as senior editor. At Holt, Helen Atsma has been promoted to senior editor after two years at the publisher. Adriana Dominguez has joined Full Circle Literary as an agent, based in New York and serving as the agency’s East coast representativ. Most recently she was executive […]
Obscure Teen Author Says She'll Sue Meyer for Plagiarism In Breaking Dawn
California attorney J. Craig Williams says he will file a copyright infringement suit on behalf of his client Jordan Scott against Hachette Book Group and Stephenie Meyer, alleging that her bestselling BREAKING DAWN copies from Scott’s 2006 book THE NOCTURNE. Williams sent HBG a “cease and desist” letter on July 13 that just happened to land on TMZ.com. In the letter, which says it is responding correspondence from HBG general counsel Carol Fein Ross from last December, asks the publisher to “compensate my client for her damages.” Yes Williams “said Scott does not plan to seek monetary damages,” to the […]
New Digital Book Conference Set for January, with Shatzkin As Chair
F+W Media, the publishing company focused on core enthusiast communities, is launching a two-day conference focused on “the radically changing commercial environment for consumer book publishers and their trading partners” next January 26 and 27 in New York at the Sheraton. Consultant, entrepreneur and longtime analyst of digital change Mike Shatzkin is leading the programming as conference chair, and he has recruited an advisory board that includes Richard Curtis, Jeff Gomez, Ami Greko, Mark Gompertz, John Ingram, Maja Thomas, Tom Turvey, and many others. Envisioned as an event by, of and for trade publishers, the new conference’s goal is to […]
In Conversation: Friedman and Kirshbaum
Samantha Ettus has an hour-long video with Jane Friedman and Larry Kirshbaum posted on her internet interview site Obsessed. Friedman remains optimistic about book publishing in general, but is bearish on the prospects for the biggest trade publishers (“the large publishers, which we’re now calling ‘legacy publishers'”) with their oversized cost structure: “The question is what will happen to the giant companies that are hurting very, very badly now. Can they come back? Can they reinvent themselves? In my opinion that would be very difficult, because there’s too much history and there’s too much overhead.” She also notes, “You’ve got […]
VSS Sees Books Faring Better than Other Traditional Media
Private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson has released their annual media forecasts. They say that 2008 marks “the first time consumers spent more time with media they paid for, like books or cable television, than with primarily ad-supported media, like newspapers and magazines.” Among traditional media businesses, VSS sees book publishing holding on better than most: “newspapers, consumer magazines, TV and radio are shrinking and will not, in that period of time, get back to what they saw before,” evp James P. Rutherfurd tells the NYT. But John Suhler adds, “these businesses are going to be around for many, many […]
Bookselling: Borders Adds More Toys, Details Other Kids' Changes
Borders has issued a press release covering a number of their expansions in children’s product lines. Today they say they have “greatly expanded toy and game offerings in its more than 500 superstores.” In addition to the previously reported expansion of Borders Ink Teen Shops (special boutique-like sections within most Borders superstores that feature Young Adult as well as Graphic Novel and Manga titles along with a number of other trendy products), the retailer has added a “picture book feature wall to make shopping easier for parents” and has “moved books for independent readers — kids ages 8 through 12” […]