The PEN American Center has named Steven Isenberg as executive director. For the past six years, he was a visiting professor of humanities at the University of Texas, Austin). His many previous positions include stints as publisher of New York Newsday, evp of the Los Angeles Times, and chief of staff to New York Mayor John Lindsay. Release Susannah McFarlane, former co-owner, managing direct and publisher of Hardie Grant Egmont in Australia has launched a new company, Lemonfizz Media. She will “focus on fully developing a small number of publishing projects that we are passionate about and really investing in […]
Library Groups Endorse Google Settlement; Ask DOJ to Join Court In Monitoring Implementation
The American Library Association (ALA), the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries have reiterated their basic support for the proposed Google Books settlement, while also repeating concerns that the settlement live up to its promises in balancing market pricing and broad access when selling institutional subscriptions. (They note that “The likely demand among academic libraries for an institutional subscription is high.”) In a letter to the Department of Justice’s anti-trust division–following meetings with them as part of their investigation–the associations write “we believe that the Division itself should take a proactive role in the […]
People: McMurtry's Novel Might Be His Last; Sharma-Jensen Takes Buyout; Blessing Joins Inkwell
Larry McMurtry, 73, tells the Dallas Morning News in advance of the release of his new novel RHINO RANCH later this month: “I don’t think I can write fiction any more. I think I’ve used it up over 30 novels. That’s a lot of novels.” He adds, “Most great novels are written by people between 40 and 60, or 35 and 60,” he says. “Not too many great novels are written by people over 75. Hardly any. Maybe Tolstoy.”DMN Another longtime newspaper books editor (and also NBCC board member) Geeta Sharma-Jensen at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is taking a buyout and […]
Bookselling: St. Paul's Common Good Books Is Robbed
Last Wednesday night at 1 in the morning, two people broke into Common Good Books (owned by Garrison Keillor) and stole the store’s safe and damaged the cash registers, taking “a few thousand dollars” that had been left in the store overnight. The store posted surveillance camera photos on their site and sent a Tweet looking for a “goateed loser in longshorts and a Longhorns cap carrying a safe at 1:20 last night.”Star Tribune
Lunch Weekly for Monday, August 3
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form 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 deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Robin Becker’s BRAINS: a zombie memoir, the first-person account of a […]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt To Cut 65 More Jobs
Another 65 jobs will be cut from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Boston and Orlando offices in the wake f a deal signed earlier this month to purchase information technology services from Teaneck, NJ-based global outsourcing firm Cognizant Technology Solutions. An HMH spokesman told the Boston Globe that Cognizant will take over responsibility for application development and maintenance, while Houghton Mifflin’s information technology department will continue to manage strategy, direction, business knowledge, innovation, and the customer interface.Globe