McLellan’s Book Criticizes Bush Former White House press secretary Scott McLellan’s book WHAT HAPPENED: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception makes headlines after Politico and then the NYT purchased embargoed copies in advance of next week’s release. Politico calls it a “surprisingly scathing memoir” that says Bush “veered terribly off course” and was not “open and forthright on Iraq.” President Bush “convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment” and has engaged in “self-deception,” the NYT writes, and he says “White House officials deceived him about the administration’s involvement in the leaking of […]
Lunch for Tuesday, May 27
Another Hyperion Departure as Dorman Goes Back to Viking Pam Dorman is leaving the Voice imprint she helped to start up at Hyperion in 2006 to return to Viking Penguin — where she worked for 19 years — to serve as publisher of the eponymous Pamela Dorman Books. She will report to Viking president Clare Ferraro. Dorman says in the announcement, “I am delighted to be rejoining my colleagues at Viking Penguin in this exciting new capacity, and look forward to building a strong, up-market and talented group of authors in this new imprint.” At Hyperion, Barbara Jones, has been […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, May 26
Deal News Our Usual Reminder If for some reason this has reached you even though you are not a paying member of PublishersMarketplace, please visit the link below to join us all the time for complete deal reports and more. Click to register http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/register.shtml 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” […]
Lunch for Friday, May 23
Microsoft Pulls Plug on Book Search Initiative Microsoft just announced on their site: “Today we informed our partners that we are ending the Live Search Books and Live Search Academic projects and that both sites will be taken down next week. Books and scholarly publications will continue to be integrated into our Search results, but not through separate indexes. “This also means that we are winding down our digitization initiatives, including our library scanning and our in-copyright book programs. We recognize that this decision comes as disappointing news to our partners, the publishing and academic communities, and Live Search users. […]
Lunch for Thursday, May 22
Sales Slow at BN Barnes & Noble reported “lower than expected first quarter sales results” and foresees a weak “overall retail environment,” leading the company to lower full-year guidance for same-store sales for the year from slightly positive to slightly negative. On a comparable-store basis, first quarter BN store sales dropped 1.5 percent at $1 billion, while BN.com sales were up 7.2 percent to just under $100 million, with overall sales at $1.2 billion for the quarter. The company reached an agreement in principle with California over “its long-standing dispute regarding the collection of sales and use taxes on sales […]
Lunch for Wednesday, May 21
One e-Book Per Child for 2010? The One Laptop Per Child program held a workshop in Cambridge, MA at which founder Nicholas Negroponte unveiled his vision of their second generation machine — which looks a lot more like a foldable e-book. Negroponte told the group, “The next generation laptop should be a book.” Laptop Magazine reports, “The design will provide a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat, two-screen continuous surface for use in tablet mode.” They are hoping to produce the new machine for 2010, and also aim to reduce […]