Last month the University of Michigan Press officially notified client Pluto Books that their distribution contract will be terminated at the end of the year. Pluto’s controversial book Overcoming Zionism had sparked a series of investigations and protests over Michigan’s relationship with the UK house. Pluto is the only distribution client being dropped by the press. In this case, the press is citing new guidelines that “say that the UM Press will distribute books only from publishers whose missions and processes of peer review were reasonably similar to its own,” the Ann Arbor News reports. So chairwoman of the press’s […]
Fire Damages Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Martha's Vineyard
A fire on the morning of the 4th “badly damaged” the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven, MA, spreading from the Cafe Moxie next door. The local paper reports, “although the bookstore building stands, much of the contents was damaged by smoke and water.” MV Times
Pitching Bugliosi's Bush "Murder" Book
It’s a tortured premise but it was good enough to spawn an NYT feature: Vincent Bugliosi’s May release The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder is reported to have sold 130,000 hardcovers so far and the author “has had more than 100 radio interviews about the book” yet the paper also says the book “has risen to best-seller status with nary a peep from the usual outlets that help sell books: cable television and book reviews in major daily newspapers.” Vanguard Press publisher Roger Cooper tells the paper that ABC Radio turned down an advertisement for the book. Newsweek […]
Now, Flexible eScreens on the Way
Prototypes of flexible eInk screens that roll out and retract have been kicking around for years without making it to the commercial marketplace in a big way, but now the Dutch company Polymer Vision says that its Readius device will be on the market this fall in Europe (and in 2009 in the US). The grayscale reader offers a 5-inch flexible eInk screen that unrolls from a plastic housing to display about 22 lines of book text. A final price has not been set, though the company says it will sell for more than the Kindle. NYT
Personnel News
Stefanie Bierwerth is leaving Macmillan UK for Michael Joseph, where she will be editorial director for crime, report to fiction publisher Mari Evans. Helen Boomer joins Harper Children’s today as executive director of subsidiary rights. She was subsidiary rights director for Viking and Puffin Children’s.
Sci-fi Writer Andre Norton's Literary Estate in Limbo Pending Appeals Court Review
“Conflicting claims have erupted over the copyrights and royalties” to the late Andre Norton’s work, leaving unpublished work of the SWFA and Nebula Grand Master honoree in limbo. The Tennessee Court of Appeals is reviewing a lower court decision that favored lifelong fan and correspondent Victor Horadam over Norton’s caretaker Sue Stewart.AP