Starbucks’ Holiday Pick Starbucks has selected LISTENING IS AN ACT OF LOVE – A Celebration of American Lives from the StoryCorps Project, edited by Dave Isay, as their next book selection. They’ll begin selling the Penguin Press book and accompanying CD, comprising 50 stories from everyday Americans, on November 8. Ford to HBG USA and More Personnel News Beth Ford will join the Hachette Book Group in the US as chief operating officer and evp in late September, reporting to ceo David Young. He notes in the announcement, “With the retirement of both Maureen Egen and Rick Hall earlier this […]

Amazon Taps Customers for Pre-Pub Reviews Amazon Vine, a new program launching on August 15, will emulate the pilot program at LibraryThing we mentioned earlier this summer, matching “new and pre-release products” — like books, music and movies — with some of the site’s customer/reviewers, providing a new type of pre-publication review. The company will invite customers — called Voices (which mangles the grapevine metaphor) to participate in the program by e-mail, “based on the trust they have earned in the Amazon community for writing accurate and insightful reviews.” Also, on Friday the e-tailer confirmed the beta launch of their […]

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 Chris Ver Wiel’s STARBUCKS NATION, a satire of coffee-swilling, celebrity-obsessed Southern […]

Judge Sides with CIA A federal judge ruled in favor of the CIA in Valerie Plame and Simon & Schuster’s suit over her forthcoming manuscript. Judge Barbara S. Jones said that the information about how long Plame worked for the agency “was properly classified, was never declassified and has not been officially acknowledged by the CIA.” The judge acknowledges that the agency “does not contest that the information is, in fact, in the public domain” and that “the public may draw whatever conclusions it might from the fact that the information at issue was sent on CIA letterhead by the […]

Temporary Head for HM Trade, and More Personnel and Distribution News Gary Gentel has been promoted to interim president of Houghton Mifflin’s Trade and Reference Division, effective immediately. HM ceo Tony Lucki told employees today that “Gary will lead the division’s strategic direction with the support of the trade and reference management team, who will report directly to him. He will also be an instrumental part of planning the integration of Harcourt Trade with Houghton Mifflin Trade and Reference.” Gentel has been corporate vp, director of sales for the past four years. Prior to joining Houghton, he was vp of […]

Penguin Results Dampened by Pounded Dollar; Lagardere Grows; and More Corporate News Pearson reported results for the first six months of their fiscal year, with a one percent gain in “underlying [e.g. currency neutral] sales” at Penguin more than wiped out by the declining value of the dollar (as Pearson takes in two-thirds of sales in the US). Sales were down five percent after being converted into British sterling, at 367 pounds, versus 387 pounds a year ago. Profits, which improved significantly on an underlying basis, up 11 percent, were flat in actual currency at 18 million pounds. The company […]