The back-and-forth struggle for survival of Toronto’s Pages bookstres is ending the hard way: after 30 years, the store will close as the end of August. The store first warned of trouble last October, but in January it was reported that they had successfully signed a new lease at an acceptable rent. Now Torontoist says “in the end there simply wasn’t a choice. Rent is growing faster than sales, and for all that Pages is deeply loved, the cash crunch got to be too much.” Known for “curating the indie set’s reading list and nurturing Toronto’s newest and freshest literary […]
Amazon Drops Kindle Price to $299
Amazon has lowered the price of the basic Kindle 2 reader by $60 to $299. Having previously insisted that they could not afford to lower the price, spokesman Drew Herdener now says, “Whenever we are able to create cost efficiencies like this, we pass the savings along to our customers.”Bloomberg
People
Zondervan has hired Jason Vines from the auto business to serve as vp of public relations and communications. He previously held “top communications positions” at Nissan, Ford and Chrysler. Lucinda Blumenfeld writes to update the PT report we cited last week: As an agent at Fletcher & Co. she will represent narrative/prescriptive nonfiction, YA, and literary fiction. As marketing manager she is “developing marketing strategies and brand extensions for agency clients and scouting opportunities for writers within emerging technology, new media and social networking.” In the UK, former Century publishing director Mark Booth will join Hodder & Stoughton in September […]
UK Rumor On Bloomsbury Sale
Bloomsbury’s stock “experienced unusually strong volume on Tuesday amid talk that Pearson was considering a bid,” the Times of London claims. Both companies are sitting on cash and have lower share prices: Bloomsbury’s market cap of 95 million pounds is less than one times Potter-free sales and the company had 50 million pounds in cash before announcing their most recent acquisition. Pearson, meanwhile, is said to have 580 million pounds in cash. Their shares showed a little life today after declining for a few months.Times Bloomsbury’s latest targeted purchase is Hodder Education’s higher ed textbooks covering media and communications, history […]
Grisham to Write Spec Screenplay About Four Sailors Who Claim Were Wrongly Convicted
The novelist is working on a screenplay about Virginia’s Norfolk Four. “It’s the most egregious case of wrongful conviction I’ve seen, and I travel around the country listening to stories about these cases,” Grisham says. He expects to have a draft finished by the fall, but for now he is writing it on spec. Tom Wells and Richard Leo published a book on the case, THE WRONG GUYS: Murder, False Confessions, and the Norfolk Four, last November with the New Press. Grisham said he hoped the project would help the three imprisoned sailors. “You can’t forget about those guys. I’m […]
5,000-Word First Serial for Nabokov's Original of Laura to Playboy
The magazine won rights to the forthcoming unfinished novella after the New Yorker passed. Literary editor Amy Grace Lord says, “I’m happy to tell you we’ve never paid this much for a book excerpt before, ever.” She adds, “There are parts of it that are much more cohesive than others. But I found it fascinating in that way.”Observer