The Santa Barbara Independent has a long piece on Selden Edwards in advance of the release of his debut novel THE LITTLE BOOK on August 14. The paper says “the buzz in the publishing world is that this impeccably crafted and suspenseful tale of a world-famous American rock star who wakes up one day in Vienna, Austria, in 1897, will be the hottest fiction title of the fall.” Edwards began the book back in 1974 “and submitted the first of many final drafts as part of the requirements for a master’s degree at Stanford…. More than six supposedly final drafts […]
DailyLit Ads Sponsored Model
DailyLit has announced the first entry in a new model that allows for the sponsored distribution of serialized digital books for free to readers. GreetingCards.com is sponsoring distribution through September 30 of College Knowledge: 101 Tips, from the University of Michigan Press, originally sold in Daily Lit form for $4.95.Release
How the Press Gets eReaders Wrong Every Day
There’s an FT column today by John Gapper that crystallizes some thoughts I’ve had recently about how poorly the press handles coverage and analysis of the budding market for e-readers. His thesis is that when it comes to e-reading devices, “The danger for Sony is that it is already too late. Amazon has grabbed the market-leading position from Sony and established a stronger brand, which is what happened with the iPod and the Walkman. Sony never managed to recover, despite trying repeatedly to match Apple.” His analysis is based on the rumor of 240,000 Kindles having sold so far (ultimately […]
Jane Friedman Gets Her Party
Steve Rubin and Maria Campbell threw a party last night for former HarperCollins ceo Jane Friedman on the roof Rubin’s apartment building, attended by longtime publishing colleagues and, apparently, a few publishing reporters. The guests surprised Friedman by wearing printed Jane Friedman masks. She called it her “transition party” and noted: “What I’m going to say –and this is it– is I am not done, and I am not done by a long shot.” But there’s no report on what she is transitioning to yet.Observer
Harper Finishes with Strong Quarter
HarperCollins reported fourth quarter sales of $350 million, up nearly 18 percent from $295 million a year ago, with operating income of $28 million up a third from a year ago. In the release the company says the quarter was “led by strong sales of Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey [which has sales as tracked by Nielsen Bookscan of under 60,000 copies], Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall, an updated edition of YOU:The Owner’s Manual by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet Oz” and bestsellers like Read All About It! by Laura and Jenna Bush–leaving unresolved the question of what actually […]
The Novel About Muhammed Cancelled by Ballantine
A WSJ opinion column by Asra Nomani recounts the events that produced Ballantine’s cancellation in May of Sherry Jones’s debut novel THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, “a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet Muhammed’s harem.” Nomani says “the series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world.” Random House Group deputy publisher Tom Perry says that the company received “from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that […]