Author of GILDING LILY Tatiana Boncompagni Hoover has sued her sister Natasha, alleging copyright infringement in charging that she secretly copied portions of the forthcoming novel HEDGE FUND WIVES. But the suit is also designed to invalidate claims by Natasha of rights in the work. Reuters says there are two filings for the book with the US Copyright Office–a joint copyright for both sisters submitted by Natasha, and a subsequent one from Hoover. The suit acknowledges that Natasha at the least “occasionally provided ideas relating” to the book. It claims that Natasha “shocked” her sister in asking for co-author credit […]
People and Distribution News
Marie Coolman will join Hyperion as executive director of publicity, taking over the position recently vacated by Beth Gebhard. She has been director of publicity and marketing for Hudson Street Press, and was west coast director of publicity at Random House after eight years with the company before going to the Penguin Group. Coolman says in the announcement: “Publishing needs a new approach, and that’s why I’m so excited to be joining the Hyperion team. As content providers, we need to meet readers where they go for recommendations – whether that is a friend, a media outlet, a bookseller, a […]
Early Reviews, Electronically
LibraryThing is among booklover sites with loyal audiences that has had success in helping publishers channel galleys to interested readers who are likely to post online/review the books. In October, for example, they’ve had available for request 1,670 copies of 55 titles. Now Sourcebooks is experimenting with an electronic offering: they are allowing up to 2,500 downloads of their recently published IN THE LAND OF INVISIBLE WOMEN to Library Thing members through the end of October.
Misunrepresented
Some time last year, before THE WHITE TIGER was published let alone in contention for the Booker Prize, debut author Aravind Adiga served notice that he was parting ways with his agent Jay Mandel at the William Morris Agency. That relatively unremarkable event didn’t become news until earlier this week when the Telegraph’s “Mandrake” misinterpreted that move to declare that Adiga “suddenly parted company” with agency after his big Booker win. And the paper compounded the error by asserting that Cathryn Summerhayes at WMA’s London office “has been widely credited with helping win.” Adiga tells an Indian news service, “The […]
Powell's New Look; BN.com Personalizes
The leading online site from an independent bookseller, Powells.com has introduced a broad redesign. In browsing the revamped site, we noticed that their admirable subscription program “Indiespensable”, which offers signed editions of specially selected books that come with some other “extra” (a cd; a special slipcase; etc.), continues to grow impressively. The first selection, Lydia Millet’s How the Dead Dream, had 200 copies offered. The newer selections, now Iain Banks’ The Crow Road, are moving approximately 750 copies.Powell’s changes Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble.com has gone social with a new personalized “My B&N” page that lets users catalog and display their […]
On Tony Hillerman, 83
Novelist Tony Hillerman died of pulmonary failure on Sunday. “Hillerman’s evocative novels, which describe people struggling to maintain ancient traditions in the modern world, touched millions of readers, who made them best sellers. But although the themes of his books were not overtly political, he wrote with a purpose, he often said, and that purpose was to instill in his readers a respect for Indian culture. The plots of his stories, while steeped in contemporary crime and its consequences, were invariably instructive about ancient tribal beliefs and customs, from purification rituals for a soldier returned from a foreign war to […]