Serbian publisher BeoBook says that they have withdrawn their printing of Sherry Jones’ novel THE JEWEL OF MEDINA “because of protests from local Islamic leaders who said it insulted Muhammad and his family,” the AP reports. (By other accounts, the protests were led by one a Belgrade mufti–and another mufti spoke out against the intimidation.) The company expressed “apology and regret” to Muslims as part of a statement posted on their web site. They are said to have printed approximately 1,000 copies of the book a few weeks ago. The Washington Post files a long piece on the larger controversy […]
Penguin Launches Dating Website
Penguin is launching a dating website aimed at book readers as “a place to meet and indulge in the age-old art of writing love letters”. in conjunction with online dating giant Match.com.The Bookseller
Lonely Planet Goes Mobile
Lonely Planet has made a deal with Nokia to sell maps and city guides for over 100 cities to users of Nokia Maps 2.0 users. (The maps are provided by their Navteq subsidiary.) The downloads will sell for 7.99 euros.Cnet
Announcements
Sarah Durand joins Atria Books as a Senior Editor, effective September 2. She was previously with HarperCollins, where she most recently headed up the HarperEntertainment licensing program. Anna Baijars has been appointed Publishing Director at WSOY General Literature, reporting to president Veli-Pekka Elonen, effective next month. Baijars has previously worked for Gummerus Publishers as Publishing Director.
Toulantis Leaves BN.com
BarnesandNoble.com ceo since 2002 Marie Toulantis has resigned her position, but will serve as a consultant to the company. For the moment, e-commerce vp Tom Burke and cfo Kevin Frain have assumed her duties, reporting to company ceo Steve Riggio, which tells you a little something about what Toulantis did there. BN reports quarterly earnings later this week.Release
Goodkind e-book a Kindle Exclusive
NYT Bestseller and fantasy novelist Terry Goodkind’s first novel, Wizard’s First Rule, originally published in 1994, is released today in e-book exclusively on Kindle from Rosetta Books. This is Goodkind’s first appearance of in e-book format. His agent, Russell Galen, said: “Terry believes deeply that the power of novels is connected in part to the physical experience of reading a printed book, and so for years he refused to permit electronic editions of his work. A hands-on demonstration of the Kindle convinced him that here at last was a technology which provided that powerful reading experience.”