Ebadi Sued by Co-Author Over Cancelled Book 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner and author Shirin Ebadi was sued for $1.3 million by Shahir Shahidsaless, who was to be her co-author for A USEFUL ENEMY. Reuters reports that the suit says “Ebadi’s literary agent and her publisher, Random House, recommended that she pull out of the deal out of concern that it would damage future sales of her other books.” They add the papers contend “Shahidsaless had wasted 1-1/2 years working on the book because it would not sell without Ebadi’s famed reputation as a lawyer and rights activist.” Reuters Mother […]

Book Chain Report Cards Look Good This morning Barnes & Noble reported second quarter sales of $1.2 billion and net earnings of $18.1 million — or .26 a share including non-recurring “special items,” and .12 a share on a regular basis, matching analysts’ expectations and coming in at the high end of their guidance. Same-store sales without accounting for the new Harry Potter book were still up 1 percent, and BN.com was up 7.3 percent on the same basis. Through August 4, the chain sold 1.7 million copies of THE DEATHLY HALLOWS in stores and another 400,000 copies online. Bookstore […]

Poll On Reading Habits Confirms, Provokes An AP-Ipsos poll about reading habits has spawned an assortment of news stories. In one angle, among those who read books last year, seven was the average number of books read. But 25 percent of adults surveyed said they didn’t read any books last year. (It’s not clear if the poll was limited to literate adults or not — an important factor since we only have a 70 to 75 percent literacy rate to begin with.) The Guardian notes, “of those who did read, women and retirees were the most avid readers, and religious […]

Howard Shifts Carolyn Reidy announced internally a realignment of Simon & Schuster’s Howard Books unit, acquired in early 2006. Howard now becomes an imprint within Touchstone Fireside, still operating from their offices in Louisiana, and evp and publisher John Howard reports to Touchstone Fireside publisher Mark Gompertz. Touchstone’s own Faith line debuts this fall as well, and Reidy notes in her letter that “we are seeing a wide growth in Christian publishing and market share across the adult division.” She says one of “top priorities will be to grow the presence of Howard’s core Christian publishing program in the mainstream […]

Harris Denies Political Novel Is Based on Blair Robert Harris denies that his political novel THE GHOST (“written at speed in four 25,000 word installments, like a 19th century novel, it has already been translated into German, French, Dutch and Italian for simultaneous publication”) is based on former British prime minister Tony Blair. Harris “conceded that people were bound to make comparisons between Mr Blair and Mr Lang, with his ambitious wife and weakness for make-up.” He says, “I had the idea about a ghost writer and a politician when I finished Enigma 12 years ago. But I couldn’t make […]

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 University of Pittsburgh creative writing instructor Irina Reyn’s WHAT HAPPENED TO […]