PW Webcast on Tablet Strategy Today

PW senior editor of digital media Jonathan Segura hosts PW’s monthly webcast which will focus on how to develop tablet and mobile strategies.

Zola Books Begins Rollout of its E-tailing Site

Zola Books, the social, retail, and recommendation Web site that aims to bring everything about books to one place, launched with its social component on September 20.

'Infinite Jest' Sees Sales Bump Following DFW Biography

Since the publication on August 30 of D.T. Max's Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace (Viking), sales of Wallace's most famous book, Infinite Jest, have steadily increased.

'No Easy Day' Keeps Number One Spot

In its second week, sales for No Easy Day fell 30% to 176,000 copies, according to the outlets tracked by Nielsen BookScan.

Rudin, Diller, Coady Partner for Brightline, Multiplatform Book Publisher

Entertainment media moguls Barry Diller, chairman of the IAC/InterActiveCorp, and film and theater producer Scott Rudin are teaming up to launch Brightline, a multiplatform publishing house, and bringing in former Vintage U.K. and Picador publisher Frances Coady to run it.

Open Road's Short Shots Grows

Richard Ellis, conservationist and author, will see two of his titles published at Short Shots, Open Road's series of titles that communicate an idea or tell a story in short form.

The Department of Justice E-Book Price-Fixing Case: All Our Coverage

Stay up to date with the Department of Justice e-book price-fixing suit with PW's extensive coverage. Here is an archive of our stories, following the case from the initial investigation to the settlement.

Distribution: Innovative Logistics Signs Two Presses

Innovative Logistics has signed agreements with Rare Art Press, London and Pepin Press, Amsterdam, for fulfillment services in North America.

Distribution: Simon & Schuster Signs Tuttle, Inner Traditions

Simon & Schuster has entered into agreements with Tuttle Publishing and Inner Traditions for the distribution and fulfillment in the U.S. of all frontlist and backlist titles. The agreement is effective January 1, 2013. Tuttle has done fulfillment for Inner Traditions.

Tracking Amazon: The Rise of High-Priced E-books

Though the publishing world waits to see how e-book pricing will be affected in the long-run by the DoJ's ruling, the current climate of higher-priced e-books is perhaps being overlooked: six of the 10 Kindle bestsellers are priced $9.99 or higher.

Salman Rushdie Writes Thank You to Indie Booksellers

Salman Rushdie's memoir Joseph Anton comes out September 18, and this week he's written a Thank You letter to independent booksellers for their support during the fatwa following the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1989.

Authors on the Air September 17, 2012: Richard E. Dauch, Hendrick Smith

Richard E. Dauch, author of American Drive: How Manufacturing Will Save Our Country (St. Martin’s Press, 978-1-250-01082-7), will appear on Fox & Friends, Tuesday, September 18.

Hedrick Smith will be on Tavis Talks for Who Stole the American Dream? (Random House, 978-1400069668).

Tracking Amazon: 'Hunger Games' Dropped To $1.57

The movie tie-in paperback edition of The Hunger Games was reduced to $1.57 and immediately went from #20 to #2 on Amazon's bestseller list--enough to jump the Fifty Shades books but not enough to jump No Easy Day. The regular paperback edition, selling for $5.84, is ranked #19.

News Briefs: Week of September 17, 2012

July Bookstore Sales Rise and more

Two Dollar Radio Starts Nonfiction Journal

Eric Obenauf, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Two Dollar Radio, the indie press headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, wants the seven-year-old company to publish more nonfiction, but he doesn’t want to produce more than the five or six titles—primarily fiction—that the publisher currently releases each year. His solution, beginning this fall, is to launch Frequencies, a 100-page biannual journal that will be dedicated to nonfiction. Frequencies, like Two Dollar Radio’s books, is being distributed by Consortium and retails for $10 per issue. The first issue, just released, has an 1,800-copy print run.

A Book Guy Gets a Top Spot

When Hachette Book Group announced that Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch would succeed David Young next spring at the top perch of the publishing company, many were surprised. Surprised that Young was stepping down—he will be staying with the company, returning to his native England in a variety of roles including chairman of HBG—and, to an extent, surprised that Pietsch would be taking the corner office. A well-liked and successful figure in the industry, Pietsch has long been a top-tier editor, but in today’s publishing environment editorial success doesn’t often translate into the CEO’s chair. For many in the industry, seeing someone who’s worked directly with writers take the reins at a major house is refreshing.

Tantor Media Adds Print, Expands E-books

While a number of companies are retreating from print books, Tantor Media will begin using the format for the first time this fall and will also expand its e-book business.

Ballantine Bantam Dell Rejiggers Nonfiction Program

Ballantine Bantam Dell is creating a nonfiction team, which it says will complement its existing fiction team, which will be led by Jennifer Tung, who is joining RH from the women's magazine Redbook.

Tracking Amazon: Kindle Charts Not Affected by New DoJ Pricing

After HarperCollins announced this week that they've reached new agreements with e-tailers as part of the DoJ settlement, the top of the Kindle bestsellers chart still has lots of agency-priced books, with four frontlist e-books priced $12.99 and up landing in the top 10 as of September 13. The four titles were No Easy Day, A Wanted Man by Lee Child, Gone Girl, and Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb.

TOC Holds E-book Webcast

TOC will hold a webcast "Publishing's Remediators: A Conversation with ZolaBooks' CEO Joe Regal and Kat Meyer" on Wednesday, September 19 at 1 p.m. Pacific.