-
Random Launches iPhone Apps for Authors
The Random House Publishing Group announced today it will launch free customized iPhone applications connecting bestselling authors to fans using mobile technology. It is working with iPhone app creation platform Mobile Roadie, using an author-focused variation of Mobile Roadie’s app creator that currently supports apps by musicians including Brad Paisley and Alice in Chains.
-
Former Publisher Takes to Writing, DIY Style
It's precisely because Robert Wyatt knows the in's and out's of corporate publishing that he's decided to go it alone with his latest venture in the book business.
-
PublishingWorks Grows Using Traditional Publishing Model
After significantly scaling back its self-publishing business, PublishingWorks has enjoyed a growth spurt using more traditional publishing techniques.
-
Gotham/Avery/Dutton Holds 8th Annual Bake-Off
Out-for-blood corporate softball teams may have given the idea of inter-company competitions a bad name, but a skinned knee has nothing on 10 stitches in your finger after testing recipes for the company bake-off. That’s right: Dutton assistant editor Jessica Horvath was trying out desserts for the 8th Annual Gotham/Avery/Dutton Bake-Off when she sliced her hand on the blade of an immersion blender, wound up in the emergency room and walked out with 10 stitches.
-
Amazon Offers Free Two-Day Shipping for Kindle
In an attempt to keep the momentum going for Kindle, Amazon is offering free two-day expedited shipping for the device, so customers can order between now and December 22 and receive Kindle by December 24. When customers add Kindle ($259) to their shopping cart on the site, they will have the option to select free two-day shipping. The retailer also said today that December has been the best month ever for Kindle sales.
-
LiVolsi Calls Amazon Pricing 'Predatory'
Bob LiVolsi, founder of independent e-book retailer Books On Board, grabbed the spotlight at the MediaBistro eBook Summit, charging Amazon.com with “predatory pricing” and lamented the lack of antitrust enforcement in today's marketplace.
-
Scholastic Weathers Rough Economy
Increases in the school and international segments offset declines in the trade and media groups, resulting in a 1% increase in overall revenue at Scholastic in the second quarter ended November 30. Operating income slipped to $105.6 million from $108.0 million, but net income in the quarter rose to $55.5 million from $43.1 million.
-
Putnam Books for Young Readers' Paulsen Gets Own Imprint
Putnam Books for Young Readers president and publisher Nancy Paulsen is launching an eponymous imprint, Nancy Paulsen Books, with the first titles landing in 2011. Paulsen, who has led the division for 15 years, plans to publish 12 to 15 picture books, middle grade and young adult novels annually. She will continue at the helm of Putnam Books for Young Readers until the company finds a successor—a process that has already begun.
-
Kobo Touts Open Access, Hopes for e-Reader
Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo, the newest player in the e-book market, said the company will challenge competition from the likes of Amazon and Sony by giving consumers more choice. Serbinis said it is also early days in terms of digital devices and the best device has not yet been developed.
-
Macy's Offers Its Employees Discount on Store History
In time for the holidays, Macy’s Inc. is offering all its employees a 40% discount on the Square One title Macy’s: The Store. The Star. The Story. The book, which pubbed in April, is a lavishly illustrated history documenting the iconic store’s evolution over the past 150 years.
-
Borders Invests in Newly Minted Kobo
Shortcovers, Indigo's e-bookstore has been rebranded as Kobo and spunoff from the retailer in a partnership that includes Borders. Kobo will power a new e-bookstore at the American chain and develop the first apps for Borders.
-
Macmillan to Use Multi-Prong Approach to E-Book Release Dates
Macmillan CEO John Sargent issued a brief statement Tuesday outlining his company's plans for releasing e-book editions of its frontlist titles. Macmillan will publish its bestsellers in several ways next year, Sargent said.
-
Authors Guild Calls Dohle Letter "Regrettable and Unhelpful"
Random House chairman Markus Dohle may have sent this letter to agents in the spirit of collaboration, but that isn’t how the Authors Guild is seeing it. In a message sent to its members this morning, the Guild said it was “regrettable and unhelpful that Random House has chosen to try to intimidate authors and agents over these old book contracts.”
-
Shortcovers Adds Internet Archive Titles
Indigo’s e-book service, Shortcovers, has added 1.8 million titles from the Internet Archive available free of charge through the Shortcovers store. Internet Archive’s library includes public domain classics, academic works, reference materials, and other fiction and nonfiction titles.
-
S&S Draws Line in Digital Sand With Delay of E-book Titles
By stating last week that it would delay the release of the e-book editions of 35 titles set to be published in the January through April period, Simon & Schuster has become the first major house to put into place a firm release date for its e-books—four months after publication of the hardcover.
-
Phoenix Books Rises in New Direction
The leadership team of Phoenix Books Inc. has been moving aggressively to re-position the Los Angeles publisher following the death this summer of founder Michael Viner. The company, acquired in late 2007 by Dwight Opperman, is moving away from the celebrity and tabloid-driven titles favored by Viner to create a list built around serious fiction and nonfiction.
-
Bard Press Bets On a Diet Book
A small publisher with a string of bestselling business books has hopes for similar success in the diet arena. Bard Press, based in Austin, Tex., with a full-time staff of exactly one (Ray Bard), will release The Full Plate Diet: Slim Down, Look Great, Be Healthy! in time for the diet book crunch, on January 4.
-
Crown Split
By dividing the Crown Publishing Group into two units, Random House CEO Markus Dohle is putting more structure into an operation that, as Dohle noted, had grown in a myriad of ways, often adding companies that had little in common: Watson-Guptill, Ten Speed Press, Monacelli Press, and Multnomah (just to name a few).
-
Roger Clemens's Former Trainer Self-Publishing a Memoir
Brian McNamee, the onetime personal strength and conditioning coach for former Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Astros pitcher Roger Clemens, is self-publishing a book that will supposedly reveal his perspective on Clemens’s steroids controversy. Death, Taxes, and Mac: Brian McNamee in His Own Words, written with Marc Zappulla, will drop February 17, 2010, the same day Yankee pitchers and catchers report for spring training in Tampa, Fla.
-
Author Solutions Partners with Espresso Book Machine
Self-publishing company of the moment Author Solutions announced a deal today with On Demand Books, which owns the Espresso Book Machine, to provide writers with online tools to publish, distribute, print and market their books in retail locations via the Espresso Book Machine.
Browse archive by date:
