Oprah Taps 'Say You’re One of Them’
Say You’re One of Them, a short story collection by Nigerian author Uwen Akpan, published by Little, Brown, was chosen Friday by Oprah Winfrey as the latest selection for her book club. Originally released in 2008, the book has won several prizes and is the first time a collection of short stories has been an Oprah selection. LB will do a print run of 650,000.
July Bookstore Sales Dip
Bookstore sales fell 0.5% in July, to $1.11 billion. Sales for the first seven months of the year were off 2.5%, to $8.74 billion, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Sales for the entire retail segment were also off 0.5% in July and down 9.5% for the January through July period.
New Merch Head at Borders
Michael Edwards, most recently president and CEO of Ellington Leather, a wholesaler of leather handbags and accessories, has been named executive v-p and chief merchandising officer at Borders, succeeding Anne Kubek.
Espresso Gets Google Books
The maker of the Espresso Book Machine, On Demand Books, more than doubled the number of books that it supplies to bookstores and libraries that use its POD system, signing an agreement to provide access to more than two million public domain titles among Google’s digital files. This is in addition to the 1.8 million titles already available to Espresso from other sources. ODB also said it has signed agreements with several other stores to use the machine.
New Logo for Worldcolor
World Color Press, formerly know as Quebecor World, will operate under the Worldcolor brand name while retaining World Color Press as its legal name. As part of its new branding effort, the Canadian printer has developed the accompanying logo.
AMP Signs Pact with S&S
Simon & Schuster will handle the sales of Andrews McMeel Publishing books to the trade in the U.S. and Canada, effective January 1, 2010. AMP currently uses seven independent publishers’ rep groups to sell books to the trade and has used S&S for the past 10 years to distribute those books. S&S already sells AMP books to most foreign markets.
Lightning Source to France
Lightning Source has expanded into France through a joint venture with Hachette Livre to build a print-on-demand facility in Hachette’s distribution center in Maurepas. The operation is expected to be ready in the first quarter of 2010 and initially will be used to manufacture POD titles for Hachette and its distribution clients. The service will be expanded eventually to include books from third-party publishers.
PEN Gets Amazon Grant
Amazon has awarded PEN American Center a $25,000 grant to further develop its online resources in order to better support freedom of expression throughout the world. In addition to funding different programs, a portion of the grant will be used to support the PEN Translation Fund.
