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Welcome
to the Vol. 7, No. 2 February 2009Index (scroll down for stories)
1. Targeting the Christian market? These books could be helpful 1. Targeting the Christian market? These books may be helpful If you’re looking to write fiction or nonfiction aimed at the Christian market, you might find helpful our list below ranking a number of books on writing and editing, finding agents and publishers and marketing to this special segment of the overall book market. We’ve listed the books by their rankings on Amazon.com in December. Keep in mind that Amazon.com rankings change hourly for the most popular titles (but less frequently for the not so popular ones). So if you check a ranking, it might be somewhat or even considerably different than the ranking that existed when we ran our scans. Remember also that just because a book is least or most popular in any table we run, it may not be the one that you would find the most helpful. Prices shown are the Amazon.com discounted prices for new copies.
2. VanderWyk & Burnham sold to Quick Publishing of St. Louis Book publisher VanderWyk & Burnham of Acton, Mass., in the Boston area, has been acquired by Quick Publishing of St. Louis, Mo. According to Meredith Rutter, who has been the VanderWyk & Burnham publisher, the time was ripe for selling the firm to a larger publisher capable of continuing to expand the brand. Quick Publishing acquires more than 25 new titles in the VanderWyk & Burnham portfolio. Included in the sale is the hardback edition of Front of the Class, the book that was the basis of a Dec. 7 national telecast by CBS of a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation.
Front of the Class
is an inspirational memoir written by Brad Cohen, who was diagnosed at age 10
with Tourette syndrome and went on to overcome obstacles to become an
outstanding grade school teacher in the Atlanta, Ga., suburbs. “We’re delighted to add the VanderWyk and Burnham brand to our other imprints,” said Quick Publishing President Angela M. Quick of St. Louis. The acquisition of VanderWyk & Burnham by Quick Publishing was brokered by Noel Griese of Anvil Brokers of Atlanta. Financial terms were not disclosed. Quick Publishing was created in 2003 when Angela and Fred Quick acquired Cache River Press and Studio 4 Productions, both of which were established more than 20 years ago. The Studio 4 Productions line has been divided into two imprints: Senior Sense and Quick Prints in the fields of family/senior/aging issues, parenting, character education, travel, and disaster preparedness. The Cache River Press line has been divided into two imprints as well: Cache River Press, which publishes local interest/travel books about the Midwest, and Cache River Science, which specializes in award-winning and well respected books in microbiology, pathology, reproduction and more. Effective with the sale to Quick Publishing, the distributor for VanderWyk & Burnham titles was moved from NBN to Partners of Holt, Mich.
3. Breaking news from the book barons J.K. Rowling's at it again. Her latest tome, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in December became the fastest-selling title of 2008. Reuters reported that "more than 2.6 million copies sold worldwide in less than two weeks"… HarperCollins Publishers has acquired world rights to a book about Ponzi scheme conspirator Bernard Madoff, to be written by journalist Andrew Kirtzman. Bertelsmann AG's Random House imprint said that it, too, is acquiring the rights to a book about Madoff by investigative reporter Richard Behar. Both are to be published in 2010… According to the New Yorker, Attorney Bob Barnett, who is representing Laura Bush in negotiations with publishers for her memoir about her years as the First Lady, is well along toward cutting a deal. Barnett told the magazine, "We have eight very interested publishers. Far from declining to meet, there were several more who asked for a meeting who we were not able to accommodate because of scheduling. The meetings were lively, insightful, and revealing. I have been at this long enough to know that, because certain publishers are well-known for being pathologically unable to maintain confidentiality, you don't reveal your best material in multi-publisher meetings. We will resolve it right after the first of the year"… The financially troubled Borders chain has ousted would-be turnaround specialist George Jones as CEO after he failed over two-and-a-half years to return the company to profitability. Selected to replace him is Ron Marshall, principal of Wildridge Capital Management. As part of the change, Chief Financial Officer Ed Wilhelm, who has been with Borders since 1994, and Rob Gruen are also leaving Borders. Senior Vice President of finance Mark Bierley becomes the new CFO. Anne Kubek takes over Gruen's position. Borders reports sales for the nine-week holiday period of $869 million, down 11.7 percent from a year ago. Same-store sales at the company's superstores declined 14.4 percent. Waldenbooks sales of $162 million declined by eight percent on a same-store basis, and 16.4 percent overall due to continued store closings. The company's web site did $20 million of business... Borders has been informed by the New York Stock Exchange that their stock is in danger of being delisted after trading for less than one dollar for 30 days. Borders stock closed 2008 at 45 cents a share, making its market capitalization $27.2 million. The market values the company at such a low level that theoretically one could buy one of the company's superstores for a little more than $50,000.… Effective Feb. 2, William J. Lynch, Jr., becomes president of Barnes & Noble.com. Lynch had been executive vice-president of marketing and general manager of HSN.com (the Home Shopping Network). 4. Want your book made into a movie? You may have a long wait At Anvil Brokers / Anvil Publishers, Inc., we’ve been associated with a number of book to movie deals. Most recently, we brokered the sale of VanderWyk & Burnham to Quick Publishing. One of the V&B titles sold is Brad Cohen’s Front of the Class. Cohen, when age 10, was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. He went on, nonetheless, to become one of the most outstanding grade school teachers in Georgia. His story was optioned to Hallmark Hall of Fame, and broadcast nationally in a CBS-TV movie aired on Dec. 7, 2008, to an audience of 11.8 million tuned-in households. So, what are the odds that your book will get optioned for a movie, and then made into a film? Astronomically high against it, according to available numbers. Take the case of Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road. According to a story by David Mehegan in the Dec. 27 Boston Globe, it took from 1961, when the novel was published, for it to become a movie in 2008. The movie, which stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, drew Hollywood interest almost as soon as it was published, but Yates died on 1992, long before the book became a movie. Had it not been for the personal passion of Winslet and her director husband, Sam Mendes, the book might never have reached the screen. Now showing are movie adaptations of Stephenie Meyer's vampire-teen tale Twilight, F. Scott Fitzgerald's short fantasy story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Bernhard Schlink's 1997 novel The Reader and Kate DiCamillo's children's story The Tale of Despereaux. Of the 500 to 600 movies, counting art-house films, that are made annually, only a fraction are based on novels. With more than 50,000 works of fiction published each year, according to W.W. Bowker, publisher of "Books in Print," the odds of any given novel becoming a movie – even if the book is optioned – become far less than one in 100. Says Boston literary agent John Taylor Williams: "An author shouldn't be surprised if, after a movie option is sold, the movie is never made."
5. Trade association for indy publisher reps unveils new online service The National Association of Independent Publishers Representatives is introducing a new service, Frontlist Plus Universal, an Internet-based service that will provide publishers and sales reps, both independent and in-house, "with a one-stop catalogue-order data-management system that includes file-format translation compatible with a variety of proprietary inventory-control systems and other industry platforms."
The impetus comes as many publishers are beginning to switch to electronic
catalogues. The service enters new-title data in catalogue order from participating publishers and primary distributors, who pay nominal per-title fees, allowing booksellers and other buyers to avoid hours of redundant data entry from a range of systems and data platforms. Buyers will be given a user name and password that will admit them to the system to view available publisher catalogues and to maintain their profiles, which will include contact information, type of operating system, file format type and preferred method of import. Buyers will receive authorization seasonally from reps that will allow them to unlock a particular catalogue or set of catalogues. Buyers will then be able to export an entire catalogue (or just titles they select) via FTP or dial-up connection for import into their store system and to create a seasonal new-title purchase order. 6. News about bookstores, publishing, marketing and promotion Commenting on the acquisition of Cumberland House by Source-books (see story below), publishing industry guru Al Greco, a marketing professor at Fordham University in New York, said more small publishers that don't have enough capital are going to go out of business. Many more are likely to cut back on titles that they publish. "The next year to year-and-a-half will be a challenge for publishers big and small," he told the Nashville Tennessean. "The smaller publishers are a lot more volatile because if they don't have the capital to get through the credit crunch, they can run out of money. What that means is that they don't have money for technology, don't have money for acquisition of new titles."
7. Chelsea Green, HarperStudio pioneer in ‘no returns’ arena Chelsea Green Publisher and President Margo Baldwin, who launched a “no returns” opportunity in 2007 for bookstore owners to get deeper discounts, is finding less resistance to the program. Chelsea Green offers discounts and other perks to retailers that purchase books on a no-returns basis. According to Baldwin, response to the program launched in 2007 has been extremely positive and growing. Program participants get a 50-percent discount and free freight. Participants are also first in line to get their shipments, and also get first dibs on author events. So far, 42 retailers are participating. More recently, financially troubled Borders Group Inc. has agreed to accept books from HarperStudio - the HarperCollins imprint started by former Hyperion Books publisher Robert S. Miller - on a nonreturnable basis, according to The Wall Street Journal.
When Miller, who serves as HarperStudio's president and publisher, joined
HarperCollins in the spring of 2008 to develop the new publishing group, one of
the goals of the group was to eliminate the practice of allowing booksellers to
return unsold copies of books. 8. Bookstore sales dip in October; Publishers ship fewer copies
U.S. bookstore sales in October dipped for the second month in a row, falling
5.6 percent to $1.060 billion, according to preliminary estimates from the
Census Bureau. A month earlier, in September, bookstore sales fell 4.5 percent
compared to the same period a year earlier. However, all the news is not bleak.
For the year to date, bookstore sales have risen 1.3 percent to $13.833 billion.
Meanwhile, publishers' net book sales fell 20.1
percent to $644.5 million in October, as reported by 80 publishers to the
Association of American Publishers. Sales for the year through October were down
3.4 percent to $8.362 billion. The AAP sales statistics track self-reported publisher net shipments (shipments less returns) from 80 association members. They give an indication of how some publishers are filling the supply chain, but do not necessarily correlate with sales at retail for the entire book business.
9. Sourcebooks acquires Nashville’s Cumberland House Sourcebooks, the Naperville, Ill., publishing house owned by Dominique Raccah, has acquired the major assets of Nashville-based Cumberland House, best known as the publisher of Gregory Lang's Why a Daughter Needs a Dad series of gift books, said to have sold more than three million copies. Ron Pitkin, who founded Cumberland House in 1996, told the Nashville Tennessean that "he is seeking publishers to take on rights to 400 other previously published titles not included in the Sourcebooks deal."
Raccah, who has also served as head of the Book Industry Study Group, says "the
addition of Cumberland House provides us with the opportunity to add a
remarkably talented publisher to our team as well as significantly expanding our
gift and regional titles."
Raccah has reportedly been in talks with three companies about further
acquisitions and is also planning to hire three more employees, a salesperson in
the Naperville office and acquisition editors in the company's New York and
Connecticut offices." Sourcebooks is acquiring 97 backlist and an additional nine forthcoming titles. Cumberland vice president of sales and marketing Chris Bauerle will join Sourcebooks as director of mass market and specialty retail sales, and Paul Mikos stays on as acquisitions editor for the Cumberland House imprint.
Cumberland's Nashville office, which employs 14 other people above those joining
the Sourcebooks staff, is being closed. He told the Tennessean that costs the bookstore chains are pushing off on publishers made the move important. He said that "it would have cost Cumberland a quarter of a million dollars to buy equipment to keep track of customers' inventory, a responsibility large bookstore chains are passing on to publishers." He also noted that bookstores are afraid to bring in more books because sales are slow. Pitkin started Cumberland 12 years ago after serving as co-founder and vice president of the former Rutledge Hill Press and as an editor at publisher Thomas Nelson Inc. of Nashville. Cumberland had been selling a million books a year, but sales have fallen amid tough economic times made worse by a financial market meltdown, Pitkin said. Raccah plans to hire three more employees, a salesperson in the Naperville office and acquisition editors in the company's New York and Connecticut offices. "We think this is a great environment for growth," Raccah said. 10. Update journalism: Latest skinny on past Southern Review stories A few years back, we covered the story of how Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan landed a $500,000 two-book contract with Little, Brown and a movie deal with Dreamworks but was found out as a plagiarist after the first book was published. A William Morris literary agent placed the manuscript for How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got A Life with Little, Brown when Viswanathan was a freshman at Harvard with a full course load. So far, so good. In April 2006, Little, Brown printed 100,000 copies. Then author Megan McCafferty claimed portions of Opal Mehta and her books Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings were remarkably similar. Viswanathan attributed the copying to her “photographic memory” and said that "any phrasing similarities between (McCafferty's) works and mine were completely unintentional and unconscious." The publisher recalled all copies of the book, canceled Viswanathan’s planned second book and said that it would not revise the published version of Opal for republication. The Dreamworks deal was nixed, too. Now, it appears, Viswanathan's suffering will be short-lived. She graduated in the spring of 2008 with an English degree and has entered law school at Georgetown. Dare we venture that she might end up as an intellectual property specialist?
11. Publisher Jane Daniel tells her side of 'Misha' hoax in new memoir Publisher Jane Daniel describes her publishing of Misha Defonseca's hoax about surviving the Holocaust in a new book, in which she defends the actions she took that led to a $33 million judgment against her and her publishing house. The founder of Mount Ivy Press, Daniel in 1997 published Defonseca's Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust, which eventually sold 70,000 copies in the U.S. and abroad, was translated into 18 languages and made into a hit movie in France. At one point the Walt Disney Company optioned rights to the book but did not exercise the option. In 2001, Defonseca and ghost writer Vera Lee sued Daniel charging she'd hidden royalties in offshore accounts and failed to adequately promote the book in the U.S. A former professor of romance languages at Boston College, Lee had been asked by Daniel, her then-friend and neighbor, to help write the book because she was fluent in French. After a Massachusetts jury awarded Defonseca and Lee $11 million, Judge Elizabeth Fahey described Daniel's conduct in publishing the book as "reprehensible" and tripled the award to $33 million with two-thirds going to Defonseca. Then the case took another unexpected turn. After researchers abroad dug up her true past, Defonseca admitted her story as told in the book was a hoax. Daniel sued to overturn the judgment after it was revealed that the book was fabricated falsehood. In October 2008, her lawsuit to overturn the $33 million award was rejected by Middlesex Superior Court Judge Timothy Feeley, who ruled Daniel hadn't filed it within the one-year statute of limitations. In a statement, Feeley said the issue before the court only involved Daniel's breached contract with Defonseca and Lee and not the story's veracity. Daniel still owes Defonseca $22 million and another $11 million to Lee, a small portion of which has been paid. Daniel has now published her side of the case, in Bestseller! The $33 Million Verdict. The 20-year Hoax. The Truth Behind the Headlines. Published by Laughing Gull Press, Daniel's book is a detailed recounting of events leading to her publication of Misha's story and her views that the courts erred by awarding Defonseca and Lee $33 million and then rejecting her appeal that she was the victim of an elaborate fraud. She says in her book that Defonseca "polished" her story, a fabrication of lies, for "three to five years" at speaking engagements with Jewish groups at temples and other events where she was often paid. While Daniel insists she didn't cheat Defonseca or Lee out of royalties or fail to publicize the book, she argues that Defonseca's fraud against her and the court invalidate the claims. Lee's attorney, Frank Frisoli of Cambridge, called Daniel's Bestseller a "good work of fiction" that obscures the "simple logic" behind the court's dismissal of her appeal. He said Judge Feeley accepted his argument that questions about Defonseca's truthfulness should not affect the initial court decision. Daniel defrauded Lee and Defonseca of contractual royalties by placing them in Caribbean offshore accounts, the court found in the original decision. Daniel then "defrauded" his client and Defonseca by placing "hundreds of thousands of dollars" from book and movie sales in a company she formed in Turks and Caicos, he said. "The judgment against Jane Daniel has nothing to do with the book's veracity," said Frisoli. He alleged Daniel has reneged on an agreement to pay Lee a fixed monthly fee and said he may reinstitute legal action to require her to sell her Gloucester home. "(Jane) is a nice lady but seems unable to keep her word contractually," said Frisoli. "Vera (Lee) made a big mistake getting involved with Jane." Reached at her Newton home, ghostwriter Lee said Daniel's Bestseller "mixes together things that are true and things that are wrong." Lee said the court's initial judgment proved Daniel "diverted funds" that should have gone to Defonseca and herself. "In every case, the jury was 100 percent against Jane," she said. Lee said she's now writing her own account of the story. (Source: Chris Bergeron, GateHouse News Service) 12. We get letters: The Salisburys comment on Amazon rankings
13. Berkley, Lerner pull fake Holocaust memoir as author confesses Well, Oprah’s been sucked into promoting another book that turns out to be a fabrication. Berkley on Dec. 27 cancelled publication of Herman Rosenblat's Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived, scheduled for release in February. In a short statement the publisher, which initially defended the book following a long expose piece in The New Republic, said the cancellation came "after receiving new information from Rosenblat's agent, Andrea Hurst." They also said that they "will demand that the author and the agent return all money that they have received for this work."
The New York Times said later that it was sold "for less than $50,000."
In a statement on Dec. 28, agent Andrea Hurst said "Herman revealed to me that
part of his memoir was not true. He'd invented the crux of this amazing love
story - about the girl at the fence who threw him an apple.... Like millions of
others who read this story or saw Herman and Roma on ‘Oprah,’ I never for a
moment questioned the authenticity of the widely circulated story. I know that
everyone who has worked so hard with Herman this past year is as stunned and
disappointed as I am that this story of hope has such a sad ending."
Said agent Hurst to the Associated Press, "I question why I never questioned it.
I believed it; it was an incredible, hope-filled story."
Long before he fooled his agent and Berkley, he fooled Oprah Winfrey and many
others. "In 1996, he appeared on Ms. Winfrey's show with his wife and repeated
the fabricated story. From there, it snowballed, with versions appearing in
magazines, a volume of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and a children's
book, Angel Girl, by Laurie Friedman, released in September by an imprint
of Lerner Publishing. Mr. and Mrs. Rosenblat, who now live in North Miami Beach,
appeared on CBS's Early Show in October." A few days before the cancellation, Berkley had offered a qualified defense of the book, saying it was a work of memory, a story whose truth was known only to the author. Rosenblat, 79, a resident of the Miami area, was virtually unknown to the general public until the 1990s when he began speaking of how he came to know his wife, Roma Radzicky. According to Rosenblat and his wife, he was a prisoner at a sub-camp of Buchenwald in Nazi Germany and she was a young Jewish girl whose family was pretending to be Christian and lived nearby. For months, supposedly, they would meet on opposite sides of a barbed-wire fence, where she would sneak him apples and bread. Rosenblat was then transferred to another camp and the two lost touch, until the 1950s, when they were reunited by accident - on a blind date - in New York. They soon married and earlier this year celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The Rosenblats were interviewed twice over the years by Winfrey, who has called their romance "the single greatest love story... we've ever told on the air." A feature film adaptation is scheduled to begin next year. Unlike such fake Holocaust memoirists as Misha Defonseca (see story above) and Benjamin Wilkomirski (Fragments), Rosenblat was indeed a survivor of the konzentrationschlagern, and records prove that he was at the Buchenwald camp. But scholars doubted his story, noting that the layout of the sub-camp made encounters at the fence such as he described virtually unthinkable. The article in The New Republic quoted friends and family members who were outraged by Rosenblat, so much so that one of his brothers stopped speaking to him. Why weren’t the facts checked by Penguin? Even after such fabrications as James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, another Winfrey favorite, publishers have said that with more than 100,000 books coming out each year, fact-checking is too time-consuming and too expensive. Penguin has already had to break ties with two authors this year. In March, the publisher pulled Margaret B. Jones' Love and Consequences after the author acknowledged she had invented her story of befriending gang members in South-Central Los Angeles. A month later, Penguin parted with romance writer Cassie Edwards over allegations that she had lifted numerous passages from other sources. 14. Monitoring the e-book, graphic novel and e-tailing markets Sony in December launched a promotional blitz in airports, train stations and bookstores with the goal of personally demonstrating its e-book Reader device to two million people by the end of 2008. Sony’s latest model, the Reader 700, priced at $400, has a reading light and a touch screen that allows users to annotate what they are reading. According to a Dec. 23 story in the New York Times by Motoko Rich and Brad Stone, Sony’s sales tripled this holiday season over last, in part because the Reader is now available in the Target, Borders and Sam’s Club chains. Sony has reportedly sold more than 300,000 of the devices since the debut of the original Reader in 2006. Amazon will not disclose sales of its rival $390 Kindle device, but Peter Hildick-Smith, president of the Codex Group, a book market research company, said he believes Amazon sold as many as 260,000 units through the beginning of October. That was before Oprah Winfrey endorsed the Kindle on her popular TV show. The Winfrey endorsement appears to have been the major factor leading to Amazon selling out of the device over the holidays, with additional supplies not expected until February. Some analysts say the number of Kindles sold could now be as high as a million… E-book sales to the new generation of cellphones are contributing to rapidly accelerating e-book sales. Several e-book-reading programs have been created for Apple’s iPhone. At least two of the apps, Stanza from LexCycle and the eReader from Fictionwise, have been downloaded more than 600,000 times. Another company, Scrollmotion, has announced that it will begin selling e-books for the iPhone from major publishers like Simon & Schuster, Random House and Penguin. All of these companies say they are now tailoring their software for other kinds of smartphones, including Blackberries. Publishers say these iPhone applications are already starting to generate nearly as many digital book sales as the Sony Reader, though they still lag sales of books for the Kindle format… Some of the small e-book publishers that have faced relatively light competition will soon be butting heads with the major publishing houses, who are coming to recognize the rapid expansion of the niche. HarperCollins has made 25,000 titles such as Lemony Snicket's The Lump of Coal available digitally. Readers can browse them online or in some cases read them in full for free. The sector is Random House's fastest growing, and the publishing behemoth recently announced that it was nearly doubling the number of digital books available. Generation of revenue is not the only positive offered by e-books. With digital books, there are no shipping, printing or return costs, which eat into publisher profits… While e-book revenue is doubling, its overall share of the $32 billion book market is miniscule, and is forecast to rise to just five to six percent of sales by 2013. By comparison, audio books make up nine percent of the market. A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that sales of e-books will be $9.6 billion annually by 2012, but won't pass sales of paper books until 2018. Beware - 10 years out is long time for a prediction to hold.
15. Major publishers agree to sell e-books to iPhones, iPods New York mobile app developer Scrollmotion has made deals with a number of major publishing houses to produce newly released and best-selling e-books as applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Publishers initially on board include Houghton Mifflin, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Hachette and Penguin Group USA. The Scrollmotion app is good for Apple because it boosts iTunes as an e-book shop and the iPhone in becoming an e-book reader and competitor to products like the Kindle and the Sony E-Reader. Scrollmotion can also work not only with an iPhone but with an iPod as well. These have become hugely successful, far more so than Amazon’s Kindle reader, with over 174 million sales for the iPod alone.
Although there may be more than 174 million potential users of the Iceberg
technology, Scrollmotion is not limiting the technology to the Apple devices
alone, and plans to release the application for use by Android and Blackberry
users as well. Other publishers with mobile phone programs include HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Simon & Schuster. There is another major reason why Scrollmotion could stand as a serious threat to Amazon. Scrollmotion doesn't require an e-book reader.
The first official books being offered using Scrollmotion’s Iceberg app include
titles such as Christopher Paolini's Brisingr, Philip Pullman's His
Dark Materials trilogy and Peter Matthiessen's award-winning Shadow
Country. Brisingr is $27.99; Brad Meltzer's The Book of Lies
is $25.99, andbest-selling The Shack is $14.99. There are already several e-book readers in the app store that feature out-of-copyright books, but Scrollmotion’s product is unique in that its offerings are stand-alone and newer in-copyright titles and best-selling novels. Each book is a separate app using Scrollmotion's new reader technology called Iceberg, and is wrapped only in the FairPlay iTunes DRM, putting Apple directly into the e-book business by allowing them to pick up a certain percentage of each sale. Unlike other e-book applications, each title keeps the same pagination as the print book, while still allowing the reader to zoom in and scroll down as well as skipping ahead with a feature called "Book Skim." Current functionality also includes note taking, text search and the ability to purchase additional books using a recommendation service over a Wi-Fi connection. Fictionwise recently announced that it would make 40,000 of its e-books available for viewing in Stanza, another Apple app, by licensing out its eReader format to the app's creator, Lexcycle. Scrollmotion says it envisions a more organized app store and iPhone/iPod interface in the future where titles could eventually be sorted and grouped creating a virtual library of all of your books. 16. Random House offers free titles for Lexcycle's Stanza reader The Random House Publishing Group and Lexcycle, Inc., jointly announced on Dec. 8 that Random House and Ballantine will be the first major book publishers to make full-length books available for free on iPhone through Lexcycle Stanza, the popular electronic book reader for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. The promotion will allow over 500,000 Stanza users to enjoy free e-books from a varied list of authors including Alan Furst, Julie Garwood, Charlie Huston, David Liss, Laurie Notaro, Arthur Phillips and Simon Rich. The initial offerings will be drawn from each author's backlist and will include excerpts for any new hardcovers coming in 2009. Random House is providing links to retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com, Borders.com, Powells.com and IndieBound.org to encourage readers to purchase more books by these authors. "A free e-book is a great way to sample a new writer, and help spread the word," says Charlie Huston, whose novels Caught Stealing, Six Bad Things and A Dangerous Man will all be available on Stanza. "Besides, it's good to give things away. They're books. We write them for people to read them." Stanza users already have access to a public domain library that is drawing nearly 40,000 downloads a day. Stanza for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store.
17. BISG releases new BookDROP Standard for online book content
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) has released version 1.0 of its BookDROP
technical specification, a new standard intended to support the search and
discovery of digital book content on the Web. POD publisher Author Solutions has added rival Xlibris to its stable of subsidy-publishing imprints. Author Solutions prior imprints include iUniverse and AuthorHouse. According to the New York Times, Author Solutions' chief executive Kevin Weiss said that last year the company “published 12,000 titles and sold more than 2.5 million copies of its books… the title count for the combined company would have been about 19,000 in 2008.” Now, if the 2.5 million books sold by the AuthorHouse and iUniverse imprints in 2008 were only of the new 12,000 titles published by the two imprints, that would mean the average vanity press title published by Author Solutions imprints would have sold 208 copies. But many of the 2.5 million copies sold in 2008 would have been of titles published in prior years, meaning that the typical Author Solutions vanity press title sold well under 208 copies on average. If you’re an author who wants to publish to feel important or because you can’t cope with the details of self-publishing under your own imprint, subsidy presses like the Author Solutions imprints may be a suitable outlet for you. But if you expect to make money on all the time and effort you invest in writing a book by subsidy-publishing it… well, face it, the averages are against you! Traditional book outlets – the chains, big box stores and independent bookstores – know that the quality of subsidy-published books tends to be low, and will almost never stock ‘em.
19. Useful information and free services for writers The Authors Show web radio program went from a weekly to a daily broadcast starting Jan 5th, and is looking for guests. The producer is looking for authors, published or self-published, to be interviewed on the show (free). All topics welcome, including children books, business, spiritual. Go to www.TheAuthorsShow.com and submit the interview request form. No emails or phone calls please… "Miss Young,” the producer at Blog Talk Radio, is putting together the guest list for January – December 2009, and is looking for guests to interview. She’s seeking, among others, guests who are authors, professional speakers, entrepreneurs and experts in the field of health/wellness; wealth building; and economic and family relationship Issues. Send an email with your name and contact information to nno7@mail.com. In the Subject Line put "RADIO SHOW GUEST"… 20. Christian Post names three stories about books to top 2008 news list In selecting the top 10 entertainment news stories in 2008 with a Christian slant, The Christian Post listed three stories about books. In its top pick, the post named coverage of The Shack, noting that author William Paul Young had not originally intended his novel to be for public consumption. Nonetheless, The Shack shot surprisingly to the top of best seller lists, generating large amounts of buzz – both positive and negative – within Christian circles. Through yearend, The Shack sold more than 4.4 million copies in 24 different countries. The Post’s second choice was the church-produced movie “Fireproof,” which spawned two books in addition to raking in over $33 million in ticket sales. Directed and produced by the Kendrick brothers of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., the movie tells the inspiring story of a fireman and his struggle to save his faltering marriage from ending with his newfound faith and with the help of the “Love Dare,” a 40-day spiritual guide that utilizes Scripture to reveal what true love is. The movie version of “Fireproof” debuted Sept. 26-28 at No. 4, with $6.5 million in ticket sales, marking the year’s second highest grossing opening weekend. The ministry’s movie also spawned a best-selling book that started as a plot device in the film until audiences repeatedly requested copies for themselves. The third story about books in the Christian Post’s top-10 stories about entertainment centered on the Oprah Winfrey promotion of Eckhart Tolle’s New Age books. A YouTube video that features talk show host Winfrey denying Jesus as the only way to God and promoting New Age ideas drew over five million viewers after being public for only a month. The under seven-minute video montage, entitled "The Church of Oprah Exposed," was posted late March and highlighted the concerns of Christians who believe the popular day-time host has been distorting Christianity and leading her audience into spiritual confusion. When asked a direct question about how she is able to reconcile belief in Christianity with belief in author Eckhart Tolle’s message, Oprah answered: “I reconciled it because I was able to open my mind about the absolute indescribable hugeness of that which we call God. I took God out of the box.” She said she got tired of “rules” and “doctrines,” and particularly of the Scriptural idea that God is a “jealous God.” “Something about that didn’t feel right in my spirit,” she said, “because I believe that God is love.” Oprah’s promotion of Eckhart’s book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, was criticized by Christian leaders including Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, and S. Michael Craven, president of the Center for Christ & Culture, who called the book “nothing but spiritualized self-help and repackaged paganism that serve to deceive and divert people from the One True God and the salvation that comes only through Jesus Christ.” The YouTube video on “The Church of Oprah” at year-end 2008 had accumulated more than eight million views. 21. News of how innovative authors and publishers are selling books Joshua Henkin "has visited more than 80 book groups in person or on the phone and, believe me, will visit yours even with only a few hours' notice" to promote his book, says the Philadelphia Inquirer in a profile of the author. Henkin approaches the book clubs in person, on the phone or by email to discuss his novel, Matrimony (Simon & Schuster, 2008). "He's really kind of off the charts on it," says Wendy Sheanin, senior marketing manager at S&S. 22. South Carolina publishing company thrives in local history niche The History Press of Charleston, S.C., is only five years old, but it’s already selling 200,000 books a year. The company sells books at out-of-the-way local stores like Bert’s Market and the visitors' center at Ninety Six National Historic Site. The company published only 20 titles in 2004, its first year in business. But its five-year list of titles now tops 500. History Press’ sales topped 200,000 books in 2008. The subjects range across 20 states, with titles such as The Wilmington Shipyard: Welding a Fleet for Victory in World War II and Explorations in Charleston’s Jewish History. History was the third most popular book genre in sales nationally in 2007, behind only biography and romance, according to Michael Norris, editor of Simba’s Book Publishing Report newsletter. What started around founder Kirsty Sutton’s dining room table in 2004 expanded to the downtown Charleston home office, a warehouse a few blocks away and a satellite office in Salem, Mass. Another office in the Midwest is scheduled to open early in 2009. “We definitely have hit a niche in the market,” said Julie Foster, managing editor of History Press. “There are so many towns and communities that haven’t had their history told in print.” Sutton first hit on that pent-up demand as founding editor of Arcadia Publishing, which created hundreds of books filled with old photos and postcards of local landmarks. Some of History Press’ titles also are photo-driven, but most use words to tell the story. And almost all are printed in paperback form. Potential authors are recruited from county historical societies or at local museums. Most already have done the research involved. Some already have done the writing. Eric Williams researched local histories for 27 years to improve the tours he guided as a park ranger at Ninety Six National Historic Site. In 2006, History Press published Old Ninety Six: A History and Guide, written by Williams and his friend and fellow park ranger Robert Dunkerly. The book sells well at the national park’s visitors' center in Greenwood County, and Williams gets a kick out of seeing it on the shelves in the big chain book stores in Greenville, S.C. Williams and Dunkerly have received a couple of royalty checks. But they were more interested in telling the area’s story than in making money. The History Press business plan is to sell small quantities of lots of books. The typical History Press title might have a press run of 1,000 to 1,800. “For each one, we try to determine how many we’re confident we can sell in a year or a couple of years,” said Brittain Phillips, the chief operating officer of History Press. History Press has already done three press runs for a history of the Miller & Rhoads department store in Richmond, Va., selling nearly 5,000 copies since it came out in November 2008. Some of the History Press titles include the footnotes, detailed bibliographies and expanded indexes that help researchers. Some don’t. (Source: Joey Holleman, The State, Columbia, S.C.)
Cynthia Bright's publishing company, Bright Mountain Books, publishes, republishes and wholesales books by local authors that have subject matter rooted in the Southern Appalachian region. The publishing house currently has nearly 40 titles in print. Most are nonfiction, with a few historical novels. Bright moved to the Asheville, N.C., area in 1980 with husband Eric, now deceased. Both had worked in the publishing field in Boston early in their careers. Initially, they started a wholesale book business, Bright Horizons, which specialized in selling Appalachian-based books to area bookstores. Publishing titles was a logical next step for the Brights. Created in 1983, Bright Mountain Books releases only a few books per year. After her husband's death, Bright began publishing books from the basement offices of a new home in Fairview, N.C., near Asheville. “We started republishing books that have proven to be of value to this area,” Bright said. Though a number of her titles may have been published elsewhere first, Bright feels that purchasing the rights and republishing the books is worthwhile. Examples of popular reprints by Bright Mountain Books include Mountain Spirits and Mountain Spirits & More by Joseph Dabney. Bright describes these books as a “touristy, but authentic, history of moonshine and moonshiners.” The ratio of new manuscripts to reprints published is about 50-50, according to Bright. She accepts submissions if they fit the publishing house's requirements of being by local authors examining local themes with a bent toward the historical. Print runs can be as low as 500, although a typical printing produces 1,500 to 2,000 books. Bright employs one other full-time worker, plus three part-timers. (Source: Anne Fitten Glenn, Asheville Citizen-Times) 24. How publishers use marketing, publicity and events to sell books Last February, female financial advisor Suze Orman went on the Oprah Winfrey Show and offered a two-day free download of the e-book version of her year-old, best-selling book Women & Money. The offer resulted in over a million free downloads. Orman and publisher Spiegel & Grau hope to build on that success by launching her new Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan with another appearance on Oprah's show in early January, with a free e-book download for a full week, ending with a live webcast on Jan. 15. As with the previous download program, the book is being providing in both English and Spanish versions. 25. Some Christians see ‘The Shack’ as worse than ‘DaVinci Code’ Through December, The Shack, by author William Paul Young, has sold more than 4.4 million copies in 24 different countries after initially being rejected by 26 publishers and then published by Young and two cleric supporters. It has remained on the New York Times Bestsellers List for Paperback Trade Fiction for more than half a year, and at yearend 2008 retained the No. 1 spot. Despite its overwhelming popularity with the laity, the book has been openly criticized by conservative Protestant clerics including R. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.; Chuck Colson, founder of the Prison Fellowship Ministries; and Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Young is not a member of a church and is somewhat reticent about being labeled a Christian. The Shack has generated large amounts of buzz, both positive and negative, within Christian circles. “It was the most disturbing book that I had ever read in my life,” writes John Langemann in the yet-to-be-published book Beware the Shack. According to Eric Young of the Christian Post, while many of the arguments presented in the new anti-Shack books are the latest in efforts by opponents of a book considered to be even more harmful than The Da Vinci Code, which centers on the alleged conspiracy to conceal the offspring of a married Mary and Jesus. “Indeed, because it is being promoted as Christian fiction, it is much more dangerous than books like The Da Vinci Code, which never claimed to be Christian,” argues ministry leader Tim McGhee of Powell, Tenn., in a review of the book. “The Shack is nothing less than rank heresy disguised as Christian literature.” According to Eric Barger, who has produced the DVD “The Death of Discernment: How The Shack Became the #1 Bestseller in Christianity," the real problem with The Shack and other books, movies, and television shows like it, is that Christians can fail to use scriptural discernment if they let their emotions rule. “We can be taken captive by ‘evil imaginations,’” argues Barger, who runs Take a Stand! Ministries. “As one who wears his emotions on his sleeve and who found himself being swayed by the heartbreaking storyline of The Shack, I must again caution," Barger says. "To allow a gripping story to cloud our ability to detect even the subtle theological errors strewn throughout its pages is exactly what Dr. Michael Youssef meant when he described The Shack as ‘a deep ditch that's covered by beautiful landscape.’” 26. Novel written in Ernest Hemingway's attic named one of best of 2008 Hard as it is to believe, a contemporary novel was written in the dark Victorian attic of a home that once belonged to Ernest Hemingway. There is not much light and the wood is very dark and it looks like, well, an attic! But it is also the place William Elliott Hazelgrove has been going for 10 years to hack out a new work of literature after not publishing anything for a decade. The novelist had published three books before he began his sojurn in the attic in Oak Park, Ill. "I really couldn't come up with another Southern novel and that is what Bantam had published before," the 48-year-old author said of his attic studio. "So I looked around at what was going on and came up with this disaffected guy named Dale Hammer and put him smack in the middle of the housing crisis and that's really how Rocket Man began." The book came out in December and is being hailed as an exemplary novel dealing with the death of the American Dream. Rocket Man tracks a man in his last week of normalcy in a far western suburb, struggling to hold onto his home while losing the battle with "whitebread" conformity that surrounds him. The Chicago Sun Times reviewed Rocket Man, calling it "(T)he funniest serious novel I have read since Richard Russo's Straight Man, rich with the epic levity of John Irving and salted with the perversion of Updike." The book is a satire in which the themes of conformity and economic survival are played out in a situational comedy.
Over one hundred online reviews have been posted with top ranked Amazon
reviewer, Grady Harp, summing up the book: "William Elliott Hazelgrove's
Rocket Man is a brilliant piece of writing, a work that meticulously
dissects contemporary life in America with such a keen eye that the author is
able to catch at least passing glances at us all." The San Antonio Express
picked Rocket Man as one of the Best Books of 2008 with novelist David
Liss citing the book as "a first rate black comedy." No stranger to getting publicity by making outrageous claims, right-wing attack dog Ann Coulter publicized her latest book, Guilty, by claiming she had been banned from appearing on NBC, a claim that proved to be outrageously false as she made appearances in two separate segments on the network. An earlier Coulter appearance on “Today” was cancelled to make way for coverage of the Israeli war in Gaza. Coulter used that cancellation to charge in an appearance on the Hannity sans Colmes show on Fox that she had been banned. Thereafter, Coulter was interviewed once by Harry Smith on the CBS “Early Show” – who called her “sophomoric” and as much a victim as those she attacks in her latest book - then twice on NBC’s “Today.” She publicized all three appearances on her Web site. The brouhaha began when Coulter, a frequent critic of the mainstream media, including NBC, was scheduled to appear on “Today” to discuss Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America. When the interview was canceled, Matt Drudge headlined a story on his Web site proclaiming that NBC had banned Coulter for life for her controversial views. Coulter fueled the fire in entries on her own Web site and in appearances on other news shows. She was invited back eight hours after Drudge broke his story. Interviewer Matt Lauer told Coulter that the reason her segment was dropped to make way for a live report from Israel on the conflict in Gaza by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. If Coulter harbored any animosity, she didn’t show it. Lauer accused her of saying, “The mainstream media hates conservatives.” “I didn’t say that,” Coulter said. She admitted that she agrees with the sentiment, “but I have much more colorful language.” “The point is, I was canceled twice,” Coulter rejoined, referring to a second scheduled appearance with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford in the show’s fourth hour that was also dropped. But Coulter did make a second “Today” appearance with Kotb and Gifford, using the time to expand on her earlier discussion with Lauer. Coulter kept trying to turn the discussion to her book, which has ignited familiar firestorms in both the conservative and liberal camps. A master at touching raw nerves and making over-the-top statements, Coulter has been accused of making at least 12 false statements in the book by Media Matters (see story below), an independent media watchdog group. She insists that she is right on all issues. She refers to President-elect Barack Obama as “B. Hussein Obama” throughout the book and repeated the usage on air with Lauer. Critics say she’s playing to the false belief among some conservatives that Obama is a Muslim. “It’s not untrue that’s what his middle name is,” she said with a smile. “It’s insane to act as if using someone’s middle name is some sort of vicious hate crime.” But the part of the book that has raised the most controversy is Coulter’s contention that single mothers portray themselves as victims when in fact they are the cause of most societal problems. “We could wipe out chronic poverty in America tomorrow if women could just manage to get married before having children - and to stay married after having children,” Coulter writes in the book. She told Lauer, “We know that children raised without fathers are filling up the prisons,” and accused the mainstream media and Hollywood of glorifying single mothers instead of condemning them. 28. Watchdog details long list of inaccuracies in latest Coulter diatribe The latest tome by Ann Coulter, who has made millions by preaching a gospel of hate in her books, is littered with inaccuracies, a laundry list of which has been published by Media Matters for America. Media Matters examined an advance copy of Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America by author and syndicated columnist Ann Coulter. It then published a kong laundry list of the book's numerous falsehoods, including misrepresentations of the sources she cites. The falsehoods come in a wide-ranging list of subjects including her defense of the claims made against Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 presidential campaign; her assertion that "Fox News has never been caught promoting a fraud"; her claim that President-elect Barack Obama was referring to Gov. Sarah Palin when he said "you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig"; and attacks she makes against New York Times columnist Frank Rich. Media Matters also documents that Coulter made numerous inflammatory and offensive comments in Guilty. 29. New standard requires testing of paper in children’s books for lead All the publishers who sell books on Amazon were warned rec ently by the online merchant of new U.S. standards for lead and other substances in the paper used in children’s books. Beginning with books manufactured in February 2009, such books aimed at children 12 and under must be tested by an independent laboratory for the presence of substances harmul.
The paper and cardboard in children’s books manufactured from February 2009
forward for sale in the U.S. must be tested for lead in particular. Information
on the new rule and testing appears at www.cpsc.gov,
the Web site of the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, especially at
http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/faq/101faq.html#educational There will likely be clarifications from the CPSA on the new testing standards as they apply to children’s books in the days immediately ahead, as CPSA responds to the NAM request, so stay tuned.
30. Bookkeeper charged with embezzling $348,975 from store Olsen notes that the store remains solid. "We are in very good shape. I would call our sales flat, which is a good thing these days." 31. BEA and ABA announce they’ll be back together at NYC show
BookExpo America and the American Booksellers Association are launching a
program of initiatives intended "to help ease the economic challenges facing
booksellers who wish to attend the 2009 trade show; to invigorate the
convention; and to give booksellers and other industry professionals who attend
BEA more networking opportunities," according to
Bookselling This Week. ABA will move its annual Day of Education back to the convention facility. The Day of Education will take place on May 28, the day before the exhibit floor opens, at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City. For the past two years, ABA has been conducting its panels and forums off site. BEA, in turn, will offer a concurrent retailer education track to encourage "crossover" attendance. By holding the Day of Education at the convention center, ABA and BEA noted that the Editor & Bookseller Buzz Forum can now be featured in its traditional time slot on the afternoon of May 28 at 4:15 p.m., and BEA's Opening Night Keynote on May 28 at 5:30 p.m. ABA's annual Celebration of Bookselling, previously a ballroom event, will be marked by a series of nightly events at the Brooklyn Marriott, ABA’s designated hotel for members. All other ABA functions, including the Indie Next List Lunch on May 29, will be held at the Javits Center, as will the newly revamped Indies Choice Book Awards, at a time yet to be determined. Major upcoming trade shows, book fairs and book festivals 2009 Trade Shows January
Inspirational Value Book Show (IVBS), Jan. 15-16, Nashville, Tenn.,
www.ivbshow.com March
Spring Book Show - March 6-8, Atlanta, GA. Cobb Galleria/Renaissance-Waverly
Hotel. SBS is one of the largest remainder and bargain book shows in the world.
www.springbookshow.com April London Book Fair - www.lbf-virtual.com May BookExpo America - May 28-31, 2009, New York - www.bookexpoamerica.com June BookExpo Canada - June - Toronto, Ontario. www.bookexpo.ca The Australian Booksellers Association's - Melbourne. The American Library Association - Anaheim, CA. July The National Association of College Stores Conference. www.nacs.org CBA/The International Christian Retail Show. www.christianretailshow.com ALA Annual Conference 2009, Chicago, Ill. July 9-15, McCormick Place Chicago, Ill. Committee and business meetings take place July 9-15, 2009 and Council Meetings run to July 15. Education programs take place primarily July 10-13. Exhibits held July 11-14 at McCormick Place West. Programs and meetings take place at McCormick Place West and nearby hotels. August The Great American Bargain Book Show (GABBS) – August www.gabbs.net The New York International Gift Fair – www.nyigf.com The Beijing International Book Fair – Beijing, China. www.bibf.net/bibf New Orleans-Gulf South Booksellers Association. betbooks@aol.com September
CIANA – September 14-15, London.
www.ciana.co.uk
New England Independent Booksellers Association - Sept.
www.newenglandbooks.org October
Oct. 14–18, 61st annual Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany.
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The
Southern Review is edited by Noel Griese. The author of 17 books and
numerous articles on various subjects, he has been a newspaper reporter
and editor and has taught English and journalism at the Universities of
Wisconsin and Georgia. Elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi,
he holds three degrees in English and journalism.
we're offering a comprehensive one-day seminar in addition to an intensive
seminar on writing for the Christian market. Both seminars will be held in
classrooms at the Cobb Galleria Centre in north Atlanta. Attend either,
and you get free admission to the Spring Book Show, a $75 value.
erstocks,
your titles need to be represented. More than 50,000 bargain-priced titles
represented by 100-plus dealers will be up for sale.
