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Welcome
to the Vol. 8, No. 7 July 2010Index (scroll down for stories)
1. Bad-boy NBA referee Tim Donaghy in tiff with publisher over financial
records 1. Bad-boy NBA referee Tim Donaghy in tiff with publisher over financial records When Random House imprint Triumph Books dropped a forthcoming book by Tim Donaghy, the disgraced National Basketball Association referee turned to a small press in Florida whose Web site hasm many of the earmarks of a vanity or subsidy press.
The Florida-based press said recently that it had cut its ties with Donaghy over
"safety concerns" in a rhubarb over royalties and expenses. VTi-Media, the small Florida publisher, said the former NBA referee threatened them by saying he had friends in the Gambino crime family. "We've had to lock our office doors and get escorted to our cars," said Shawna Vercher, chief executive of VTi, which in 2009 published Donaghy's tell-all Personal Foul: A First-Person Account of the Scandal That Rocked the NBA after the book was canceled by Triumph. Donaghy allegedly told VTi employees that he'd hurt them if he didn't get paid - a threat that led the company to get a restraining order against him, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months behind bars on federal wire fraud and gambling charges after The Post revealed he was betting on NBA games. Donaghy, who bet on games with help from the mob, served 11 months before he was released in November 2009. James Battista, a professional gambler who paid thousands of dollars for Donaghy's tips, and Thomas Martino, the scheme's middleman, both pleaded guilty and were also sentenced in 2008. Battista was given 15 months in prison; Martino was sentenced to a year and a day. Donaghy has served his time for conspiring to engage in wire fraud and transmitting betting information across state lines. But he has not served time for fixing games, and has been told that if it is ever proved he did, he could be locked up again. Donaghy’s dishonesty did not start with hiding his gambling from his family and NBA officials. He admits in his book to plenty of lying and cheating, starting with getting someone else to take his SAT test in high school.
Even his authorship of the book is in doubt. There have been allegations that it
was ghost-written. Vercher says that three separate people told her that he did not write it, including one man who claims to be friends with the ghost writer. Donaghy is in financial trouble. He has been unemployed for the most part since his time in the NBA. He currently works as a part-time speaker at a gambling counseling center, making less than he needs for living expenses. He owes six figures in restitution. So it’s not surprising that he wants to get any income coming from his book sales. Vercher said Donaghy has contacted company employees and book vendors with "increasingly irate and threatening calls." At one point, the 43-year-old Donaghy, who spent 13 years refereeing NBA games, even threatened them by saying he has mob ties, Vercher said. "One thing he said in particular is that, 'You know I have associates in the Gambino crime family and they are active in this part of the state,'" Vercher told the Daily News. "This stuff has gotten really ugly, really quickly." Donaghy denied the accusations, calling Vercher "vindictive." "Absolutely not, there's nothing to (the threats) at all," Donaghy told the Philadelphia newspaper. "It came down to the fact that I asked for the accounting, which I'm allowed to do per my contract with them, and they didn't provide me with the accounting." Donaghy said he was concerned Vercher might have spent the money. Donaghy has been joined in his quest by Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch. Lynch's office has subpoenaed records about the book and its sales from VTi Group Inc. Vercher says the profits from the book go to the feds, not Donaghy. "We have to send (the profits) to the U.S. Attorney's Office and not him directly" since he is not allowed to profit from his crimes, she said. Donaghy's earnings are supposed to be placed in an escrow account, from which the government will make sure restitution to the NBA and others is paid. But so far, Donaghy said, VTi Media hasn't given him or the feds any accounting.
The dispute grew so intense that police were called at one point. Sgt. Mark Young of the Largo Police Department in Florida said police received a complaint from Vercher in April. Young said she told them that Donaghy had threatened a Tennessee book distributor. No action was taken because Tennessee was outside the jurisdiction of the Largo Police Department. Vercher told the Philadelphia Daily News that she has audio recordings of some of the alleged threats. "We have some of his outbursts on tape,'' she said.”He's not aware of this." In a May 11 email, VTi CEO Shawna Vercher wrote that her company "decided to terminate our relationship with Mr. Donaghy and will no longer be representing him as a client," and had "retired the first edition of his book and will not be distributing it in the future." Donaghy returned fire later that day, claiming in an email that he was the one who had made the "decision to sever ties... based in large part on (VTi's) inability to comply with the terms of our agreement" and announcing "the immediate re-launch of my book" through Cincinnati-based publisher Clerisy Press. He later told the “Ball Don't Lie” (BDL) blog that the second edition of Personal Foul would be published in conjunction with Four Daughters LLC, which BDL learned is a limited liability company incorporated in August 2008. Donaghy became one of the managing members of Four Daughters LLC last February, according to amendment documents filed with the Florida Department of State's Division of Corporations. (Coincidentally, Donaghy has four daughters with his ex-wife Kimberly, who filed for divorce in September 2007 after 12 years of marriage.) In interviews, both Donaghy and Vercher confirmed that the separation has to do, at least in part, with accounting and fiscal disputes - chiefly, discrepancies over exact numbers of copies of Personal Foul sold, arguments over revenues generated from sales and the disbursement of attendant royalties. Vercher told BDL the relationship had broken down "over the last couple of months, coming to a boil over the last week or so," when she alleges Donaghy began making "threats of violence." "He threatened to come here," Vercher said, claiming that the prospect of Donaghy appearing at VTi's Largo, Fla., offices in search of royalties (which she says were not yet available, terming the fiscal turnaround "not a fast process") rankled her employees and frightened her. "He mentioned that someone was going to come up here and get me, that they knew where I live," Vercher said. Donaghy denies Vercher's claims. "I want to make myself very clear: I have not threatened her (or) any of her employees in any way, shape or form," Donaghy told BDL. In a statement to media, Donaghy accused Vercher of "creating a media buzz around trumped up charges" in the hopes of diverting attention from the manner in which he claims "she has grossly mishandled our business relationship." "It's all spin on her part to try to deflect the fact that we want to see the bank records and we want to know where the money's at," Donaghy told BDL. "And after repeated requests through me - in certified letters, in emails and through my attorney - she has not provided that information. "She's basically trying to deflect that situation and, because of my past poor choices, trying to get everybody to turn on me in regard to thinking that I threatened her," he added. Donaghy claims he hasn't received a dime from the book's sales, and that "up until this day, I have not been told how many books have sold or been given a proper, accurate accounting based on the sales of Personal Foul."
That's key, because proceeds from the book are to go toward the $217,266.84 in
restitution that Donaghy and co-conspirators James Battista and Thomas Martino
were jointly ordered to pay by U.S. District Judge Car Donaghy has claimed corruption among NBA referees runs deep - drawing angry denials by the NBA. His book should have sold a substantial number of copies with adequate distribution. The NBA bad boy has a Facebook page, makes a never-ending stream of talk radio appearances, has a blog series, and is a savage critic of his former colleagues in the NBA referee corps. Donaghy claims that as he and his attorney, Nicholas Mooney, continued to press for additional information. Vercher and VTi offered shifting, inconsistent figures, including reports of "$25,000 worth of expenses that were very shocking to us, because I was supposed to sign off on all expenses, and I never signed off on any of them." While the discussion of money owed is vague, a book publisher who contractually requires authors to “sign off” on all expenses, and then bills $25,000, sounds fishily like a subsidy press. Donaghy says he only recently found out the firm was charging him $25,000 for those expenses he had not authorized. "Nothing was adding up or making sense, and we were looking for an honest set of books to review," Donaghy said. "At this date, we have not received that." Vercher says that revenues generated by Personal Foul have been placed in a holding account, with profits slated to be tallied up "after the conclusion of the 180-day period during which vendors have the option to return unsold copies," which should come sometime in early-to-mid June, given the book's release dates. It was made available online via Amazon.com on Dec. 3, 2009, and it made its way to book stores on Dec.14, 2009. Vercher told Covers.com that VTi "will not have a complete accounting of the total profit - income minus expenses - until six months after the contract signing," which she said took place on Dec.14, 2009. After that, she told the Daily News, "We have to send (the profits) to the U.S. Attorney's Office and not him directly." According to Donaghy, the U.S. Attorney's Office has served Vercher with a subpoena requiring VTi to produce an accurate accounting of the total sales of and revenue generated by Personal Foul within 10 days. We’re waiting with bated breath for further details.
2. Fergie’s press run increased after shenanigans land her in tabloids The sting operation that caught Sarah Ferguson, still the Duchess of York, in a cash-for-access scandal is doing wonders for her career. Because of the worldwide publicity, most of it more gossip than a matter of consequence, her publisher has ordered more of her books printed. The headlines and TV news coverage of Fergie have helped her profile skyrocket in the U.S., where she is a less well known celebrity than in the UK.
The publicity led to long lines of people wanting books autographed while she
appeared at a book expo in New York i As a result, her publisher, Sterling, an imprint owned by Barnes & Noble, has confirmed it has upped the print run of her latest book. Ashley Learns About Strangers was originally to have 25,000 copies printed, but Sterling confirmed that has been increased since the scandal broke. However, the company has not revealed by exactly how much. One publishing insider said: “It is the ultimate proof that all publicity is good publicity.” Some friends of the Duchess insist it is not just her publishers who love the scandal - but Fergie does, too. “I think she secretly loves the attention,” a longtime friend said. 'You see her leaving her hotel with a big smile. She hasn't gotten this much publicity since she was married to Prince Andrew.' Ferguson, 50, is promoting her new Helping Hands series of children’s books due out in August, according to Sterling. Titles of the Helping Hands series include Ashley Learns About Strangers, Emily’s First Day of School, Matthew and The Bullies and Michael and His New Baby Brother. It is anticipated that there will be as many as eight more titles in 2011.
Fergie’s first children’s books were the Little Red picture book series by Simon
& Schuster. She also wrote Tea for Ruby. She is the author of 26 books. Ferguson was a founding member of the American Cancer Society’s “Great American Weigh In,” a program charged with raising awareness of the link between excess weight and cancer. She established her own foundation in 2007. The Sarah Ferguson Foundation funds programs to promote education and wellness. 3. Author rents house next to Sarah Palin’s while writing book about her Joe McGinniss has moved in next door to Sarah Palin in Wasilla, Alaska, while writing a book about her titled Sarah Palin’s Year of Living Dangerously, due out in the fall of 2011. Palin posted a picture on her Facebook page of her new neighbor and asked, “Wonder what kind of material he’ll gather while overlooking Piper’s bedroom, my little garden, and the family’s swimming hole?” McGinniss said of the rental that the Palins live on a large lake, Lake Lucille, and that he had no plans to take pictures or intrude on the family. McGinniss has been called a stalker by many on various Web sites, but he doesn’t see it that way. “I am not taking video or photos and I found two people in my yard who were walking over trying to take a picture over the fence and I told them that they had to leave, so in a way, I am serving as a kind of a buffer.” McGinniss said that he had planned on moving to either Wasilla or Anchorage this summer to finish his book when a friend of a friend told him the house was available. He said the house, which the Palins had previously rented and renovated but never occupied, was a bargain at $1,500 a month with lakeside views. The Associated Press has reported that the Palins were putting up a 14-foot fence between the two properties. McGinniss said that after Ms. Palin wrote about his presence on her Facebook page, he received thousands of angry e-mail messages and a few death threats, but he plans on staying through the summer. McGinniss, the author of a number of best sellers, including The Selling of the President, Blind Faith and Fatal Vision, said he had hoped for a kind of détente, even though he wrote a critical article about Ms. Palin for the now-closed Portfolio magazine in 2008. During an interview on the Glenn Beck radio show, Ms. Palin made it clear she doesn’t see McGinniss as anything other than an unwanted intrusion. “I feel more protective than ever in terms of my kids, you know,” she said. “Any mom would just want to bring your family even closer and wrap your arms around them and not let the infringement upon their rights and privacy be so overwhelming as to make us not enjoy our life up here.” Random House is publishing the Palin book under its Broadway Books imprint. “I am writing a book about Sarah Palin,” he said. “Why not live right next to the story? Unless I do something that is an active violation of their privacy, where is the harm?”
4. Breaking news from the book barons
Anchor will launch a four-million-copy mass upperback (6 x 9) edition of Dan
Brown's The Lost Symbol on Oct. 19 priced at $9.99.
Doubleday will follow the paperback release with a $35 hardcover illustrated
edition on Nov. 2 in a 350,000-copy printing. The publisher says The Lost
Symbol h 5. Fifth Wimpy Kids book slated for November laydown Amulet Books, an Abrams imprint, has announced that the fifth volume of Jeff Kinney's bestselling Wimpy Kid series will be released on Nov. 9 in a national laydown. The title won't be revealed until July, but Abrams has confirmed that the new book’s cover will be purple.
Kinney says the new book "is about change and the different ways Greg and his
best friend, Rowley, deal with it. To me, this book is the lynchpin in the
series, and I'm excited to be writing it." Kinney signed copies of his books at the Abrams booth at BEA, and Abrams gave away wimpy water bottles and bookmarks at the signing. 6. Jindal book publication delayed by massive oil spill in Gulf of Mexico Gov. Bobby Jindal has delayed publication of his upcoming book because of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico washing up on Louisiana's shores. A Jindal spokesman confirmed that the governor's upcoming memoir, titled Real Hope, Real Change: New Conservative Solutions to Rescue America, won't be released in July as planned. Spokesman Kyle Plotkin said the book was delayed because of the governor's "focus on the oil spill." Jindal has a contract with conservative publisher Regnery to write an autobiography that also contains Jindal's vision for the GOP. The governor's office has refused to give the details of Jindal's publishing contract or how much Jindal will make on the book.
7. News about bookstores, publishing, marketing and promotion The number of independent bookstores that are members of the American Booksellers Association has risen to 1,410, up slightly from 1,401 a year ago. But over the past two decades, membership dropped from more than 3,000 to the 2009 low of 1,401. Independent stores have suffered from the rise of superstore chains; the emergence of Amazon.com and online retailers; and the rise of the e-book... Vendors continue to be a prime source of credit for Borders. As of May 1, according to a Borders filing with the SEC, they were financing "approximately 45 percent of our inventory (calculated as trade accounts payable divided by merchandise inventories). As of May 1, trade accounts payable were $348.5 million. Merchandise inventories were $836.2 million, about $57 million lower than a year ago.”… Amazon.com plans to launch a publishing imprint that will produce English-language translations of foreign-language books. The imprint, AmazonCrossing, will acquire rights to books and hire writers to translate them into English before printing and selling them through Amazon's retail website. The first AmazonCrossing title, which will be released in November, will be French author Tierno Monenembo's 2008 novel, The King of Kahel. It won a French literary prize, the Prix Renaudot. The book is being translated by Nicholas Elliott. Such translations can be expensive. Translators typically command between $100 and $125 per thousand words. Well-known translators command as much as $175 to $200 per 1,000 words. A 60,000-word novel could thus cost between $6,000 to $12,000 to translate. 8. Booksellers take aim at credit card lobbyists who oppose reform The U.S. Senate is considering a reduction of the $10 billion a year in “swipe fees” merchants must pay on debit-card transactions. These fees, which greatly exceed costs to the credit card companies, raise consumer prices in addition to costing merchants. The Senate added an amendment to financial reform legislation it received from the U.S. House of Representatives that would require the Federal Reserve to determine “reasonable fees” for interchange rates that now far exceed actual cost. To voice support for the amendment, those interested may contact their congressional representatives and request they keep the “swipe fee fix” in finance-reform legislation. Find your representatives and contact information here: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml. The financial-reform package is expected to be on President Obama’s desk by July 4. 9. Adventist Church ousts executives at book publishing arm Four executives employed by the publishing arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were fired recently at the organization's Hagerstown, Md., headquarters because of "mounting financial losses," church officials said. The Maryland-based denomination, which has 16 million members worldwide in 203 countries, including one million in North America, forced the resignations of top officials for the Review and Herald Publishing Association (RHPA), a sign of the weakness in the religious publishing industry. RHPA President Robert S. Smith, who had been 10 years in the position, was relieved of his duties after an April 29 board meeting. Vice President of Finance Hepsiba S. Singh will retire July 1. Mario P. Martinelli, vice president for books and subscription literature, and Richard A. Tooley, vice president for periodicals, were also let go. Mark B. Thomas, vice president for graphics, was named interim president. Revenues for the publisher have been flat for the past decade, according to denominational archives that show annual revenues at $26 million in 2000 with a rise in sales to $36 million in 2008. Annual sales volume then dropped back down to its current level of $28 million in 2009. Gerry Karst, vice chairman of the 39-member board, said two of the four employees let go were past retirement age. "We'd come to a point where we needed to reorganize this institution," he said. "It's been operating for 161 years... and the way people access information these days has changed, but our business model has remained the same." "We needed some new blood and new thinking," Mr. Karst said of the RHPA. "The book market has become extremely tight and when you're a religious publisher, the market is narrower. That is why something had to change." The Review and Herald Publishing Association were founded in 1849 to serve several "adventist" movements in upstate New York whose adherents believed that Christ would return to Earth in 1844. Eventually these movements merged to form the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Mich. in 1863. Its publishing house puts out a stream of books and magazines, including Message, the country's oldest religious journal for black Americans.
10. Books to Movies Department Masterpiece Mystery on PBS is currently featuring a series of made-for-TV dramas based on the Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot mysteries written by Agatha Christie. Dame Agatha’s mystery novels have sold more than two billion copies to date. She became an expert on poisons while working in hospitals during World War I. After her first husband divorced her for a younger woman, Dame Agatha, at first expecting to live out her life alone, fell for a man 18 years her junior. Miss Marple is a composite character based on Christie’s two grandmothers. Hercule Poirot is derived from her experience with Belgian refugees. 11. How bad is it – and what is the book business doing to cope? Net sales reported by 86 publishers to the Association of American Publishers during March rose 16.6 percent, to $458.2 million. E-books again showed wild gains, rising 184.8 percent, to $28.5 million, during the month. 12. The publishing revolution: News of e-books and other new media If we are to believe Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading business division, "Within five years there will be more digital content sold than physical content." Haber told the Telegraph: "Three years ago, I said within 10 years but I realized that was wrong - it's within five." Haber observed that the same patterns Sony has experienced in the digitization of music and photography were now being repeated in the book market… First-week sales for the e-book version of Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest accounted for nearly 30 percent of total sales, according to Publishers Marketplace, which reported that "Knopf Doubleday spokesman Paul Bogaards says their internal figures show an approximate first week sell-through of 425,000 units - which includes 125,000 e-book editions."… Barnes & Noble has launched a free BN eReader for iPad app, which uses B&N's LendMe technology, allowing customers to share eligible e-books with other readers using a Nook, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and PC enabled with the free BN eReader software. Last page read, highlights, notes and bookmarks will also synch across BN eReader for iPad and PC, and in early summer, with iPhone and iPod touch with more to follow, the company said… Penguin has reached an agreement with Amazon.com, almost two months after the launch of the agency model and introduction of Apple's iBookstore. E-books for the company's titles released since April 1, which Amazon has declined to sell up until now, are in the process of being restored to Amazon's site. Presumably all of Penguin's e-books sold by Amazon will also be repriced to reflect agency pricing… R.R. Donnelley & Sons has entered an agreement with Penguin Group (USA) Inc. to provide the majority of its digital printing and binding requirements. Donnelley will produce Penguin Group (USA)'s digitally printed adult and young readers' trade hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback books, bound galleys and advanced reader copies. Donnelley's digital file processing and archiving service permits book publishers to tap into an on-demand production platform that delivers books in quantities from the ones to the millions. The company expects to have deployed nearly 20 of its ProteusJet inkjet units by year's end.
13. POD was revolution of last decade; DIY e-books next likely change Do-it-yourself (DIY) e-book publishing is the latest online technology that's changing the playing field for new authors and publishers. E-books are even less expensive to produce than ink on paper books produced using short-run digital print on demand (POD) technology. And POD was far less expensive than conventional production of books using the offset process, which decades ago replaced letterpress printing.
Uploading a book to an e-book publishing platform saves the publisher's and
editor's time and money by avoiding manufacturing and distribution costs.
For readers, the new electronic readers offer the advantage of a light-weight
e-reader carrying thousands of books in one device versus carrying around one
bulky and often heavy book in print. 14. Publishers say iBookstore has 22 percent market share
Speaking at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June, CEO Steve
Jobs said "five of the six biggest publishers in the U.S. tell us that the share
of iBooks is up to about 22 percent - in about eight weeks." Jobs also said, "in
the first 65 days, users have downloaded over five million (e-)books."
15. BookieJar latest to create e-book platform BookieJar, a Web site founded by a veteran of Microsoft's Bing search engine team, is developing an e-book publishing and distribution platform for independent writers. Users will pay once a month and be able to follow e-books “in-progress” and interact with authors as well as publish their own books and “get rewarded.” BookieJar’s co-founder and CEO is Deyun Wu, a former program manager at Bing Maps at Microsoft.
16. E-book publisher Open Road gets $4 million in financing According to an SEC filing, Open Road Integrated Media (ORIM), an e-publisher led by publishing legend Jane Friedman and film producer Jeffrey Sharp, and backed by Kohlberg Ventures, has raised $4 million in equity and debt financing. ORIM is a digital content company that publishes and markets e-books by creating connections between authors and their audiences across multiple platforms.
According to a 2009 article in the New York Times, Open Road will
republish old titles by big-name authors including William Styron, Iris Murdoch
and Pat Conroy in electronic form. The company has also formed a partnership
with Grove Atlantic, an independent literary house, and Kensington Books, a
romance publisher with strong African-American and gay and lesbian lines, to
provide e-book marketing services. 17. Barnes & Noble launching PubIt e-book self-publishing service Barnes & Noble unveiled its new self-publishing service PubIt in May, following in the footsteps of its competitors to take advantage of explosive growth in digital publishing. B&N expects to launch PubIt this summer. It is one of the latest companies to enter the self-publishing market. Five years ago, its online rival Amazon.com purchased CreateSpace, moving the e-commerce giant beyond books, and with its later release of the Kindle e-reading device, the bookseller completed its expansion into the full life-cycle of e-publishing.
Barnes & Noble will be able to market self-published material via its Nook
reader, as Amazon is doing with its Kindle device. Apple currently is relying on
Lulu.com to offer self-publishing services for its iPad tablet reader. PubIt will permit publishers and self-publishing writers to distribute their works digitally through BN.com and Barnes & Noble's e-book store. The new service will compete with Amazon's pioneering Digital Text Platform (DTP), which many writers have turned to for distributing their works to the Kindle and other devices that run the Kindle Reader software. Sony, too, has a DYI option for its Reader Store, and Apple is now allowing self-publishers to distribute their e-books in its iBookstore thanks to a deal with Smashwords, a start-up that specializes in DIY e-book creation and distribution. 18. Apple opens back-channel iBookstore to self-publishers Apple is offering a system that allows for self-publishing on the iBookstore without having to sign up with a publishing service like Smashwords or Lulu. The new service allows anyone to sign up through a Web portal as long as he or she is able to meet several requirements. To take advantage of the service, you must first have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for each work you wish to make available for sale. Second, you must have a copy of the work in ePUB format. There are a variety of different ways to convert text into ePUB format, many of which are free. You must also have a valid iTunes Store account as well as a U.S. tax ID. The last requirement is that you must have access to a modern Mac. You must encode your eBook with Apple’s software, which needs an Intel Mac running at least OS X 10.5. Apple allows you to set your own price and choose which countries to publish in. 19. Baker & Taylor, LibreDigital offer one-stop digital media services Amid surging demand and interest in e-books, Baker & Taylor and LibreDigital, Inc. at Book Expo America on May 27 announced an expanded agreement to partner for the delivery of e-books - creating a one-stop, comprehensive suite of services for publishers. The pair's enhanced digital services platform spans all forms of digital media - books, newspapers and magazines - and all digital devices and applications, including the Baker & Taylor-powered Blio e-reader software, developed by K-NFB Reading Technology, and Apple's iPad. "Digital devices and new applications are creating unique opportunities in the publishing industry. Baker & Taylor and LibreDigital together present a white-label platform for the aggregation and delivery of digital media products," said Tom Morgan, CEO of Baker & Taylor. As part of the agreement, Baker & Taylor will offer its more than 30,000 publishing partners a full range of digital services from LibreDigital. LibrePublish allows publishers to store and secure digital content in any form and deliver it on-demand to any marketplace or device. "The demand for e-books is skyrocketing as consumers quickly gravitate to digital channels to recommend, buy and read books, newspapers and magazines," said Russell P. Reeder, president and CEO of LibreDigital, Inc. "Together with Baker & Taylor, we're paving the way for publishers to connect and deliver to this growing number of digital-savvy consumers." 20. Amazon to divide free and paid Kindle bestsellers A representative at Amazon.com has confirmed that the company will be splitting its Kindle bestseller list, creating one list for paid books and another for free titles. The date for the switch is vague - the rep would only say it will happen in “a few weeks.” At the time the announcement was made, all ten of the top bestselling titles on Amazon’s Kindle bestseller list were free downloads, attesting to the fact that publishers are testing the free model to get attention for certain authors. The Kindle bestseller list has been used by publishers to gauge consumer behavior towards e-books, as well by consumers use to point them to titles. An executive at HarperCollins said she thinks Amazon is certainly doing the right thing by splitting the list, noting that consumers “want to know what books everyone is reading, and buying,” and that a list which combines free downloads and books for sale doesn’t deliver this information. Certainly, despite its unique combination of free and for-pay titles, many industry members interviewed said Amazon’s Kindle bestseller list remains the one they examine to get a feel for what e-books are selling. While Fictionwise was also cited as a strong indicator of popular e-books, it was acknowledged that Barnes & Noble and Apple are not go-to places for this information. 21. Comics news: IDW brings 'True Blood' to comics
For those who can't get enough of HBO's “True Blood,” which returns for a third
season in June, a six-issue comic book miniseries from IDW Publishing will make
its debut at the San Diego Comic-Con in July. Creators of the show have teamed with comic veterans for new stories of Sookie Stackhouse, her undead lover Bill Compton, and the rest of the sex-crazed cast of mythical Bon Temps, La. The first issue includes four alternate covers and a story line that traps the cast with an unnamed beast in Merlotte's Bar. With “Twilight” and “Vampire Diaries” grabbing audiences by the throat, what gives “True Blood” its distinctive bite? "True Blood is the antithesis of Twilight," says writer David Tischman. "Vampires come out of 19th-century repression, and here, all that sex is on the surface. Like the humidity of Louisiana, it's there all the time." Writer Kate Barnow says the comic "gives fans a chance to hang out with characters in their natural setting in a way the pace of the show doesn't allow." The series and comic come as Dead in the Family, the 10th novel in the "Southern Vampire" series by Charlaine Harris (the basis for “True Blood”), topped USA Today’s Best-Selling Books list. (Source: David Colton, USA Today) 22. Books in bad taste, and books that taste bad
Who says authors don’t protest or stage pseudo-events any more? On June
9, 23. News about vanity presses: Infinity sells stake to New Harbour Infinity Publishing, a subsidy publisher located in West Conshohocken, Pa., in the Philadelphia suburbs, has sold a majority stake to a Boston investment group. Infinity sold the stake to Arthur Gutch and New Harbour Partners LLC. Infinity said the deal gives it “access to greater capital in order to increase its publishing services for authors in the fastest-growing segment of the book publishing industry,” author-originated book publishing. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Infinity has 22 employees at its West Conshohocken facility and will hire an unspecified number of new workers this year as well, said Daryn Teague, a spokesman. As part of the deal, Gutch will become CEO of the company. Infinity founder Tom Gregory, who started the company in 1997, will stay on as a special consultant. Authors pay a one-time setup fee of $499 in order to have their digital book files added into Infinity’s book publishing system. Authors retain all rights to their books and have total creative control over the content and all other aspects. Infinity also manages back-office operations like fulfillment, royalty management and returns. Infinity has 4,000 authors who have published more than 6,000 titles. 24. Infinity Publishing launches e-book initiative Infinity Publishing is introducing a comprehensive e-book publishing program for published authors and aspiring writers. Infinity eBooks will be compatible with Amazon's Kindle, Apple's iPad, Sony's eReader, HP's iSlat, Barnes and Noble's nook, Borders' soon-to-be-released eReader, Google's upcoming eBook platform, and other future hand-held electronic reading devices. According to Arthur Gutch, chief executive officer of Infinity, "We have developed a start-to-finish solution for the conversion, distribution and management of the eBook publishing process, and we are backing this up with a guarantee to our authors," said Gutch. "Infinity's e-book offering will allow our authors to focus on the creative process of writing the book's content, while our experienced publishing team handles the business process of producing and distributing the eBook." For a one-time setup fee of $199, Infinity will convert an author's existing published work into an eBook, assign an ISBN to the title, and will handle all aspects of distribution. The author's eBook will be available for sale indefinitely, with no maintenance fees or other costs required, including future proofs for new electronic reading devices. 25. CreateSpace says it has passed two-million title milestone CreateSpace, part of the Amazon.com, Inc. group of companies, on May 24 announced a milestone: more than two million book, DVD and CD titles have now been made available through its creative platform. The titles are made on-demand when customers order them and are continuously available on Amazon.com and other channels. "This milestone of success for CreateSpace demonstrates the significant growth of our business and the on-demand industry," said Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, managing director, CreateSpace. CreateSpace allows book publishers, film studios and music labels, as well as authors, filmmakers and musicians, to release creative content across all genres and subjects. The sizable and rapidly expanding range of books, DVDs and CDs available from CreateSpace - now in excess of two million titles - exemplifies how quickly on-demand production and distribution are being adopted by both independent content creators and large media companies. Many publishers, including Springer Science+Business Media, are transitioning their entire catalogs to a completely inventory-free model with CreateSpace, saving them the time and economic investment associated with shipping and stocking inventory. Some of CreateSpace's most noteworthy offerings include:
26. Milestones: Records and news of note in book publishing Little, Brown Children's says that they sold over 350,000 units (print and e-book combined) of Stephenie Meyer's The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner in the first 48 hours of sale in the U.S. They also say that 15,000 people around the world have read the free online version "in its entirety." In 2007. Meyer’s third book Eclipse sold an estimated 150,000 copies in its first day. First day sales for Breaking Dawn were estimated at 1.3 million copies. In the UK, The Bookseller reported print sales as measured by Nielsen BookScan UK, at 89,549 print copies in the first 19 hours… Barack Obama's income, propelled largely by sales of his two books, rose to $5.5 million during 2009, up from $2.7 million in 2008, according to the president's tax returns, the Seattle Times reported. The tax forms also showed that he received $225,000 for an abridged version of Dreams from My Father, which will be targeted at young readers. 27. 50 events to mark 50th anniversary of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Required reading for most high school students, the book has become as iconical in America as the works of Hawthorne, Melville and Twain. The anniversary will be observed through at least 50 summer events around the country. Publisher HarperCollins will organize parties, movie screenings, readings and scholarly discussions to hype further sales of the book. However, don’t expect author Harper Lee to be out there stumping for those increased sales. A relative of the late Truman Capote, she’s almost as reclusive as was the late J.D. Salinger. In place of getting Lee to do the stumping, HarperCollins has recruited Tom Brokaw and other authors to take part in the celebration by reading in their home towns from the novel, which tells the story of the small-town lawyer Atticus Finch, who defends a black man accused of rape, and his family. The events are scheduled to run through Sept. 22. HarperCollins will issue four new editions of the novel in June, each with a different cover and all to be placed on special Mockingbird-themed floor displays in bookstores. Perhaps the biggest observance will take place in Harper Lee’s home town, Monroeville, Ala. The city is planning four days of events, including silent auctions, a walking tour of downtown, a marathon reading of the book in the county courthouse and a birthday party on the courthouse lawn. The festivities are not expected to attract Ms. Lee herself, who is 84 and still living quietly in Alabama after never publishing another book. To Kill a Mockingbird was originally published in 1960 by J. B. Lippincott and Company (now absorbed into HarperCollins). The novel won a Pulitzer Prize and has not been out of print since. It has sold nearly one million copies a year and in the past five years has been the second-best-selling backlist title in the country, beaten out only by the novel The Kite Runner. Ms. Lee has been portrayed in at least two movies, the 2005 film “Capote,” in which Catherine Keener played her, and “Infamous,” in which she was portrayed by Sandra Bullock. 28. Events planned to observe June as “Audio Book Month” June is Audiobook Month, and to celebrate it, the Audio Publishers Association is bringing together more than 100 authors and narrators to discuss audiobooks on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and at bookstores. Every Tuesday in June, as part of AudiobookCommunity.com's Get Caught Listening group, APA publisher members are giving away audiobook segments that listeners can stream or download as MP3 files. As part of the observance, author Jennifer Egan is being interviewed by more than 25 radio stations across the country about audiobooks. She will discuss, among other things, how audiobooks make the daily commute more entertaining and enriching. 29. Barefoot Books reaches 20,000 listeners with weekly podcast The latest marketing initiative of Cambridge, Mass.-based Barefoot Books is podcasting.
On March 31, the children's book publisher announced the launch of a weekly
podcast series that features free story times from its collection of books. The
podcasts offer adults and children the ability to listen to stories at home or
on the go. Barefoot is using social media channels, including its Facebook page and twitter.com/livebarefoot, to promote the podcast. The Barefoot Books Ambassadors, the company’s community of direct sellers, are also promoting the podcasts to their contacts via social media and their Barefoot Books’ business websites and blogs, as well as sharing it at book fairs and other events where they're selling the company’s books. To date, nearly 20,000 people have listened to the podcasts, with the program just launched two a month ago. (Source: Joe Keenan, Book Business Extra, May 13, 2010) 30. Moby Awards for book trailers: ‘Most Annoying’ goes to Foer Winners of the first annual Moby Awards for Book Trailers are:
31. News from trade shows: BEA says 21,219 attended 2010 show BookExpo America (BEA) officials have announced that verified attendance at this year's show was 21,919 people. Exhibitors comprised just over 8,000 people, with all other "industry professionals" comprising 13,872 people in all. For the first time, the show tabulated all people who actually attend the show. In the past, BEA has provided a breakout of registrants for their "book buyer" category (which includes librarians), but now, spokesman Roger Bilheimer says, "we have decided that while the book buyer number is a standard of measurement that is important, it is not the only standard of measurement."
Eliminating the breakout is also a convenient way of discouraging comparisons to
prior years. For comparison's sake only, BEA says this year's registrations were 27,211-or approximately 5,300 above actual attendance. In 2009, they registered 29,923 people, 2,500 more than this year. 32. Upcoming seminars for authors, publishers and micropresses Major upcoming trade shows, book fairs and book festivals June The International New Age Trade Show West - Denver, Colo. June 24-29. American Library Association's Annual Conference. Some 2,000 seminars and events as well as a huge trade show. http://www.ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/upcoming/annual/index.cfm Washington, D.C., some 2,000 seminars and events plus a huge trade show. June 27-30. CBA/The International Christian Retail Show, St. Louis, Mo.www.christianretailshow.com. Considered the best show for Christian authors. See also http://www.marketingchristianbooks.com June. The National Association of College Stores Conference. www.nacs.org August August 20-21 (tentative). The Great American Bargain Book Show (GABBS) – Boston, Hynes Convention Center. www.gabbs.net August. The New York International Gift Fair – www.nyigf.com August. New Orleans-Gulf South Booksellers Association. September
Sept. 4-5. Decatur Book Festival, Decatur (Atlanta), Ga.,
http://www.decaturbookfestival.com/Community/index.php. Held Labor Day
weekend, claims to attract over 50,000 book fans. October Oct. 6-10. Frankfurt Book Fair 2010. This is the Big Daddy of all book shows, the biggest in the world. Argentina is the Guest of Honor. Held in Frankfurt, Germany. Oct. 8-10. Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word, http://tn-humanities.org/festival/index.php, Nashville, Tenn., attracts more than 200 authors from throughout the U.S. October. Litquake, San Francisco’s Literary Festival. Event was held Oct. 9-17 in 2009. We’ll post the 2010 dates when we get ‘em. Meanwhile, visit http://www.litquake.org. Louisiana Book Festival, Baton Rouge, http://lbf.state.lib.la.us. Event was held Oct. 16-17 in 2009. Oct. 30. Also visit http://www.litquake.org. November Nov. 14-21. Miami Book Fair International, http://www.miamibookfair.com draws hundreds of thousands of people. Dates uncertain – check hyperlink for Show Web site Litquake, San Francisco’s Literary Festival, http://www.litquake.org Ann Arbor Book Festival, http://www.aabookfestival.org/, Ann Arbor MI National Book Festival, http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/ sponsored by the Library of Congress on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Held on Sept. 26 in 2009. Vegas Valley Book Festival, Las Vegas, http://www.vegasvalleybookfest.org
Kentucky Book Fair,
http://www.kybookfair.com. Frankfort Convention Center, attended by up to
5,000 people including 150 authors.
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late May. An appearance on Oprah! on June 2 added fuel to the publicity fire.
