News Briefs

Bloomsbury has named Peter Ginna publisher of a new, unnamed imprint that will focus on "high quality" and "high profile" nonfiction. Ginna was most recently editorial director of the trade division at Oxford University Press, where he worked on such books as the 2005 and 2006 Pulitzer Prize winners in history, Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer and Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky.

The Book Industry Study Group issued an alert last week, saying that it had received several reports of publishers putting incorrect prefixes on ISBN codes. While all books need to carry a 13-digit ISBN code by next year, the prefix publishers need to use to make the transition from 10 to 13 digits is 978, not 979. Books that carry the 979 code are not likely to be recognized by most booksellers and wholesaler computer systems.

The International Digital Publishing Forum has created two working groups to develop new specifications that could result in the adoption of common e-book standards. At present, there is no common standard used by e-book producers and manufacturers. The new standards will address how e-books are produced and read.

Both Torstar, parent company of Harlequin, and Random House Ventures have upped their investment in Vocel, the San Diego–based cell phone applications publisher. Random and Torstar made their initial investments last year, and both have struck deals in which Vocel distributes a limited amount of their content. In addition, Richard Sarnoff, RH Ventures president, was elected non-executive chairman of Vocel.

John Wiley has signed two separate agreements with Microsoft to publish a series of branded Microsoft textbooks and business books over the next several years. Wiley will begin to publish the business books, under the name Microsoft Executive Circle, in the winter of 2007 and expects to release six to 12 titles annually through the program. Under a deal with Microsoft Learning, Wiley will publish and distribute Microsoft Official Academic Curriculum textbooks and e-learning tools to the higher education market. Wiley expects to publish about 50 titles over the course of the agreement.

The Books-A-Million board last week authorized a program to repurchase up to $10 million worth of the retailer's common stock. This program replaces a previous program to repurchase up to 1.6 million shares that began in March 2004 under which BAM repurchased 1.5 million shares. BAM's stock rose both days after word of the buyback was announced, closing at $16.81 June 22.

In the profile of Alison Bechdel in the June 5 issue, the funeral home in the book, aka the "Fun Home," is described as being in the Bechdels' home. It was located in a different building in their town.