TODAY'S NEWS

Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge
by Jim Milliot
BookSurge, Amazon’s print-on-demand subsidiary, is making an offer that most publishers would like to refuse, but don’t feel they can. According to talks with several pod houses, BookSurge has told them that unless their titles are printed by BookSurge, the buy buttons on Amazon for their titles will be disabled. A detailed explanation of how the new program was explained to her is provided by BookLocker.com co-owner Angela Hoy on her writersweekly.com blog. Read on »

Audible Gets Into Children’s Market
By Rachel Deahl
Audible is expanding into the market for downloadable children’s audio titles with its newest retail shop, AudibileKids.com. The site, which launches Monday, goes live with nearly 4,000 titles from more than 75 publishers. The offerings, downloadable on a variety of MP3 players (including the iPod), stretch from early reader titles to YA ones. Audible says the site, which will go live with a series of free original short audio titles from R.L Stine, will keep free downloads in the mix; pay-for-titles start at 99 cents.

According to Audible, the market for children’s downloadable audio is a fast-growing one, and, up until now, this demo has largely been served by the library market. AudibleKids also features various community aspects—users can rate and recommend titles, among other things. And, for the site, Audible has arranged a publishing agreement with Penguin Young Readers; the company will co-publish titles for the site with the imprint, in addition to its standard licensing agreements with other houses.

Houghton Mifflin Cleans House at Harcourt San Diego
By Rachel Deahl
On Tuesday staffers in the Harcourt San Diego office, which is set to close this summer, were told their fates. According to an insider, only a handful of the roughly 65 employees were offered relocation packages to the east coast, where Harcourt employees are being integrated into the newly formed Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade & Reference Publishers division. In January, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced it would be closing the San Diego office by June 30. A spokesperson didn't comment directly on how many staffers are coming east, only confirming there are discussions with some San Diego employees. For any employees moving to New York, they will set up shop at HM's office in Union Square which will house all former Harcourt employees; Harcourt's New York offices are set to be shut by June 30. Read on »

Julie Andrews Moves Children's Line to Little, Brown
By Rachel Deahl
Julie Andrews has left HarperCollins for Little, Brown. The British star launched her imprint, The Julie Andrews Collection, at HarperCollins in 2003. At Little, Brown Books for Young Readers the venture, which Andrews founded with her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, will be overseen by editorial director Liza Baker.

The Collection's 25-title backlist will stay with Harper. At LBBYR the imprint will maintain its focus, doing more illustrated titles that, like the previous titles, provide a glimpse into the doings and likes of the titular artist. The Collection will relaunch in fall 2009 with Julie Andrews' Collection of Favorite Poems, Songs and Lullabies, which LBBYR describes as "a deluxe fully illustrated anthology" both of Andrews's childhood favorites and of original songs and verses she composed with her daughter. The book will be packaged with a CD featuring recordings by Andrews. In Spring 2010, LBBYR plans to release, from The Collection, a new picture book, The Very Fair Princess, featuring a new character that is planned to reappear in future titles.

Soros Dissects Tanking Credit Market for PublicAffairs
By Rachel Deahl
Financier and philanthropist George Soros is dissecting the current credit crisis in a new book for PublicAffairs. Released first in digital form, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means, will be released as an exclusive e-book on April 3 before bowing in print on May 19. The e-book will be available for download at Amazon and other online bookstores and, as a pdf, at www.publicaffairs.com.

Speaking to the unique publication approach, Peter Osnos, founder and editor at large of PublicAffairs, said it was an issue of timing and that "getting information to people fast is critical to the future of publishing.”

Blogs

MORE STORIES

Monday's Reviews Today: A Tale of Trauma and a Tome On Wellness
In Shannon Burke's "raw and fascinating" sophomore novel about Harlem paramedics, Black Flies, the former EMT follows a rookie trying to do good on the job. Burke, "a poet of trauma" according to our critic, winningly chronicles the "bizarre, tragic and often shocking emergencies" his protagonist encounters. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Kathy Freston's Quantum Wellness, a how-to on healthier living from the former model. Freston "methodically addresses what it means to be healthy in mind, body and spirit" and, finally, shows readers how to "become their own healers in moments of sickness, despair and loss." Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Mark Harris’s Pictures at a Revolution; Janine Turner’s Single Mothers; Roger Mudd’s Place to Be
Bob Edwards hosted Mark Harris, author of Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood (Penguin, $27.95; Tantor Media unabridged CD, $39.99). PW’s starred review said, "Harris doesn't shy away from complexity in favor of easy answers, and the personalities that he profiles--among them Sidney Poitier, Mike Nichols, Warren Beatty and Richard Zanuck--are certainly worthy of the three dimensional approach.” Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

See, Flacco Hit San Diego
On Tuesday authors Anthony Flacco and Carolyn See dropped by the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego to speak at the Brandeis University Annual Book & Author Luncheon. Flacco’s most recent book is The Last Nightingale (Ballantine) and See’s latest novel is There Will Be Another You (Random House). Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

PW VIRTUAL EDITION

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