TODAY'S NEWS

Amazon Explains POD Move; Ingram Raises Questions
by Jim Milliot
Amazon has sent an open letter to “interested parties,” explaining “what we’re changing with print on demand and why we are doing so.” Amazon has caused a major stir in the pod field with its decision to have publishers who want to sell pod titles directly through its Web site use its BookSurge pod subsidiary. And late Monday afternoon, Ingram, parent company of BookSurge rival Lightning Source, issued a statement from John Ingram noting the concerns it has fielded from publishers about Amazon’s actions.

In the letter from the Amazon.com books team, the company reiterated that by using machines that are located in its own fulfillment centers, Amazon can have a title ready for shipment quicker than if it needs to wait for a book to be shipped to its facility. The extra time will permit Amazon to “marry” a title with another product that will be shipped in the same box, in most cases hitting Amazon Prime shipping times. “It isn’t logical or efficient to print a POD book in a third place, and then physically ship the book to our fulfillment centers. It makes more sense to produce the books on site, saving transportation costs and transportation fuel, and significantly speeding the shipment to our customers,” the letter states. Read on »

Exchange Rate Volatility Makes for a Challenging Bologna Fair
By Diane Roback
With the euro close to an alltime high against the U.S. dollar, the exchange rate was a key topic of concern on the opening day of the 45th annual Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Sticker shock is everywhere: hotel rates, the prices of meals, the costs of goods in stores. As FSG editor Wes Adams observed, “I just bought a $4 pack of gum. That’s about a quarter a chew.”

At the fair, from the American point of view, it’s great to be selling, not so easy to be buying. "To buy a picture book, it would have to be irresistible," said Holiday House's Julie Amper. "Our stuff is cheap to everyone else," said Orange Avenue publisher Hallie Warshaw. "The Europeans are very happy that our dollar is weak." Handprint Books’ Christopher Franceschelli said, "For selling books, I say ‘Thank you, George Bush’ every day. But I would not want to be a European rights director selling to the U.S. right now.” Read on »

Schubiger and Innocenti Win Hans Christian Andersen Awards
The 2008 Hans Christian Andersen Awards, announced March 31 at the Bologna Book Fair, went to Swiss author Jurg Schubiger and Italian illustrator Robert Innocenti. The awards are given every two years to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made an important contribution to children's literature. They are the highest international distinction given to creators of children's books.

HM Sets September Pub for New Roth
Indignation, Philip Roth's 29th novel, will be in stores in September as per publisher Houghton Mifflin. The house is calling the work, about a Newark teen who goes to a conservative Ohio college during the second year of the Korean War, "a return to the territory of Goodbye, Columbus and The Plot Against America." As HM Harcourt senior v-p and publisher Becky Saletan noted, the new novel recalls these earlier works "in its ability to capture the sheer intensity of experience and emotion and budding intellect in young adulthood--and the indignation when that intensity is thwarted."

PEN Lobbies to Get Horsley Allowed Into the Country
The PEN American Center is trying to get Sebastian Horsley allowed on U.S. soil. The British artist, who wrote the memoir Dandy in the Underworld, was barred from entering the country on the grounds of "moral turpitude" after landing in Newark on March 18. According to PEN, U.S. Customs officials at Newark Liberty made the call after running "a Google search" on the writer and questioning him "for several hours about his statements and writings." The decision to turn Horsley away was based on the author's "admissions of past involvement with drugs and prostitution, as well as his participation in a self-crucifixion in the Philippines in 2000," according to PEN.

Horsley returned to the U.K., but has been invited back to the States by PEN for the upcoming World Voices Festival at the end of April. The organization has drafted a letter asking the Department of Homeland Security to review its past decision and allow the author back into the country. The case, as PEN states, could serve as a dangerous precedent that could interfere with other literary figures' trips to America. You can read PEN's letter here.

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MORE STORIES

RH Group in South Africa Talks
The Random House Group, the U.K. arm of the giant publisher, has confirmed that it is in talks with New Holland Publishing to consider combining the businesses of Random House South Africa and Struik Publishers. Negotiations are expected to run through May and if a deal is concluded Stephen Johnson, managing director of RH South Africa, would run the combined companies.

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Julie Andrews; The Longevity Revolution; Mark Vonnegut
Julie Andrews visited Good Morning America and Live With Regis and Kelly with Home (Hyperion, $26.95; unabridged Hyperion CD, $44.95). PW's starred review said, “Readers will rejoice, since Andrews is an accomplished writer who holds back nothing while adding a patina of poetry to the antics and anecdotes throughout this memoir of bittersweet backstage encounters and theatrical triumphs.” Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

L’Amour at 100
Family and friends came out, recently, for the centennial celebration honoring the birth of Louis L’Amour at the Library of Congress. The evening's speakers included (l. to r.): Dr. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress; Kathy L'Amour, Louis L'Amour's widow; and Irwyn Applebaum, president and publisher of The Bantam Dell Publishing Group. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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