TODAY'S NEWS

On Demand Books Signs Agreement with Lightning Source
By Judith Rosen
“It’s always been the holy grail of the book business to walk into a store and get any book,” said Kirby Best, president and CEO of Lightning Source. With the signing of today’s strategic agreement with On Demand Books, proprietor of the Espresso Book Machine, Best sees that goal coming a little bit closer.

“When we first got into this, we thought our technology would be ahead of the content. Now we have to catch up,” said Dane Neller, cofounder and CEO of On Demand Books. The Espresso Book Machine prints and binds inidividual books in about 15 minutes. The partnership with Lightning Source gives On Demand access to its scanning facilities, but it also gives the company access to copyrighted material through an opt in/opt out clause that Lightning Source will add to its publisher contracts. At present, the titles available through Espresso fall mainly in the public domain. Read on »

Bloomsbury Soars, Though U.S. a Weak Spot
By Jim Milliot
Led by sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, revenue at Bloomsbury doubled in 2007, hitting £150.2 million ($300 million), and pretax profit jumped to £15.9 million from £5.2 million. Results in the U.K. publisher’s U.S. subsidiary, however, were off in the year, falling 10.8%, to £13.4 million ($26.8 million). While sales of children’s books at Bloomsbury USA were up, the adult division had a disappointing year, with “fewer books breaking through than expected,” the company said in a release. Bloomsbury said returns were high in the year and the new adult lists have yet to reach critical mass. To return the unit to profitability, Bloomsbury cut seven positions earlier this year. Read on »

Riordan Talks Up Clues in Bologna
By Diane Roback
One of the busiest attendees at this year’s Bologna has been bestselling author Rick Riordan, who was at the fair to talk about several of his forthcoming projects. Scholastic brought him to Italy to introduce his The 39 Clues series, a multi-platform middle-grade adventure series that incorporates books, an online game, collectible cards and $100,000 in prize money. Scholastic has world rights to the series, which launches on September 9, and here at Bologna they presented the 39 Clues concept to international publishers, with the aim of selling it in the non-English speaking world. “Response has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Linda Biagi, director of international rights. She’s not signing up publishers at the fair, but will go home and continue conversations with the publishers who expressed interest. The appeal for the series is wide, Biagi said, because “it reaches kids in all the ways they live now.” Read on »

Book Industry Urges Revisions to Patriot Act
By Rachel Deahl
When AAP president Pat Schroeder talked about hopes for the publishing industry as a Democratic Congress came into power in Washington in January 2007, she said that making changes to the Patriot Act was on the top of her list. Now Schroeder and the AAP, along with the ABA, ALA and PEN American Center, have called on the Congress to alter aspects of the legislation that will, in their eyes, restore reader privacy. In an open letter published today in the Capitol Hill trade, Roll Call, the groups asked Congress to approve the National Security Letters Reform Act (S. 2088 and H.R. 3189).

The letter is an outgrowth of the Campaign for Reader Privacy, which the four organizations launched in 2004 to, primarily, fight the tenets of the Patriot Act that allow the federal government to force libraries and bookstores to release their records detailing purchases and book withdrawals. In the letter, the groups note that "the FBI has violated the law thousands of times since Congress expanded its authority to issue National Security Letters in 2001." Their hope, the groups go on to say in the letter, is that the NSL Reform Act will "reestablish the kinds of checks the Founding Fathers demanded."

AlterNet Books Launches with Dick Cheney Satire
By Lynn Andriani
AlterNet.org, the syndication service and online community that features news stories from alternative newsweeklies, magazines and web publications, has started a book publishing arm. Executive editor Don Hazen characterized the program as “opportunistic quick publishing” that will focus on publishing “kickass kind of books that wake you up or make you mad.” AlterNet Books’s first title pubs today: Young Dick Cheney: Great American, a political satire by Bruce Kluger and David Slavin, with illustrations by Tim Foley. Read on »

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MORE STORIES

Job Moves
Kelli Chipponeri has been promoted to associate editorial director at Running Press Kids and Running Press Miniature Edition imprints. She will now oversee both lines. She was previously with Penguin and Simon and Schuster.

Andrea Au (Levitt) has resigned as editorial director and managing editor of Hatherleigh Press to take on freelance writing and editing projects. Before Heatherleigh, Au held editorial positions at the Free Press, Simon & Schuster, and Prentice Hall. She can be reached at au_andrea@hotmail.com. Kevin Moran, former Hatherleigh publisher, has also departed the company to start a publishing consulting business. Moran was at Hatherleigh for 12 years and prevoiously worked in marketing at Stockton Press, Frederick Unger and Scribners. He can be reached at kevinmoran@rcn.com.

At Collins, Matthew Benjamin has been senior editor of the division's Lifestyle/Wellness imprint. Benjamin, who arrives from Workman was, prior to that, at HarperCollins for eight years; he will start at Collins on April 28.

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Hug Your People; My Mother, Your Mother; The Much Too Promised Land
Today, Oprah talks with the Don Van Ryn and Newell Cerak families, whose book is Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope (Howard Books, $21.99; S&S Audio unabridged CD, $39.95). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Letting it Ride
Tom Breitling, author of Double or Nothing: How Two Friends Risked It All to Buy One of Las Vegas’ Legendary Casinos (Collins), was recently feted by some friends, Vegas style, at the launch party for his book. Pictured here (l. to r.), at the Red Rock Resort Hotel, are Tim Poster, Andre Agassi, Breitling and Perry Rogers. (Breitling formerly owned the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino with Poster, Agassi and Rogers.) Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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