TODAY'S NEWS

PMA Calls for Amazon to Reconsider POD Stance
PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, has added its voice to those against Amazon’s move to make publishers print their print-on-demand titles through its BookSurge subsidiary in order to sell directly through the Web site. In a statement released yesterday, PMA executive director Terry Nathan said the policy “imposes a significant financial burden on tens of thousands of small and independent publishers who can least afford it. Without the opportunity to benefit from competitive pricing, small publishers risk at best an expensive and needless overhaul of their manufacturing process, and at worst, the loss of their livelihood.”

Nathan urged Amazon to reconsider the policy, observing that it was Amazon that provided small publishers with a level playing by providing them an opportunity sell their works to consumers. The pod action, Nathan added, converts the playing field to a “members only club to the detriment of those very publishers that have contributed to Amazon’s success.”

Seven Stories Plans First-Ever Simultaneous U.S./U.K. Release
By Lynn Andriani
New York independent publisher Seven Stories Press is about to simultaneously publish a book in the U.S. and U.K. for the first time in its 12-year history. Rogue Economics by Loretta Napoleoni was released first in the author’s native Italy in February and has been on the Italian bestseller list since then. The house has sold rights in 10 countries. Publisher Dan Simon said, “I think it has real bestseller prospects here.” After an initial print run of 10,000, Seven Stories is on its way back for a second printing of 5,000 copies. Simon said he has “high hopes that we can go the distance with it.” The book officially pubbed in the U.S. April 1, and pubs in the U.K. on April 24. Read on »

SharedBook Partners with Food Social Networking Site BigOven.com
By Lynn Andriani
SharedBook Inc. has formed a partnership with the food-oriented social networking site BigOven.com. It isn’t the first time SharedBook, a “reverse publishing” site that allows users to create custom books from Web site content, has formed a deal to allow users to create their own cookbooks, but it is the first time users will be able to resell the cookbooks they make, albeit for fundraising or other nonprofit purposes. Read on »

Monday's Reviews Today: Harrington's 'Physician'
In Kent Harrington's "searing" new thriller, The Good Physician, a doctor in Mexico City, cozy with the CIA, finds himself in a moral dilemma when two agents start torturing the locals for information. A "taut, thought-provoking novel" that "offers no easy answers." Read on »

The PW Morning Report
By Dermot McEvoy
A Kindle Revolution?; More on Amazon’s POD; Oh, Boy, the Dirt on Siegfried & Roy; Kirk Douglas’ Third Act; National Poetry Month; and Nicholas Cage Is No Dog-napper Read on »

Blogs

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.; The Book of Dahlia; The Marshall Plan, Unwrapped
Among the authors marking the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on The Leonard Lopate Show are award-winning photographer Bob Adelman, author of M.L.K.: The Journey of a King (Abrams, $19.95) and Charles Johnson, who wrote the essays for Adelman photobook, Mine Eyes Have Seen: Bearing Witness to the Civil Rights Struggle (Time Inc., $29.95). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Lethem Talks Comics in Brooklyn
Acclaimed novelist Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude) appeared Wednesday night along with his collaborators at the Brooklyn comics bookstore Rocketship for a panel discussion on his new Marvel Comics series, Omega the Unknown. The panel was hosted by BookForum’s Nicole Ruddick. Pictured (l. to r.) are artist Paul Hornschemeier, writer Karl Rusnak, Lethem and artist Farel Dalrymple. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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