TODAY'S NEWS

New Borders Investor
As Borders turns its attention to find a possible buyer, a new investment group has stepped up its interest in the retailer. Gerald Catenacci disclosed in a filing that funds he is associated with now own just under 3.4 million shares of Borders, giving it a 5.7% stake. Catenacci’s funds include Principled Capital Management and Highway Partners. The filing didn’t reveal when Catenacci acquired his shares or what price he paid. News of the investment coupled with the announcement that Borders had completed its financing agreement on better terms than originally agreed to drove up the retailer's languishing stock by nearly 7% and it closed Tuesday at $6.60 per share.

Quality Solutions Is Now Firebrand Technologies
By Craig Morgan Teicher
At its annual user conference in Newburyport, Mass. yesterday, Quality Solutions, software developer of Title Management, announced its new name, Firebrand Technologies, and unveiled its new software, Title Management 7.0. It also unveiled its new website, Firebrandtech.com.

Company president Fran Toolan made the announcement, citing the need for the company to move "from a company that serves customers one at a time to a company that serves a community." Read on »

WEbook Launches Collaborative Book-Writing Site
By Lynn Andriani
A new Internet start-up is hoping to do for novel writing what American Idol did for music and what Wikipedia did for information. The online platform WEbook launches today, and will attempt to lure authors, editors and writing groups to collaboratively create written works, and vote on which ones should be published. WEbook takes community-sourced content and publishes it in a range of formats, including e-books and paperbacks. The company is backed by Greylock Partners Israel and a number of individual investors. Read on »

Koontz and Connelly Added to BEA Sunday Programming
by Kevin Howell
In an effort to beef up Sunday activities at this year’s BookExpo America—and thwart the plans of those hoping to avoid a Red Eye plane trip out of Los Angeles on BEA’s final day—convention officials announced today that Dean Koontz and Michael Connelly will participate in a newly added program called “Meet the Bestsellers,” which will take place on Sunday, June 1, from noon until 2 p.m. The event will offer a free boxed lunch to all attendees.

Koontz and Connelly will be interviewed by USA Today’s book critic Carol Memmott, followed by a short Q&A with the audience and an autographing session. Read on »

On Sale Next Week: Harlan Coben
By Charlotte Abbott
In Coben’s latest thriller, a killer is at play in suburban Glen Rock, N.J., but even he can be overshadowed by more mundane problems that send ordinary lives into chaos. “How do you weigh a child's privacy against a parent's right to know? How do you differentiate normal teenage rebelliousness from out-of-control behavior? When and how do you intervene if suicidal signs appear? Coben plucks each of these strings like a virtuoso,” declared PW’s starred review. Read on »

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Job Moves
Jennifer Robinson has been promoted to v-p, publicity director of Simon Spotlight Entertainment. Robinson joined SSE three years ago as the imprint's first publicity director. She's worked on campaigns for a number of titles including The Cardio-Free Diet by Jim Karas, Positively False by Floyd Landis and The I-Chong by Tommy Chong.

At Penguin Group (USA), Molly Barton has been promoted from publishing coordinator to publishing manager. Before becoming publishing coordinator, in 2005, she was an assistant editor at Viking. Prior to that she was a marketing associate at Oxford University Press.

At HarperCollins David Wolfson has been promoted to senior v-p, international sales. Wolfson joined HC in 1988 as an assistant in the sales department. Also at HC, Nicole Vines has been named director of premium and corporate sales in the special markets department. She arrives from Macmillan where she was senior manager.

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: The Source; Trisha Yearwood’s Cooking; mafia soldier Louis Ferrante
Today, NPR’s Day to Day marked the last of a three-part appearance with Isis Aquarian, author of The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, YaHoWha 13, and The Source Family (Process, $24.95), which tells the inside story of their 70's cult-occult commune. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

The ‘Freaks’ Come Out at the Strand
Last night the Strand Book Store feted Gregory Gibson, an antiquarian book dealer and author of the new book, Hubert’s Freaks: The Rare-Book Dealer, the Times Square Talker, and the Lost Photos of Diane Arbus. The book chronicles the story of Bob Langmuir who buys the archives of Hubert’s Freak Show (the old Times Square institution) and discovers previously unknown photos by Diane Arbus inside. Pictured here, at the event, is Gregory Gibson (l.) and one of Hubert’s stars, Richard Delbourgo. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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