TODAY'S NEWS

ABA Delays New e-Commerce Solution
by Judith Rosen
Eight years ago when the American Booksellers Association launched BookSense.com, it served as both a Web site and a turnkey portal for member stores. Fast forward to BEA 2008 and the unveiling of the ABA’s IndieBound marketing program, or “movement,” to replace Book Sense. BookSense.com immediately morphed into IndieBound.org, with a lot more power under the hood. The ABA swapped out the old code underpinning BookSense.com and replaced it with Drupal, an open source Web content management system that has enabled the site to create an online community. Read on »

First Exclusive e-Book Out from SMP
An environmental action plan for the next president to consider has resulted in the release of St. Martin’s first exclusive e-book title. The 100 Day Action Plan to Save the Planet by William Becker will be available in a number of e-book formats beginning today priced at $9.95. A spokesperson for SMP said that since the book deals with protecting the environment, the publisher and author determined releasing the title as an e-book would be the most environmentally-friendly approach. In the book, Becker, the executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project, offers a number of steps the president-elect can take to begin to reverse the negative impact of climate change.

Frankfurt Numbers Up
The tanking U.S. economy didn't put a dent in Frankfurt, as many murmured about at the fair. With plans made before Wall Street took a nosedive, the 2008 stats paint a positive picture that doesn't quite fit with the times. Numbers at the fair were up by 5.6%, according to statistics released by the planning committee. And it was digitization, according to fair director Juergen Boos, which drew the crowds. This year saw 299,112 attendees with 186,240 being trade visitiors. (Last year's fair saw 182,668 members of the trade in attendance.) Speaking to the spike, Boos said the fair drew industry professional given their "need for guidance with regards to the new business models and fields of business which digitisation creates.” Boos added that the fair was “optimistic, lively and full of energy." While that may well be, the consensus in Germany was that next year, after the effects of the economic slide have taken hold, the mood at the fair will be quite different.

WeRead Signs Harper and Penguin to Promotion Program
By Lynn Andriani
The books social networking site WeRead is offering publishers a new way to reach potential customers, and so far HarperCollins and Penguin have signed on. The site, which launched in 2007 and has two million members, says its book promotion program helps publishers promote their authors and books to the readers who are most likely to be interested in them. Using an algorithm that takes into consideration a member’s book preferences, book ratings and book recommendations to friends, weRead will suggest titles—paid for by publishers—to members. Read on »

On Sale Next Week: Twilight Movie Tie-in
Charlotte Abbott and John Sellers
The trade paperback movie tie-in edition of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight arrives this week, followed by a mass market tie-in going on sale November 1 with a 1.5 million-copy first printing. The movie will release in the November 21 slot vacated by Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which Warner Bros. pushed back to July 2009. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

Distribution Changes
Casemate is handling U.K. and U.S. distribution for new U.K. history publisher, Amberley Publishing, beginning November 1. Amberley was launched this August and expects to have some 400 titles in its 2008–9 publishing program.

Kalmbach Publishing Co., publisher of jewelry-making, paper-craft, and needle-art books, will move its distribution to PGW as of January 2, 2009. Kalmbach publishes about 35 titles annually. Other new PGW clients are Owlkids (a Toronto-based children’s publisher); the Urantia Foundation (publisher of the Urantia Book), Augustus Publishing (an urban fiction publisher best known for its Ghetto Girls series), and Already Done (publisher of cookbooks by Lucy “Lulu” Buffett, owner of LuLu’s at Homeport Marina in Alabama and sister of Jimmy Buffett).

Job Moves
Dan Weiss has resigned from Barnes & Noble where he directed its online publishing operations as publisher and managing director, Sparknotes LLC and Quamut.com. Weiss can be reached at dweissco@gmail.com.

Dave Caplan has joined the Little, Brown Books for Young Readers art department as senior art director. Caplan comes from HarperCollins Children's Books where he was art director. He also held positions at Scholastic, Henry Holt and Simon & Schuster. Throughout his career he has art directed and designed a wide range of titles, including The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, and the recent redesign of the classic Beverly Cleary titles. In this new role, Caplan will be overseeing art direction for the Poppy imprint and the hardcover and paperback fiction titles at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Obituaries: Pat Kavanagh, Mary Lou Didriksen
Pat Kavanagh, one of London's most distinguished literary agents whose portfolio of clients included Joanna Trollope, Sally Beauman, Hermione Lee, Ruth Rendell, Sandi Toksvig, Andrew Motion, Robert Harris and Julian Barnes, to whom she was married, has died. According to BookBrunch, Kavanagh collapsed in the street on Friday and was diagnosed with a brain tumor; she died at home in the early hours of Monday morning. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: John Grogan; John Lithgow; Alex & Me
Today on Good Morning America, John Grogan made The Longest Trip Home: A Memoir (William Morrow, $25.95; HarperAudio CD, $34.95), which pubs today. PW’s starred review explained “Grogan follows up Marley & Me with a hilarious and touching memoir of his childhood in suburban Detroit. In this tenderly told story, Grogan considers the rift between the family he's made and the family that made him — and how to bridge the two.” Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Meatball Dreams
Last week St. Martin’s Press celebrated the publication of Carmine’s Family-Style Cookbook at the Times Square location of the famous Italian restaurant chain. Elizabeth Beier, executive editor at St. Martin’s, is pictured here with Michael Ronis, author and founding chef of Carmine’s. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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