TODAY'S NEWS

The Dollar Hits Canadian Publishers....Again
by Joshua Kerbel
For the second time in as many years, the Canadian/U.S. dollar exchange rate is playing havoc with Canadian book publishers and distributors. On the heels of its 17.5% surge to a high of US$1.1024 on November 7, 2007, the Canadian dollar is now down more than 20%, falling to US$0.7845 on October 24, 2008, levels not seen since mid 2005. “The decline has been so rapid and steep that there's hardly time to adjust for the majority of new titles coming in for the holiday season,” said HarperCollins Canada CEO and president David Kent. “This is the opposite situation from a year ago.” Judy Brunsek, v-p, sales & marketing at Kids Can Press, sums up the problem facing her company and the industry in general. “We do our pricing a year in advance so last fall’s currency situation influenced our pricing for this fall,” she said. Read on »

B&N Launches Social Networking Site
By Lynn Andriani
Barnes & Noble has introduced its answer to Shelfari, Goodreads and other social networking sites for books. It’s called My B&N, and it is live now. My B&N allows users to create free personal profiles around their preferences for books, music and movies. Users can customize their profile pages with a pen name, avatar, virtual library, reviews and ratings. B&N has also improved its list-making tools, and expanded its customer review and ratings features. Read on »

Sterling Toys With Alternate Endings
By Rachel Deahl
It's not quite a choose your own adventure situation, but Sterling is currently prepping two books with unscripted endings. For two forthcoming books about African American history, Still I Rise and Becoming American, the house is holding off the final pages to pen an ending which closes with Barack Obama either losing the presidential election or winding up in the White House. Read on »

New Press Distribution to Perseus
The New Press will move its distribution to the Perseus Books Group’s Perseus Distribution division for the spring 2009 list. The non-profit publisher of quality nonfiction has been distributed by Norton. “We are impressed by Perseus’ commitment to supporting the work of independent publishers like us,” said Ellen Mastromonaco Adler, publisher of The New Press. This is the second Norton distribution client that has moved to Perseus this year; earlier Newmarket Press made the switch.

Kindle is Oprah’s New “Favorite Gadget”
by Edward Nawotka
Anyone who clicked on the Amazon.com Web site in the past couple of days was greeted with a short video of Oprah promising to reveal her new “favorite thing.” Today it became official: Oprah Winfrey endorsed Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader, offering viewers a $50 discount (through a promotional code available on her Web site) off the normal $359 price. "I'm telling you, it is absolutely my new favorite thing in the world,” said Winfrey on her show.

In addition, Amazon is offering Oprah’s latest book club pick, The Story of Edgar Sawtell, at an additional 10% off the regular $9.99 Kindle price. The question now becomes will her club members be loyal enough to shell out the equivalent cash of a few dozen paperbacks?

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Web Exclusive Reviews
This week: the invisible engine of the green market, memoirs of pre-Civil Rights struggle and American immigration, the true story of the fake Cardiff Giant, a plan for Barack Obama and a biography for his wife, and two photo collections of giants in rock. Plus: a handful of Lincolns, two mathematicians and one reality TV villain (makes good). Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Toni Morrison; Patrick Henry Hughes; John Adams
Today on NPR’S All Things Considered, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison talks about her new novel A Mercy (Knopf, 978-0307264237, $23.95; RH Audio unabridged CD, $29.95), pubbing on November 11. From PW’s starred review: “Morrison’s unflinching narrative is all the more powerful for its relative brevity; it takes hold of the reader and doesn’t let go until the wrenching final-page crescendo.” Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

A California Signing
Vicki Wong (pictured) and Michael Murphy, from the design team known as Meomi, recently stopped by Books Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif., to sign copies of their new children's picture book, The Octonauts & the Frown Fish (Immedium). Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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