TODAY'S NEWS

Scribd Launches Online Store
Andrew Albanese
Surging “social publisher” Scribd unveiled the next step in its evolution today with the beta launch of the Scribd Store, an e-commerce solution that allows anyone—from major publishers to individual authors—to upload and sell their works. The venture expands Scribd’s existing library of free documents, a service popular enough to generate more than 60 million unique users, making it one of the world’s most popular web sites. At launch, the Scribd Store will include never-before-released novels from authors Tamim Ansary, Joe Quirk and Kemble Scott; Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein's The Twitter Book, will be available as well as books from the World Bank and Lonely Planet. Read on »

Books Flat at Hastings
Same store sales of books inched ahead 0.2% at Hastings Entertainment in the first quarter ended April 30. Used and value books plus the Stephenie Meyer titles and The Shack topped sales in the period, Hastings reported. For the entire company, revenue fell 4.7%, to $125.7 million, and net income dropped 43%, to $1.7 million. Earnings were actually higher than projections, which the company attributed to cost cutting, including reducing inventory by $13.3 million. During the quarter, Hastings also lowered its debt by $9.2 million.

The strongest segment performers in the quarter were Hastings’ café and electronics categories. The music segment continued to drag down results, with comp sales off 15.2%, while video games and movie comp sales fell 10.4% and 5.7%, respectively. Hastings said it is leaving its full year guidance unchanged, projecting earnings of 40 cents to 45 cents per share.

OverDrive in Deal with ChineseAll
By Lynn Andriani
Digital audiobook distributor OverDrive is partnering with digital publisher ChineseAll to supply Chinese-language e-books and audiobooks to public libraries in North America. The collection will include more than 20,000 titles, with 8,000 e-books and 3,000 audiobooks to be available in the first year. Libraries that are part of OverDrive’s network will be able to add titles to their digital catalogs, which will then be available for download from a library’s ‘Virtual Branch’ download website. OverDrive currently provides download services for more than 8,500 libraries, retailers and schools, and supports for PCs, Macs, iPods, Sony Readers and most MP3 players. Read on »

Papercutz to Publish Disney Fairies Graphic Novels
By Calvin Reid
Papercutz, a New York City-based graphic novel publisher focused on teen readers, has reached an agreement to produce a series of graphic novels based on Disney Fairies, a series of bestselling prose chapter books drawn from the novels of Gail Carson Levine and constructed around the well-known Disney fairy character Tinker Bell. The acquisition is the latest deal in a publishing strategy by Papercutz focused on licensing classic prose and comics properties and even popular toy and European comics series and producing book-format comics aimed at tweens. Read on »

Williamson Forms Christian Media Company
By Marcia Z. Nelson
Religion book publishing veteran Byron Williamson has formed Worthy Media, a privately funded holding company that will start new business units and acquire Christian content, marketing, and distribution companies. Williamson, former president of Word Publishing, Nelson/Word Publishers, and Integrity Publishers, will be president and CEO of the company, intended to promote a Christian message in a variety of media and platforms. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

The Monday Interview: Leslie M. Pockell
An interview with Leslie M. Pockell, editor of 100 Essential American Poems, which was just published by St. Martin’s Thomas Dunne Books.

PW: What were the qualifications for selecting these Essential American Poems, and how difficult was it to stick to that number?

LP: As I mention in my introduction, I think it’s self evident that our collective view of the U.S.A.—its history, its traditions, even what we generally recognize as our characteristically American voice—is largely determined by our literature, and in this book I wanted to collect poems that I feel contribute something important (in fact, essential) to our understanding of the roots of our shared culture. Of course there are many more than 100 works that fit that description, but keeping the number manageable (and round!) gave me what I consider a workable structure instead of an open-ended list. My own qualifications are non-academic, but I believe my generation (just barely pre-Baby Boom) was exposed to more poetry in school than has been the case for students of more recent decades, and I’ve compiled a number of successful anthologies in the past. Read on »

Web-Exclusive Reviews
This week's Web-only: celebrity chef John DeLucie dishes, disabled psychotherapist Sean Stephenson inspires, Daily Telegraph reporter Oliver Poole returns to Iraq, liberal strategist James Carville rages on, professor Jennifer Scanlon reconsiders Helen Gurley Brown's feminist legacy, and Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi gives you more information on the Cthulu than you require. Plus: essential collections of dog breeds, American poetry and turn-of-the-20th century dissection photography. Read on »

The PW Morning Report
A very E-Bookish Monday: Color E-Ink; Two Takes on E-Book Pricing; Oxford’s First Lady; E-Book Tipping Point?; Self-E-Publishing; 80 Years of Faber. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: The Skinny; Colm Toibin; Reynolds Price
Today on Good Morning America, Dr. Louis Aronne delivered The Skinny: On Losing Weight Without Being Hungry-the Ultimate Guide to Weight Loss Success (Broadway, 978-0767930390, $24.95). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Talking Blago in Illinois
On May 14 Elizabeth Brackett did a reading at Barnes & Noble in Oak Brook, Ill., for her book, Pay to Play: How Rod Blagojevich Turned Political Corruption into a National Sideshow (Ivan R. Dee). Brackett (l.), a correspondent for PBS’s The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, is pictured here with Barnes & Noble community relations manager Cheryl Westberg (c.) and Barnes & Noble store manager Lucy O-Nan-Johnson. Read on »

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