TODAY'S NEWS

Investment Group Makes Offer for Franklin Electronic Publishers
By Jim Milliot
An investment group consisting of existing management and shareholders has offered to buy Franklin Electronic Publishers for $2.35 per share, putting the value of the deal at just over $19 million. Franklin, which has licensing agreements with a number of publishers, was one of the first companies to marry print with technology, developing handheld devices that contain reference materials sold through dedicated players such as the Spelling Ace. Read on »

Amazon’s Kindle DX Available June 10
Amazon announced that the Kindle DX, its newly released large-format wireless digital reading device, will begin shipping on June 10. The Kindle DX is available for pre-order and Amazon says all orders are prioritized—first come, first served. Amazon launched the larger (9” x 7” screen) enhanced version of the Kindle 2 in early May along with deals to offer newspapers and college textbooks on the device. Amazon offers more than 290,000 titles for the device and the Kindle DX will sell for $489.

RAND Lowers e-Book Prices
By Lynn Andriani
With the price of e-books still a hot topic, nonprofit research organization RAND Corp. has changed the retail price on all of its e-books to $9.95 each. Director of publications and creative services Jane Ryan said RAND’s production, distribution and freight costs are lower for e-books and “we want to pass these savings on to the public. Given the timeliness of our research, we want to make our work quickly available on multiple platforms, including smart phones.” RAND had previously based its e-book pricing on the retail price of print editions. Read on »

Chelsea Green Crashing Howard Dean Health Care Book
By Rachel Deahl
Former DNC chairman and presidential hopeful Howard Dean is bringing his medical background to bear in a new book on healthcare from Chelsea Green. Dean, who was an MD before entering politics, has signed with the indie publisher for Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform: How We Can Achieve Affordable Medical Care for Every American and Make Our Jobs Safer. The paperback original is being crashed for this summer--it will be available in e-book formats on June 8 and in paperback on July 1 as well as available as an iPhone app. Read on »

African Americans, Social Media and Comic Books at BEA
By Calvin Reid and Heidi Macdonald
Clara Villarosa, a retired bookseller and former ABA board member, has been the force behind the African American Program for Book Industry Professionals at BEA for 12 years, organizing, cajoling and doing whatever is necessary to keep the program vibrant and useful. This year the program offered a slight twist—Villarosa served as her own keynote speaker—while offering panels on social media and on the growth of comics and graphic novels. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

BookExpo America 2009: Avenues to Explore Better American-Arab Publishing Ties Explored
Arab publishing was a focus at this year’s BookExpo America and in the first of a series of panels held last Friday about Arab world publishing, panelists wondered why so few Arabian writers are translated into English.

Publishers Mark Linz from the American University of Cairo Press, Rana Idris, general manager of Dar al Adab Publishing in Beirut, and Chad Post from Open Letter at the University of Rochester, seemed to square off against Erroll McDonald, v-p and executive editor of Pantheon, as to where the responsibility lies for the paltry number of translations from Arabic available in the U.S. Read on »

Strothman Adds Epilogue Media
Six years ago when former Houghton Mifflin executive Wendy Strothman founded the Strothman Agency, she hired the press’s assistant publicity director, Dan O’Connell, to manage publicity and marketing for her clients. Now Strothman is going a step further to ensure that her own authors and others get the attention their books need by starting a new division, Epilogue Media, that offers for-fee publicity services.

“We will continue to support our clients with advice and select media pitches,” said Strothman, “but want also to provide customized publicity campaigns to a select group of writers.” Epilogue, to be headed by O'Connell, will provide print coverage blended with broadcast media and new media, from personalized Web sites to Twitter, for Strothman Agency clients, who want to use it, as well as other writers.

The PW Morning Report
Salinger Sues; E-Ink Sells; Google Engenders Standards War; Social E-Readers; Save the Superconductors. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Womenomics; Mercury in Retrograde; The Ramen King and I
Today’s Good Morning America talked with Claire Shipman, co-author (with Katty Kay) of Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success (HarperBusiness, 978-0061697180, $27.99; HarperAudio unabridged CD, $34.99), which pubs today. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

The Two Elliots
Legendary Woodstock photographer Elliott Landy (l.), whose Woodstock Vision: The Spirit of a Generation is being reissued this month by Backbeat Books, stopped to reminisce about the Summer of Love with Elliot Tiber, author of Taking Woodstock (Square One), at BookExpo America over the weekend. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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