TODAY'S NEWS

Dalmatian Closes California Offices
By Jim Milliot
Dalmatian Publishing Group has closed the Santa Monica offices of its Intervisual Books and Piggy Toes Press imprints and transferred its operations to Dalmatian’s Atlanta headquarters. Dalmatian acquired Intervisual, once renowned for its pop-up children’s books, in summer 2006 after the company filed for bankruptcy. The company had always been based in southern California.

Mary Counts, who has been president of Intervisual and Whitman Publishing, will become more directly involved with Intervisual and Piggy Toes. Counts said she is "still working out the details" about what staff will work on what projects and whether any employees from Santa Monica will remain involved with the imprints. Read on »

New Features on Google Book Search
by Calvin Reid
Google is rolling out a set of new features for its Book Search that will make searching and previewing books even easier. Google spokesperson Jennie Johnson says that starting yesterday users can imbed a full preview of any full view title found in Google Book Search on their personal blogs and websites. This new feature makes it easier for non-techie readers to add a full preview to their sites or e-mail or text message a preview to a friend. For more information visit the Google Books blog. Read on »

140 Character Confab: Listening To and Learning About Twitter
By Calvin Reid
There were two book panels at the recent 140 Characters Conference, a two-day convention held in New York focused on the pervasive influence of Twitter on seemingly everything, but it became clear that the specific content of those two panels—indeed all of the panels at event—was a secondary consideration. The 140 Characters conference, named after Twitter's limit of 140-letter messages, was more of a revival meeting, a chance for true believers to testify to the power of social media and open access to information in the digital age and the potential social media has to change and enhance virtually every aspect of contemporary personal and commercial culture. Read on »

Pearson Answers Schwarzenegger’s Call for E-Textbooks
By Craig Morgan Teicher
Last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed replacing school textbooks with e-books in order to help plug a state budget gap. Now, textbook giant Pearson has responded with digital content to supplement California’s programs in biology, chemistry, algebra 2, and geometry.

In a recent statement, Schwarzenegger said, “Kids are feeling as comfortable with their electronic devices as I was with my pencils and crayons. So why are California’s school students still forced to lug around antiquated, heavy, expensive textbooks?” But easing the strain on students’ backs was not the Governor’s main reason for putting out a call to developers to create electronic textbooks. The current budget gap in the state is estimated at $28 billion. Read on »

NECBA's Pub Crawl: Two Publishers, One Day
By Judith Rosen
Given the early hour at which the New England Children’s Booksellers Advisory Council kicked off its June 10th meeting, aka Pub Crawl, it’s probably just as well that co-chairs Kenny Brechner, owner of Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, and Vicky Uminowicz of Titcomb’s Bookshop in East Sandwich, Mass., weren’t thinking of that kind of pub. Most of the 25+ booksellers who attended were quite happy to have a strong shot of coffee or chai at stop one, Porter Square Books. Even those who didn’t have to get up super early to take a bus from rural Maine or hop a train the night before in New Jersey looked a bit bleary-eyed as they wandered around the North Cambridge bookstore. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

Jewish Publication Society Head Stepping Down
Ellen Frankel, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Jewish Publication Society, is stepping down from her position Aug. 1. Frankel will remain as a consultant and editor emerita to JPS; COO and publishing director Carol Hupping will serve as interim CEO.

“I love what I do at JPS and I also love to write, and I’ve found that I cannot keep up the pace,” said Frankel, 58, whose ninth book, The Jewish Publication Society Illustrated Children’s Bible, will be published in August. Frankel has been editor-in-chief since 1991 and CEO since 1998. Read on »

Monday's Reviews Today: Norb Vonnegut’s Debut & Stephen P. Cohen’s Middle East
Norb Vonnegut's debut novel, Top Producer, meets the “gold standard for financial thrillers,” putting the frenzied, cutthroat world of Wall Street’s best stockbrockers on brilliant display. The author, a veteran fund manager, “handles the arcane terminology and slang of Wall Street with aplomb, never letting it get in the way of the story.” And Stephen P. Cohen’s Beyond America’s Grasp: A Century of Failed Diplomacy in the Middle East “should become required reading for those interested in the Middle East.” Cohen, director of the Institute of Middle East Peace and Development, “provides a richly detailed history of diplomacy in the region and its implications for current relations.” Read on »

Job Moves
Bookseller Rich Rennicks has joined Unbridled Books as bookstore liaison and will head the independent publisher’s relationships with booksellers, working personally with them to facilitate events and promotions.

At Graywolf Press, Erin Kottke has been promoted to marketing and publicity manager and Leslie Koppenhaver has been promoted to sales and business manager.

The PW Morning Report: Friday, June 19, 2009
A daily roundup of book and publishing news from across the Web: Google Books Upgraded; Foer to U.K. Indie; Audiobook App Tops iPhone App Store; Pogue’s Productivity Tips. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood; Rick Steves; Championship Fathering
Today, The Bob Edwards Show marked the upcoming Father’s Day weekend by chatting with bestselling writer Michael Lewis, author of Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood (W.W. Norton, 978-0393069013, $23.95; Brilliance Audio unabridged CD, $24.99). PW wrote “Although Lewis is correct that his fatherhood moments might be more interesting to him than to anyone else, his reflections capture both the unease and the excitement that fatherhood brings.” Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Keynoting in Tuscaloosa
Vanessa Davis Griggs, author of The Blessed Trinity Trilogy and Practicing What You Preach (Kensington/Dafina), and Cecil Murphey, coauthor of 90 Minutes in Heaven (Revell) were the keynote speakers at the Southern Christian Writers Conference held in Tuscaloosa, Alabama June 12 and 13.
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