TODAY'S NEWS

Perseus Lays Off 20, Will Cut Title Output in 2010
By Jim Milliot
Citing sluggish consumer sales and inventory cutbacks at retailers, the Perseus Books Group has laid off approximately 20 people and will reduce its list by about 100 titles in 2010. In a letter to employees last week, Perseus president David Steinberger said that despite earlier efforts to reduce costs, including a pay freeze, “it has become clear that we need to take additional steps now in order to be financially prudent and pursue opportunities to grow.” Those steps include sharpening the company’s publishing program, and Steinberger said that most of the 20 jobs being eliminated are in the publishing operations, with a few touching the distribution side. The layoffs represent about 3% of Perseus’ total workforce. Steinberger said that although the company will cut title output, it is not exiting any subject areas. Read on »

First Canadian Booksellers Association Meeting Wins Praise, Calls for More in 2010
By Leigh Anne Williams
More than 80 booksellers and a small group of publishers gathered June 20 and 21 at the Radisson Admiral Hotel on Toronto’s waterfront for the Canadian Bookseller Association’s new summer conference, which included professional development seminars, a “speed-dating” session for booksellers to meet with publisher sales reps, the CBA’s annual meeting, as well as the presentation of the CBA’s Libris Awards. And most in attendance seemed to consider the fledgling new format a success. The CBA only had a few months to plan and pull together an alternative event after learning in early February that BookExpo Canada, the annual trade show for the Canadian publishing and bookselling industry, had been cancelled by Reed Exhibitions. As booksellers mingled among publisher tables in a crowded atrium of the hotel on Saturday afternoon, many praised the conference for being more intimate than BEC, but many hope for a larger show in 2010. Read on »

Stephen King Text Message Promo May Be Horror Story for S&S
By Andrew Albanese
A 2006 text message campaign to enlist readers for "the Stephen King VIP Mobile Club" may turn out to be a horror story for publisher Simon & Schuster in court. According to a report in Online Media Daily, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week ruled that the short ads may have violated the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, reversing an earlier 2007 ruling in favor of Simon & Schuster, and remanding the case back to the trial court. Read on »

Springer Lets Library Patrons Buy Paperback Versions of E-books
By Lynn Andriani
Springer Science+Business Media is making its e-books available as paperback individual copies to library patrons. The academic publisher has extended its MyCopy eBook service to all academic libraries in the U.S. and Canada that have purchased Springer e-book collections. Registered library patrons can order paperback copies of Springer e-books at www.springerlink.com.

The MyCopy offer applies to more than 11,000 Springer e-books published since 2005. For $24.95, which includes shipping, library patrons can get their own printed books, branded as “MyCopy” books, with color covers and b&w content. Read on »

Hippocrene Launches Arabic Dictionary iPhone App
By Lynn Andriani
Providing more evidence that there soon will be an iPhone application for everything, New York independent Hippocrene Books, which has been publishing foreign language dictionaries for 35 years, has launched an iPhone app, HippArabic. It is based on the house’s bestselling Arabic Dictionary & Phrasebook and has more than 4,000 entries. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

Kindle DX: Looks Good, Works Fine, Costs Too Much
The Kindle DX, which shipped June 10, is the latest iteration of Amazon’s family of black & white digital reading devices to be released. And since I reviewed the original device in 2007; as well its redesigned upgrade, the Kindle 2, in March of this year; here’s my review of the DX.

If you read my review of the Kindle 2, there’s really not a lot more to say. The Kindle DX is essentially a bigger (9.7” screen), enhanced version of the Kindle 2 (6” screen) with a larger 3gb harddrive that will hold up to 3,500 books as opposed to the Kindle 2, which is said to hold about 1,500. Naturally the price is higher as well: $489 for the Kindle DX and $359 for the Kindle 2. All of the other stuff—sleek minimalist design; 24/7 wireless connectivity; the ability to buy any of more than 300,000 Kindle editions at any time day or night; including newspapers, blogs and magazines—is pretty much the same. Read on »

Web Exclusive Reviews: 6/22/2009
This week's Web reviews: four Daily News sports reporters turn in the definitive story of Roger Clemens and drugs in baseball; Miles Kington presents a lively epistolary meta-nonfiction collection about dying; Sam Pocker catches retailers gone wild; and smallpox eradicator D.A. Henderson chronicles his showdown with the disease. Plus: fiction from Jane Porter, Sarah Prineas's second Magic Thief novel, and Alex Flinn's Gossip Girl makeover of "Sleeping Beauty." Read on »

The PW Morning Report: Monday, June 22, 2009
A daily roundup of book and publishing news from across the Web: Textbook Packager Shuts Down; Paper-Over-Board Books; Battle Heats Up Over Illustrator’s Estate; A Funny Report from the Salinger Trial; Bezos Says Kindle Is Two Separate Businesses; A Poet on Colbert. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: And Then The Roof Caved In; Donald Rumsfeld, Unwrapped; Tennis Strokes
This morning, both the Today show and MSNBC’s Morning Joe talked with CNBC correspondent David Faber, whose And Then The Roof Caved In: How Wall Street’s Greed and Stupidity Brought Capitalism to Its Knees (Wiley, 978-0470474235, $26.95) pubs tomorrow.

On both NPR’s Fresh Air and C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, longtime Washington Post reporter Bradley Graham played By His Own Rules: The Story of Donald Rumsfeld (PublicAffairs, 978-1586484217, $35), just out this week. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Jolie and Three Cups of Tea
Last Thursday, Three Cups of Tea author Greg Mortenson and his daughter Amira attended the United Nations World Refugee Day in Washington D.C. Pictured here are Amira with Angelina Jolie, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassador, holding a copy of the Three Cups of Tea Young Readers Edition (Puffin), which features a Q&A with Amira. Read on »

JOB OF THE DAY

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