TODAY'S NEWS

Watrous Resigns from Globe Pequot

Scott Watrous, who has led the Globe Pequot Press since 2006, has resigned as president and publisher, effective immediately. Jim Joseph, COO of GPP, has assumed Watrous’ duties on an interim basis. Joseph, who has been with GPP for 11 years, thanked Watrous for his “energy, vision, and tireless leadership these last three years,” and said in his absence “business at GPP will continue as usual.” Read on »

Blount Says Orphan Works No Reason to Block Google Settlement; Benefits Touted
By Jim Milliot
In his interview with PW earlier this month, Macmillan president John Sargent, one of the two lead negotiators for the publishers in the Google Book Settlement, said supporters of the agreement would begin to make their voices heard soon. Wednesday afternoon, the publishers’ partner in the deal, the Authors Guild, posted a letter on its Web site from Guild president Roy Blount Jr. talking about orphan works and the benefits the settlement will bring to authors, publishers and readers.

Blount played down concerns expressed by some over orphan works, writing, “ I can’t see any reason to dissent from the settlement over the matter of orphan books.” Blount wrote that he is confident many of the rightsholders of orphan works will be found. Authors, he said “are all findable.” Moreover, the number of orphan works will diminish every year as checks are sent out from the Book Rights Registry, which has an obligation to find authors. Read on »

London Indie to Publish Safran Foer Art Books
By Lynn Andriani
Last week, when the London press Visual Editions announced it had acquired two books by Jonathan Safran Foer, many in publishing wondered what the Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close author was up to now, after quietly leaving Houghton Mifflin for Little, Brown. In looking to dispell any confusion that the Visual announcement may have caused, Foer’s agent, Nicole Aragi, explained in an e-mail to PW, that, “First and most importantly, Jonathan’s primary publishers are Little, Brown in the U.S., and Hamish Hamilton in the U.K. That’s how it will remain.” Aragi said that Visual Editions would be releasing two works by Foer, but they would "simply publish two small art books." Read on »

Sasquatch Launches Custom Publishing Division
By Lynn Andriani
Seattle publisher Sasquatch Books is launching a custom publishing division. Cultivate Books, led by Beth Farrell of Sea Script Company, will take on clients that want specially-created books.

Sasquatch had a custom publishing unit that was active from the 1996 to 2001 but became dormant mainly because of staffing changes, said Sasquatch president Gary Luke. “But we have recently seen demand for custom publishing services from individuals, companies and organizations,” Luke said. “As it turns out, not all books necessarily need to or should flow through the traditional publishing and bookselling channels. We see Cultivate Books as a creative way to grow our business.” Read on »

Page to Screen: Thomas Pynchon on Film? & David Ellis's Newest Thriller
By Rachel Deahl
This week in Page to Screen—PW's weekly column tracking film rights circulating and sold in Hollywood—CAA shops the new Thomas Pynchon, and Stephen Moore takes out an Edgar winner's newest thriller.

After something of a lull in Hollywood, with fewer book manuscripts circulating around town—it could have been a post-BEA malaise or the unshaky afterglow of the William Morris-Endeavor merger—a number of books started making the rounds this week. Though a rep from CAA would not comment about it, we hear Bob Bookman at the agency is shopping the film rights to Thomas Pynchon's August-dropping new novel from Penguin, Inherent Vice. The notoriously reclusive Pynchon, whose biggest flirtation with Hollywood was his pixelated cameo in The Simpsons (complete with bag-over-head), has never had any of his complex postmodern prose turned into a film, so who knows what the fate of Vice will be in Tinseltown. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

The PW Morning Report: Thursday, June 25, 2009
A daily roundup of book and publishing news from across the Web: Viral Promotion for Dan Brown; Kidd to Design Boston Book Fest Poster; Wired Editor Apologizes; BEA Reevaluated. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Dare to Repair; Pamela Des Barres; It's Our Turn to Eat
This morning on Today, bestselling DIY duo Stephanie Glakas-Tenet and Julie Sussman tackled Dare to Repair, Replace & Renovate: Do-It-Herself Projects to Make Your Home More Comfortable, More Beautiful & More Valuable! (Harper, 978-0061343858, $16.99).

Good Morning America profiled L.A. rock author Pamela Des Barres, author of Let's Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies (Chicago Review Press, 978-1556527890, $16.95), which PW called a “breathlessly gossipy scrapbook.” Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Zafon Makes It to Ann Arbor
Internationally bestselling author Carlos Ruiz Zafon launched the U.S. tour for his latest book, The Angel’s Game, with a visit to Borders headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Monday. He is pictured here signing a book for Pat Wynn, senior v-p of store operations for Borders Group. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

PW VIRTUAL EDITION

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