TODAY'S NEWS

Penguin Up...and Down
Exchange rate fluctuations continue to play tricks with reported results from Pearson and its subsidiaries, including Penguin. Pearson reported that for the first nine months of 2009 total sales were up 20%, but rose only 2% at constant exchange rates. Operating profit was up 19%, or 3% at constant exchange rate. At Penguin, sales were up 12% (but down 4% at constant exchange rates). Pearson said the expected tough retail market conditions were largely offset by a good publishing performance, strong growth in e-book sales (up almost fourfold and with almost 12,000 e-books now available) and good growth in international markets such as South Africa. Third quarter publishing highlights included continued strong sales of The Help by Kathryn Stockett and the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris; Jamie's America by Jamie Oliver, Ooh! What a Lovely Pair by Ant and Dec, and Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby. Read on »

FTC Attorney Says Guidelines Not Aimed at Individual Bloggers
By Sue Corbett
The Federal Trade Commission, which set the blogging world aflame two weeks ago with new guidelines governing truth-in-cyberspace-advertising, “never intended to patrol the blogosphere,” said Mary Engle, an FTC lawyer who addressed KidlitCon 09, a conference of kids’ book bloggers held last weekend in Alexandria, Va. “We couldn’t do it if we wanted to and we don’t want to.”

Engle, the FTC’s associate director for advertising practices, spoke to the gathering of 70 bloggers at the invitation of conference organizer Pam Coughlan, who blogs as Mother Reader. “Everybody who talked to me after she spoke said they felt so much better and that they understood the issues much better,” Coughlan said. Read on »

Weinstein Books Partners with Perseus
By Jim Milliot
After several months of speculation about the future of Weinstein Books, parent company Weinstein Company said yesterday that it has formed a joint venture with the Perseus Books Group under which Perseus will take over most publishing activities for Weinstein, including distribution which will move to the company December 1. Shortly before Labor Day rumors surfaced that Weinstein Books was being shut down, but publisher Judy Hottensen, while acknowledging that its staff had been cut from five to four and was looking to control expenses, said Weinstein Books was continuing to acquire titles. Hottensen, along with the Weinstein Books team, will remain in its current offices and “will participate in the development of the longer-term plan for the JV,” the press release said. Read on »

Elementary, My Dear Indy: Bouchercon 2009
By Jordan Foster
Despite the faltering economy, almost 1,700 fans flocked to Indianapolis this weekend to attend the annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention. The Guest of Honor was genre heavyweight Michael Connelly, while S.J. Rozan, best known for her Lydia Chin and Bill Smith PI series, served as Toastmaster, and Katherine Kennison, who founded the Magna Cum Murder mystery conference in nearby Muncie, Indiana, was the Fan Guest of Honor. Al Hubin, an editor, reviewer and crime fiction scholar who created the popular mystery fanzine The Armchair Detective, was the Lifetime Achievement honoree. For the first time, Bouchercon recognized a children’s author, with Wendelin Van Draanen as the Honored Youth Author, and included a program called “Boucherkids,” aimed at children, families and young adult librarians. In her acceptance speech, Van Draanen told the audience she hoped to bring the children’s and adult programs together in the future “because when the kids’ books writers write good mysteries, kids like mysteries and they’ll become adults and read your books!” Read on »

Wayne State in Fourth Printing for NBA Finalist 'American Salvage'
By Lynn Andriani
When the National Book Award finalists were announced last Wednesday, Wayne State University Press was the only small publisher represented in the fiction category, with Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage. It also marked the first time one of the press’ authors was nominated for the award. In the days following the announcement, American Salvage—a collection of stories about rural residents “living on the edge of the American Dream”—sold out, and has now gone to its fourth printing since its April 2009 release. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

Simon & Schuster Signs Trilogy Adapted from iTunes App
Simon & Schuster's Atria Books imprint has struck a three-book deal with F.J. Lennon for a series based on his popular video game app, Soul Trapper. Emily Bestler, v-p and editorial director of Atria, took world English rights to the three planned titles from Peter Steinberg of The Steinberg Agency. Read on »

Comings and Goings
If you've been laid off recently, left your job or landed a new position and would like to pass along your contact information to others in the business, send details to pwletters@reedbusiness.com. Please include your full name and former title/company.

Michael Healy has moved from his position at the Book Industry Study Group to work full-time on the preparations to establish The Book Rights Registry. He can be reached at michael@bookrightsregistry.org.

Margaret Milnes, most recently v-p of book publishing at Nickelodeon, can be reached at margaret.milnes@yahoo.com.

You can find a full list of all those who have appeared in Comings and Goings here.

Web Exclusive Book Reviews
Stars for Diana Henry's Roast Figs Sugar Snow, Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein's Girldrive, Poul Anderson's Collected Short Works Vol. 2, Mickey Zucker Reichert's Flight of the Renshai and Tanith Lee's Night's Master. Plus Chuck Klosterman's Eating the Dinosaur, Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson and Richard Dilallo, and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters from the irreverent folks at Quirk. Read on »

PW Spring Announcement Listings
E-mails were sent to publishers on October 12 (deadline is Oct 23); if you did not receive an e-mail, contact Skip Skwarek at skip.skwarek@reedbusiness.com. Read on »

The PW Morning Report
Wherever there’s book news (on the Internet), the PW Morning Report will be there: E-Readers; Target Joins Price War; Wyclef’s Memoir; Internet Archive’s BookServer; Book Art. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: SuperFreakonomics; Malcolm Gladwell; A New Literary History of America
On today’s Good Morning America: Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner, whose SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance (William Morrow, 978-0060889579, $29.99; HarperAudio unabridged CD, $34.99) pubs today. Tomorrow, they visit The Leonard Lopate Show. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Touting Tracy
The ladies of Random House Audio are shown here posing with a lifesize cut-out of Tracy Morgan holding copies of his audiobook, I Am the New Black, which goes on sale today. Submit your pictures here »