TODAY'S NEWS

Borders Reorganizes Merchandising Team
By Rachel Deahl
In a move that’s been in the works for some time, Borders has shuffled its internal merchandising team. The shifting of various staffers’ positions has been planned for a few months, and the retailer has shared the details with its publisher clients.

According to an April 8 letter to publishers from Rob Gruen, executive v-p of merchandising and marketing, Gruen has been “seeking the best ways to deploy” his internal talent since he came on board a year ago, and the new structure is more in line with how other retailers are organized. The company, which previously had a pool of buyers, will now be restructured into a merchandising department with buyers, planners and directors. The changes will go into effect officially on May 19. Read on »

Rowling Takes the Stand in RDR Suit
By John Sellers
The clash of perspectives between author J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers versus Michigan-based publisher RDR Books was evident from the beginning of the first day of testimony today in U.S. District Court in downtown Manhattan. The defense’s lead trial counsel David Hammer introduced his client Roger Rapoport, RDR’s publisher, as “the person without whom none of us would be here today,” after which the plaintiffs’ counsel, Dale Cendali of O’Melveny & Myers, noted that Rowling might better fit that description.

The case centers on RDR Books’ intended publication of The Harry Potter Lexicon by Steven Vander Ark, which is based on the Web site of the same name that Vander Ark has maintained for the past seven years. During opening arguments, Cendali said that the plaintiff would demonstrate “massive, wholesale and willful copying” on the part of RDR and would seek a permanent injunction against the book’s publication. Anthony Falzone, head of the Stanford University Law School Fair Use Project, said that “transformation is at the core of fair use,” and that Vander Ark met the standards of fair use in his adaptation of Rowling’s material. Read on »

Sentinel Acquires Rumsfeld Memoir
By Rachel Deahl
Donald Rumsfeld has signed with Sentinel for his forthcoming memoir. The Penguin imprint bought world rights to the embattled former Secretary of Defense's story, in a deal, none-too-surprisingly, brokered by powerhouse Washington attonery Robert Barnett. There is no pub date yet for the currently untitled work, which editorial director Jeffrey Krames will edit. According to Penguin, Rumsfled is going to donate all proceeds from the book to his recently founded nonprofit, The Rumsfeld Foundation (which was established to fund microfinance projects). Rumsfeld, in the giving spirit, is also ditching the advance.

Speaking to the book itself, Adrian Zackheim, publisher of Sentinel and Portfolio, said it will be "essential reading for everyone who wants to understand the monumental events of Donald Rumsfeld’s six years at the Pentagon and his historic career." Zackheim added that the book will also include "previously untold stories and events" from Rumsfeld's Depression-era youth, his time in Congress and his stints with the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, as well as his career in the private sector.

Lightning Grows in the U.K.
Lightning Source is expanding its U.K. facilities, jumping from 12,000 square feet of production and distribution space to 60,000 square feet. The new building, Chapter House, is in Milton Keynes and Lightning expects to move into the new plant this summer. The new facility will allow the company to immediately add more print lines and has the capability to house up to 12 print lines, said David Taylor, managing director of Lightning Source UK. “It’s a long-term play,” said Taylor.

Lightning’s U.K. division printed about 2 million units in 2007 and Taylor expects that number to increase by 25% this year. “The new plant gives us many more options,” Taylor said, naming enhanced shipping and distribution services as options that will be available as soon as the plant is up and running. Four color printing for hardcovers should be available by 2009.

LBF Updates: Van Tulleken Acquired; AbeBooks Goes to Italy
By Jim Milliot
The first day of the fair also brought a couple of announcements. Quayle Munro, an independent merchant bank with offices in Edinburgh and London, has acquired van Tulleken, the international financial adviser specializing in cross-Atlantic publishing, information and technology deals. The purchase is valued at £6.1 million, including £1.9 million in cash. Founded in 1995 with offices in London and New York, van Tulleken’s clients have included Hearst, Pearson, Dolan Media, Reed Elsevier, von Holzbrinck, Thomson, Wolters Kluwer and Nielsen, as well as private equity firms and small and medium-sized independent companies, closing over 100 transactions. The purchase gives Quayle Munro a New York office, while giving van Tulleken greater scale.

Separately, AbeBooks announced that it has opened a new Web site in Italy, www.abebooks.it/. The new site will offer 1.4 million Italian books from 98 booksellers in Italy as well as providing access to all other Abe titles. The new site is the sixth regional site operated by Abe.

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"Hamlet, and the Morality of Training a Dog: PW Talks with David Wroblewski
A PW Web-Exclusive Q&A: David Wroblewski’s first novel, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, is set on a farm in northern Wisconsin, where the Sawtelle family raises a fictional breed of dogs. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Williams’s Life Among the Dead; Harlan Coben’s Hold Tight; Mary Roach’s Bonk
Today, Good Morning America had a visitation from British medium and clairvoyant Lisa Williams, who discussed her memoir Life Among the Dead (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, $24). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Brown Toasts Nagel
Tina Brown (l.) hosted a party for Susan Nagel (c.) on April 1 at her Upper East Side home to celebrate the release of Nagel’s historical biography Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie-Antoinette's Daughter (Bloomsbury). Also pictured is Nagel’s agent, Tina Bennett (r.), from Janklow & Nesbitt.
Photo credit: Patrick McMullan Submit your pictures here »

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