TODAY'S NEWS

Outgoing GLIBA President Issues “Call to Arms”
By Claire Kirch
At the just concluded Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association fall trade show, Carol Besse, GLIBA’s outgoing board president and co-owner of Carmichael’s Books in Louisville, Kent., jolted more than 200 booksellers at Saturday’s breakfast and annual meeting by sounding a forceful call to arms, urging them to not only build alliances with other independent retailers, authors, and customers, but also to “get out there in front” of store patrons and explicitly explain why consumers shouldn’t buy books from Amazon.com. It’s a matter of survival and a quality-of-life issue for entire communities, Besse explained, also calling for a “grassroots effort to re-educate every author” who visits independents, asking them to disable links to Amazon.com on their Web sites. Read on »

Sale of Publications International Kids Unit Off
The sale of Publications International Ltd.’s children’s publishing group to the toy maker RC2 Corp. has been called off. Curt Stoelting, CEO of RC2, cited high financing costs and the current credit crunch for RC2’s decision to not go forward with the deal. “Recent shifts in the capital markets have impacted the availability of capital and increased the costs of financing,” Stoelting said in a statement, adding that the current conditions “precluded is from structuring a transaction with the proper levels of operating and financial flexibility.”

RC2 Corp. announced its intention to buy the group in June, and had hoped to complete the $163 million purchase by the end of the third quarter. The children’s group, which publishes a mix of interactive titles, had sales of $112 million in the 12 month period ended March 31, 2008. No one at Publications International was available to comment on its plans for the children’s group, although Stoelting said RC2 would re-consider the acquisition once the capital markets improve. RC2 will pay up to $300,000 to cover the cost of audits and other expenses incurred by PIL in preparing for the transaction.

Between Here and the Bestsellers List
by Judith Rosen
If booksellers can make a book through handselling, why not publishers? That’s the premise behind the marketing campaign that Algonquin Books is using to try to break out Shutterbabe author Deborah Copaken Kogan’s dark first novel, Between Here and April coming out October 7, and which just went back to press for a second printing of 5,000 copies. It now has 20,000 copies in print, and Algonquin is considering a third trip back to press in the next few weeks. Read on »

New Michelin Guide Available Via Mobile Phone
By Lynn Andriani
Michelin today released its selection of recommended hotels and restaurants that will be in the Michelin Guide New York City 2009. For the first time, this year’s edition, which goes on Oct. 7, will be available via mobile phone.

Readers will have the option to access the North American Michelin guide selections on their mobile phones through a licensing agreement with mobile application provider UBI UBI. The content for all four U.S. Michelin guides, which include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, will be available by subscription later this month.

The new guide, which lists more than 80 new establishments and features 617 establishments in all, is a $16.95 paperback. Langenscheidt Publishing Group distributes Michelin guides in the U.S.

Thomson, Clee Join for U.K. Industry Service
Two of the U.K.’s most respected publishing journalists, Liz Thomson and Nicholas Clee, are joining forces to launch a daily online industry news service. BookBrunch will go live October 13 at www.bookbrunch.co.uk and its first issues will include coverage of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Thomson, editor of Publishing News before it was closed this summer, said the goal of BookBrunch, “is to become a community, a site that will inform and entertain and which will engage with the most junior and senior members of our industry.” The service will cover publishing, bookselling, rights, prizes, people and parties. Thomson notes that between herself and Clee, the former editor of The Bookseller, the two have a combined experience of 50 years covering the U.K. publishing industry. BookBrunch will be supported by a combination of advertising and small subscription fee.

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MORE STORIES

Job Moves
Steve Troha has joined Vigliano Associates as an agent. Troha will be "selectively signing clients," according to an announcement from Vigliano, and working with such authors as Jackie Collins, Suzanne Somers and Gary Zukav. Troha was associate director of publicity at St. Martin's Press.

Matthew Lore has resigned as v-p, executive editor at Da Capo Press/Da Capo Lifelong Books, in order to explore new publishing opportunities. He can be reached at matthew.lore.email@gmail.com.

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: The Wordy Shipmates; The Mind-Beauty Connection; Pictures at a Revolution
Both The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Leonard Lopate Show host Sarah Vowell with The Wordy Shipmates (Riverhead, $25.95; S&S Audio unabridged CD, $29.99). And Turner Classic Movies will spend eight hours tonight spotlighting Mark Harris's Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood (Penguin, $27.95; Tantor Audio unabridged CD, $39.99). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Manga Industrial Complex
Last night at the Japan Society, bestselling business author Daniel Pink gave a lively talk on the critical importance of the manga industry to Japanese pop culture and discussed his own manga career guide, Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide you'll ever Need. (Riverhead). Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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