TODAY'S NEWS

Industry Begins Debate Over Removal of Kindle Titles

The industry continues to debate today what the implications for e-books are following Amazon’s decision on Friday to remove editions of 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles. The company did so after it learned that the e-books were illegal copies. The removal was first brought to the attention of the public by the Kindle community where new posts are still occuring. Read on »

University Presses Stepping Up e-Book Efforts
By Calvin Reid
In separate announcements, a coalition of four university presses have received a planning grant to study the feasibility of a collaborative scholarly e-book program, and the University of Chicago Press announced a multi-faceted program to make 700 e-books available immediately.

A coalition of presses from New York University, Rutgers, Temple and the University of Pennsylvania, plan to use a planning grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to hire a technical consultant for a six-month study looking at the feasibility of a collaborative scholarly e-book publishing program. The new program will focus on studying the particular needs of university presses and their library partners. (A spokesperson for Temple Univ. press noted that TUP plans to immediately release 50 new e-books that are not a part of this announcement or coalition study.) Read on »

Over 200 Publishers, Distributors Sign On to NAIPR's Frontlist Plus Universal
By Judith Rosen
More than 200 publishers and distributors have listed their books in the Frontlist Plus Universal database, the online titl-management tool developed by the National Association of Independent Publishers Reps. Among those participating beginning with the fall list are all publishers represented by NAIPR members as well as those with house reps and/or a combination of both house and commission reps, including Workman, Scholastic, Oxford, Globe Pequot, IPG and Consortium.

FPU, which is supported by publishers, enables booksellers to import title information directly into their POS systems for free. According to NAIPR executive director Paul Williams, the program was designed to allow booksellers to cherry pick only those titles they want and is compatible with 10 inventory control systems, including Anthology, Square One and WordStock. Read on »

Stielstra to Publish Bob Garfield
By Lynn Andriani
Next month, Stielstra Publishing, Nashville will publish its first title: The Chaos Scenario by Bob Garfield, editor-at-large at Advertising Age and co-host of NPR’s On the Media. The book chronicles the disintegration of traditional media and marketing, and offers solutions for recovery that Garfield learned from his travels around the world. It’s an apt first effort from the house, which was co-founded by Greg Stielstra, the former v-p of marketing at Thomas Nelson who left in 2007 to start his own consulting business. According to press materials, Stielstra Publishing will focus on “publishing, marketing, promoting and distributing books in a connected, digital world increasingly uninfluenced by traditional publishing methods.” Read on »

Job Moves
Ellah Allfrey has been named deputy editor at Granta. Allfrey, who arrives at the literary mag after six years as an editor at Random House UK's Jonathan Cape imprint, is filling a role left vacant by Alex Clark, who resigned her post as editor in May. Allfrey has edited such authors as Carmen Callil, Bettany Hughes and Julian Barnes. Allfrey will start at the magazine on August 17.
Diane L. Pierson has been named v-p of marketing at Copyright Clearance Center. Pierson will help guide the company’s overall business strategy and is responsible for CCC’s marketing and product management operations. She was most recently director of product value for the global client development division at LexisNexis.

Blogs

MORE STORIES

Obituary: Randy Lang
Randy Lang, who had a 30-year publishing career starting as a temp for Rusty Porter in the late-1970s at Crown Publishers, died June 30. He was 56. After leaving Crown, where he became a full-time production manager, Lang went to Holt, Rinehart and Winston in the mid-1980s and subsequently moved to United Media as head of production. He left United Media for a stint at Bantam Doubleday Dell and then moved to the manufacturing/sales side of the business, first with Phoenix Color, then Merchants and ultimately Maple-Vail. He left the New York metropolitan area three years ago for Greenville, S.C. Lang is survived by his wife, Laurie Stark of Random House, and two children.

Google Book Settlement Webinar Set for July 29
A webinar is planned for July 29 at 2 p.m. (EST), to discuss what the Google Library Project Settlement means for publishers and authors. The panel will feature four people who were involved in crafting the agreement: Richard Sarnoff, co-chair, Bertelsmann, Inc., AAP board of directors; John Sargent, CEO, Macmillan, AAP board of directors; Jan Constantine, general counsel, Author's Guild; and Jim Gleick, author. In addition, Michael Healy, executive director designate, Book Rights Registry, will discuss the role of the BRR moving forward. The webinar will be hosted by Jim Milliot, business and news director of PW.

If approved by the Court in October, the Google agreement will create one of the most far-reaching intellectual, cultural, and commercial platforms for access to digital books for the reading public, while granting publishers unprecedented opportunities and protections. Presented in collaboration with Google, the AAP, and PW, publishers can sign up for the free webinar here.

The PW Morning Report
Frank McCourt Dies; Barnes & Noble Consolidates Publishing; E-Book Strategies; Barnes & Noble Enters E-Reader Fray; Amazon’s Kindle Calamity. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Rocket Men; Smallpox; Alan Bean: Painting Apollo
On The Leonard Lopate Show: Since today is the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing, former publishing executive and prize-winning author Craig Nelson discussed Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon (Viking, 978-0670021031, $27.95; Penguin Audio unabridged CD, $39.95). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Fighting 'Fire' in Reno
On July 11, Reno firefighter and debut author Shawn Grady signed copies of his book, Through The Fire (Bethany House Publishers), at the Reno indie, Sundance Bookstore. A portion of the proceeds from the first 100 books sold were donated to the Reno Community Assistance Program Fund, which benefits victims of fire. Submit your pircutes here »

JOB OF THE DAY

PW VIRTUAL EDITION

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