‘Shine’ Withdrawn as NBA Finalist

Under pressure from the National Book Foundation, Lauren Myracle withdrew her book Shine as a nominee in the Young People’s Literature category of the National Book Awards. The NBF acknowledged that a miscommunication caused Shine to be nominated rather than Chime by Franny Billingsley. After originally adding Chime, the NBF asked Myracle to withdraw her nomination to maintain the integrity of the awards in following the selection of the judges.

August Store Sales Jumped

After falling 4% in July, bookstore sales rose 11.8% in August, to $2.44 billion, according to preliminary estimates released by the Census Bureau. With the gain in August, bookstore sales through the first eight months of the year rose 2.1%, to $10.47 billion.

Berkley Launches E-book Imprint, InterMix

Penguin imprint Berkley/NAL will launch a new e-book imprint in January. InterMix will focus on women’s fiction, romance, mystery/thriller, and science fiction/fantasy, and will release a mix of reprints and titles from new authors. For its January launch, InterMix will publish 11 Nora Roberts titles for the first time as $6.99 e-books and will release seven more later in the year. In February, InterMix will bring back to life an old mass market line, Signet Regency, releasing six books as e-books for the first time.

Lombardi Resigns as B&N CFO

Joe Lombardi has resigned as chief financial officer of Barnes & Noble after nine years. He will remain with B&N as a “nonofficer employee” until mid-2012 to assist in the transition to a new CFO. Until a permanent replacement is found, Allen Lindstrom, v-p, corporate controller, will serve as interim CFO.

Results Down At MHE

With revenue in the school group down 21.4%, to $420.4 million, total sales at McGraw-Hill Education fell 11.1% in the third quarter ended August 31, to $937.3 million. Adjusted operating profit fell 11.0%, to $314.7 million. Sales in the higher education/professional/international group fell less than 1%, to $516.9 million.

EDC Invests in App Developer

Educational Development Corp. has made an equity investment in Demibooks, a Chicago-based technology company that has developed a platform to allow publishers and authors to create interactive books for the iPad. EDC president Randall White said the company has used Demibooks’ platform, Composer, to create its own apps and will continue to use it to develop more of its own products. EDC also reported a slight decline in sales and earnings for the second quarter.

S&S Starts Author Portal

Simon & Schuster has unveiled Author Portal, a Web site that its authors (and illustrators) can use to access their sales information, as well as tools to build their online presence. The main feature of the portal is My Sales, through which authors can get both current and lifelong sales data on their titles. S&S is also providing the same information in My Sales to agents, who will use a sub-site called Agent Portal.

Algonquin to Start YA Line

Algonquin Books is launching a young reader program, focusing on YA and middle-grade fiction, and hired Elise Howard to oversee the line. Howard arrives from HarperCollins, where she spent the past 12 years working on both the HarperTeen and Harper imprints.

B&N Adds to Marketplace

Barnes & Noble is expanding its nonbook offerings, adding more than one million new products to its online marketplace. Currently BN.com Marketplace features products from over 10,000 other retailers.