Tag Archives: publishers

Penguin Canada to release YA novel based on life of Lucy Maud Montgomery | Quill & Quire

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A newly announced YA novel, based on the life of Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery, has the support of the beloved author’s family.

In a press release, Penguin Canada’s Lynne Missen, publishing director of the young readers’ group, says, “The idea for this book came up at a lunch with representatives of the heirs of L.M. Montgomery and we were all immediately smitten.”

Scheduled for release in 2015 under the Razorbill Canada imprint, the novel will be written by debut author Melanie J. Fishbane, who holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. The story will focus on Montgomery’s life from age 14 to 18, including her time as a student in Cavendish, PEI, to her year living with her her father and “difficult stepmother” in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

“My family is excited to be involved with another innovative literary project with Penguin Canada on the subject of my grandmother, L.M. Montgomery,” says Kate MacDonald-Butler. “Only a young adult novel could envision the dizzying romantic highs and the agonizing lows of finding one’s place in the world. We are looking forward to the creative talents of Melanie Fishbane in bringing the teenaged Maud to life for a new generation of readers.”

via Penguin Canada to release YA novel based on life of Lucy Maud Montgomery | Quill & Quire.

Oyster Brings ‘Netflix for E-Books’ App to iPad, Opens to Public | Mashable

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A little more than a month after launching an iPhone app in invitation-only beta, Oyster is making its e-book subscription service available to all users and expanding to iPad.

Oyster charges $9.95 a month for access to more than 100,000 books from big and small publishers, but it now offers users one free month with the hope of getting more people to try the app experience. The startup declined to provide data on the number of users or books read during the beta period, but noted that 1 million pages were read in the first 10 days the app was available and another million pages were read in the following six days.

Read: Oyster Brings ‘Netflix for E-Books’ App to iPad, Opens to Public | Mashable.

You may also like: Test Driving Oyster, a “Netflix for Ebooks” | The Digital Shift

Amazon Non-English Digital Growth, Amazon Shipping Chromecast Internationally, McCall Smith to Pen Emma Adaptation, Nielsen Twitter Ratings

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Non-English digital growth ‘matches UK/US’  | The Bookseller
The digital adoption rate in non-English language markets where Amazon Kindle operates is matching that in the English-speaking world. This is according to Russ Grandinetti, vice-president for Kindle Content at Amazon, speaking to delegates at Publishers Launch held yesterday (Monday 7th October) on the eve of Frankfurt Book Fair.

Amazon now shipping Chromecast orders outside of the US | Engadget
Google has yet to expand Chromecast sales outside of the US, but that isn’t stopping Amazon from getting a little piece of the action. Android Central noticed that the online retailer has opened orders on Amazon.com to include additional international shipping options, providing an legitimate and cost-effective way to get the $35 streaming dongle before it officially lands on foreign shores.

McCall Smith to rework Austen’s Emma | The Bookseller
Alexander McCall Smith is to write a modern adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma for HarperCollins. The author is the latest recruit to the publisher’s “Austen Project”, which will see Joanna Trollope tackle Sense and Sensibility, Val McDermid modernise Northanger Abbey, and Curtis Sittenfeld rework Pride and Prejudice.

Nielsen to roll out Twitter ratings for TV shows… | CNET
The goal of the “Nielsen Twitter TV Ranking” will be to measure the unique audience tweeting about individual programs.

Penguin pays tribute to Tom Clancy | The Bookseller

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Penguin has paid tribute to thriller giant Tom Clancy, who has died at the age of 66.

Tom Clancy died yesterday (1st October) at a Baltimore hospital, close to his Maryland home.

Clancy wrote 25 fiction and non-fiction books for Penguin, including several thrillers based around the military and international espionage, dubbed “techno-thrillers”, many of which were adapted into Hollywood films. The author’s 17th novel, Command Authority, is due to be released in December 2013.

Tom Weldon, c.e.o. of Penguin Random House UK said: “Tom Clancy changed readers’ expectations of what a thriller could do. He was a master of his craft and it was our privilege to work with him. He will be greatly missed by millions of fans in the UK and around the world.” 

David Shanks, Penguin USA c.e.o., was involved with every one of Clancy’s books. He said: “I’m deeply saddened by Tom’s passing. He was a consummate author, creating the modern-day thriller, and was one of the most visionary storytellers of our time. I will miss him dearly and he will be missed by tens of millions of readers worldwide.”

via Penguin pays tribute to Tom Clancy | The Bookseller.

25 Independent Presses That Prove This Is the Golden Age of Indie Publishing | Flavorwire

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Independent publishing — that is, publishing whatever an individual or small group think is worthy of dumping their time and money into — is nothing new. From Virginia and Leonard Woolf starting up Hogarth Press to the early days of Farrar, Straus and Giroux championing now-iconic authors that other publishers wouldn’t touch, DIY publishing has long been responsible for some of our best literature.

That’s why, no matter what the latest doomsday prognostication about the future of big publishing happens to be, this is an exciting time to be a fan of literature. Among the long list of indie presses that are putting out great stuff, we’re singling out 25 that we love — but we encourage you to do some more digging of your own to discover even more great indies that are publishing great works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and more.

Read: 25 Independent Presses That Prove This Is the Golden Age of Indie Publishing | Flavorwire.

HarperCollins partners with Scribd for ebook subscription service | Quill & Quire

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HarperCollins has partnered with document-sharing website Scribd on a new ebook subscription service.

Dubbed “Netflix for ebooks,” subscribers pay $8.99 a month for the ability to check out an unlimited number of ebooks – up to 10 titles at time – from the Scribd catalogue, which includes backlists from HarperCollins and several small U.S. presses. The service allows readers to switch between browsers, Android, and Apple devices without losing their place.

HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray told the Associated Press that the partnership will provide the publisher with valuable data about Scribd readers. “This is going to help us make even better publishing and marketing decisions for our authors,” he says.

The international service is now available in Canada, although not all titles are accessible for download.

HarperCollins partners with Scribd for ebook subscription service | Quill & Quire

Second OverDrive “Big Library Read” Project Includes School Libraries | GoodEReader

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Earlier this year, digital content distributor OverDrive partnered with publisher Sourcebooks in an experiment aimed at establishing concrete data on how readers respond in terms of book borrows and book sales to digital titles they check out from their libraries. 

Now, OverDrive is partnering with HarperCollins on a second installment of the project, this time using a children’s book and including school libraries in the experiment. In addition, the audiobook of this title will be available as well at no-cost and with multiple checkouts, just like the digital title.

Read: Second OverDrive “Big Library Read” Project Includes School Libraries  | GoodEReader.

26% of book collections are now digital | Wiley

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Many thanks to all of you who took part in the 2013 Librarian Survey conducted by Wiley during May.  We have produced this infographic to summarize the key results from the survey covering the areas of budgets, digital books, print vs digital journal preferences and patron driven acquisition.

There was a broad spread of responses from different territories, helped no doubt by the survey’s availability in nine languages.  37% of responses came from the Americas; 33% from countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and 31% from the Asia Pacific region.  

See the end of the post for a summary of key takeaways at this link: 26% of book collections are now digital | Exchanges | Wiley.

2013 Library Survey

2013 Library Survey

Hey Macmillan, Why Does My eBook Say That it Belongs to a Public Library? | The Digital Reader

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Hey Macmillan, Why Does My eBook Say That it Belongs to a Public Library? | The Digital Reader

Quotable: “This title is old enough that by the time Macmillan decided to sell the ebook there very likely no digital copy available. The only way to get an ebook was to either type the book into a computer or scan an old paper copy.”

Oyster: The Netflix Of Books | HuffPost Books

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Oyster, an app launched [September 5, 2013] by a trio of self-proclaimed bookworms, is already being called the “Netflix for books.” That’s a lofty moniker, but the app may just live up to the hype – it offers access to over 100,000 books for $9.95 a month!

Right now, the only Big 5 publisher it’s partnered with is HarperCollins, but they’ve still got some really big books: “Life of Pi,” “Water for Elephants,” and “The God Delusion” all came up when we were browsing.

According to its website, they are constantly adding new titles, so who knows? Other bigger publishers may be signing on as well.

Right now, Oyster is invitation-only, and it’s only available as an iPhone app (although they’ll be adding on a iPad app later this fall). The app is free to download. You can request an invite here.

via Oyster: The Netflix Of Books  | HuffPost Books.