Todays links of interest:
- New Yorker Writer’s Book on Mass Extinctions Sells to Holt
Steve Rubin’s first acquisition is a book on mass extinction. Advance is reported to be in the mid-six figure range. Truly. Sometimes you should exercise a bit of restraint, see how the book sells, and go from there, no? - How long can Amazon.com put off paying its bills?
Worry du jour: Amazon’s payables. Thinking we’ll sit this one out. - Mythbusting the ISBN
Laura Dawson takes on the big (and some small) ISBN myths. Good reading! - SU – Drunk Frenchman Opens Bottle Of Wine With Shoe (VIDEO)
This is the kind of important news we live to bring the world. - Simon Schuster Launches Their Own Electronic Galley Program
Because, apparently, using an established service like NetGalley was too hard. So much smarter to build your own system from the ground up. - Third-Quarter Profits Jump at Harlequin
The digital market in Japan is particularly interesting. - News Corp. Saved by Movies and Cable, Hammered by Broadcast and Print
Print does not include, apparently, books. No mention of HarperCollins in this round up. - The Boss’ book bonanza
Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is expected to receive a $10 million advance. - After Four Print Issues, Purpose Driven Connection to Go Online-Only
Um, really? You started a print publication, only to discover this after the fact? “Our biggest discovery was learning that people prefer reading our content online rather than in print, because it is more convenient and accessible,” Warren said in a statement. - Harper Back in Black As Sales Slide Diminishes
Still not super-great news, but it seems like things are stabilizing out there (see last paragraph re: returns). [Publishers Lunch, may be behind paywall] - CrunchPad Dead? Delayed By Higher-Than-Expected Costs?
Another one bites the dust or is it too soon for even that kind of analysis? - PoetrySpeaks – Experience…Discover… – Experience PoetrySpeaks
PoetrySpeaks, via Sourcebooks, is a really cool, really exciting project. On many levels! - Back To The Future: Tor.com Buys Book-Size Webcomics to Serialize
As always, our enthusiasm for what’s happening at Tor.com knows no bounds. We love that they’re experimenting, and we love that they know not everything will work. That’s what all publishers should be doing right now. - Amazon Turns Twitter into a Marketplace – Are You Concerned?
Okay, so Amazon now makes it easy to feed affiliate links to your Twitter account, and, ahem, it’s easy to disguise these advertisements by reworking the default message (which could cause some problems with the FTC for some). Amazon also chose to use bit.ly instead of a proprietary service that might alert others to the nature of the tweet. Not sure where we stand on this, but we do know that people who do obvious promotion (and it is generally obvious) tend to be ignored. If it’s not relevant or feels like spam, Twitter users tend to be annoyed.