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Laughter Sets the Scene at NCIBA Children’s Author Breakfast
At a breakfast that was more stand-up comedy than standard presentation, authors James Dashner (l.), Nancy Farmer and Berkeley Breathed charmed the sold-out crowd gathered for the Children’s Author Breakfast at the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association annual trade show in Oakland on October 10. Award-winning YA author Nancy Farmer began her talk with a humorous, detailed description of her recent eye surgery...
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Kids’ Books in the NAIBAhood
Children's books shared the stage with adult titles at the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association conference earlier this month. Longtime Baltimore institution The Children's Bookstore was one of several stops on a DIY bookstore tour that preceded the official opening of the conference, which began with a dinner with children's author Laurie Halse Anderson and adult author Paul Rudnick. Sporting a blue IndieBound T-shirt, Anderson thanked booksellers for fighting the good fight for shopping local.
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NAIBA’s Tween Reader Panel
At a panel on tween readers held at the recent New Atlantic Booksellers Association fall conference, Association of Booksellers for Children executive director Kristen McLean, who got her start selling toys, observed that 15 years ago, the toy business changed its definition of "kids" from age 12 to age eight. Around the same time, she said, publishers and booksellers began breaking out middle-grade fiction...
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Frankfurt Book Fair: Friedman Expounds on Open Road Integrated Media
From the Frankfurt Book Fair where she is promoting her new company, former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman has added a few more details about her new operation, Open Road Integrated Media.
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Frankfurt Book Fair: At A Slightly Smaller Fair, Michael Jackson Project Draws Lots of Chatter
A Michael Jackson graphic novel project is one of the books that generated interest as Day 1 of the Frankfurt Book Fair comes to a close. Attendance was off modestly
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Frankfurt Book Fair: Penguin Adopts New Global Management Approach
To ensure that it is properly positioned to take advantage of growth opportunities in digital and emerging markets, Penguin Group has made some changes to its global management structure and publishing strategy. The new alignment puts the CEOs of four of Penguin’s major subsidiaries in charge of different regions to help promote what Penguin chairman John Makinson calls a local market focus combined with a global publishing approach.
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Frankfurt Book Fair: Penguin, John Wiley in China Deals
With China as the featured country at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Penguin and John Wiley used the occasion to announce new China initiatives.
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Frankfurt Book Fair: Writers House Announces Simultaneous Six-Country Release of Follett’s Next Novel
The first major deal out of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair involves an international laydown of Ken Follett’s next novel, Fall of Giants, which will be the first title in Follett’s New Century Trilogy. The simultaneous six-country release—set for September 28, 2010—will coincide with the airing of an eight-hour Pillars of the Earth TV miniseries next fall.
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Frankfurt Book Fair: SBS Unveils New E-commerce Hub
International supply chain manager SBS Worldwide Publishers has unveiled “a faster, cheaper and easier way to ship books from printers to customers.” “We have taken our logistics expertise and combined it with our extensive knowledge of the publishing industry to develop eDC (electronic Distribution Centre) specifically for this market,” explained SBS chairman Steve Walker.
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Frankfurt Book Fair: Americans Watching Costs Amid Weak Economy
At last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, many international visitors were preoccupied with the financial meltdown that was occurring on a daily basis, particularly in the U.S. While the downturn began before last year’s Fair, most industry members, having made arrangements far in advance, decided to make the trip. Although the economy may actually be in better shape this fall than in 2008, many American publishers, though not all, have scaled back.
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Frankfurt Book Fair: P2P Threat May Be Overstated
At the Magellan Media Partners’ ToC session, Brian O’Leary told the attendees he’s looking to earn their trust, since he’s hoping they’d either join the research project he’s conducting on the effects of piracy on the book publishing business, or measure it on their own.
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Frankfurt Book Fair: Entrekin Selling Portion of Stake in Grove Atlantic London
As has been widely predicted since Anthony Cheetham came aboard, Toby Mundy, chairman and publisher of Grove Atlantic London (GAL) has announced a restructure designed to "provide the company with the resources and the strategy to take its place amongst the leaders in the UK's independent publishing sector."
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Frankfurt Book Fair: Sara Lloyd Kicks Off First European TOC
Most seats were taken at the opening keynote for the first Tools of Change conference in Europe, taking place on Tuesday, one day before this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. Sara Lloyd of Pan Macmillan kicked off the event, continuing a speech she gave at the TOC in New York in February and formally dubbed in Frankfurt “Revisiting a Publishing Manifesto: What Does the Future Look Like for Publishers?”
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Pre-Frankfurt Deals: Two Iowa Writers' M.F.A.s Go at Auction
Closing a five-way auction just before the Frankfurt Book Fair, Brian DeFiore sold North American rights to 26-year-old Benjamin Hale's debut to Cary Goldstein at Twelve. Another Iowa graduate, Anna Keesey, just sold her debut novel, Little Century, at auction, to Courtney Hodell at FSG.
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GLiBA Children’s Breakfast a Historical Experience
The booksellers who gathered in Cleveland this past weekend for the Great Lakes Booksellers trade show reflected as much on the past as they did the present and the future, and the children’s authors who spoke at Sunday’s breakfast were no exception. The three authors - Gennifer Choldenko, Candace Fleming and Shaun Tan - each focused on the impact of the past upon themselves personally, as well as upon their work.
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Children’s Books and Author Events Key at NEIBA Show
As children's books have come into their own through series like Harry Potter, Twilight and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, children's programming has become more fully integrated into the New England Independent Booksellers Association annual trade show, held last weekend in Hartford. At the industry lunch that opened the show, not only did Andrew Clements win an award for a children's author's body of work, but this year's NEIBA publisher of the year, Tilbury House in Gardiner, Maine, has a strong children's list.
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New Atlantic Booksellers Navigate Changing Landscape
In a tough year, booksellers hope for improved fall.
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Kindle Goes International; U.S. Price Lowered
Amazon announced last night that it will begin shipping a new device with U.S. and international wireless access October 19. The new Kindle, priced at $279, will be available in more than 100 countries, Amazon said, and will have more than 200,000 English-language books. Amazon also said it is lowering the price of its U.S.-only Kindle from $299 to $259.
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New England Booksellers See Some Hopeful Signs in Weak Economy
Some small sales improvements and the strong fall list helped lift the mood at the New England Independent Booksellers Association regional meeting, even as the region's economy sputters and the trade association itself faces tough choices.
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Great Lakes Booksellers Find Some Optimism Despite Tough Times
Despite the gloom of the continuing recession, which has hit Michigan and Ohio especially hard, booksellers from both states, as well as Illinois, were a highly visible presence at GLiBA this year, determined to educate themselves on how to best negotiate the latest technological and social trends, when not snapping up ARCs of winter and spring 2010 releases.