Thursday, May 10, 2012

Warner Options Films to eBooks


Warner Bros. announced it would sell four of the movie studio's classic scripts -- CASABLANCA, BEN-HUR, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, and NORTH BY NORTHWEST -- as enhanced ebooks for Kindle, Nook, and iPad. It's the first part of a large-scale initiative in which they hope to turn hundreds of scripts into ebooks.  The WSJ reports each title will retail for $10 and "includes the film's actual shooting script and rare historical documents from the Warner Bros. archives."

 President of Warner Bros. digital distribution Thomas Gewecke told the paper the company "had been looking at a variety of ideas to leverage some of the assets we had at the studio. We quickly realized there was all of this new e-book technology that we could use to create an interesting and compelling literary property."

Following the trend, DemiBooks launches their own apps-as-children's ebookstore, Storytime, which allows authors to sell their books directly into the free iPad app store as well as use the service as a distribution platform. (Launch partners including McGraw-Hill Education and Kane Miller.) Storytime will be integrated with the Facebook social graph and is also partnering with Usborne Books & More, the direct sales division of Education Development Corporation.

Frommer's has teamed up with Inkling to produce seven "truly interactive" travel guides from the company's Day by Day series for iOS devices, priced between $9.99 and $14.99. "We've long wanted a way to deliver a rich interactive travel guide experience across mobile platforms," said Global Publisher of Frommer's Rob Flynn in a statement. "Our partnership with Inkling lets us provide travelers with all the inspirational, insightful, and practical information they want with the added functionality and convenience that mobile devices offer. And since it's all cross-platform, from iPad to iPhone, they're just as useful for planning at home as they are for recommendations on the road."





Copyright 2011   AmSAW

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Harper's Magazine Hires Paris Review Editor

Saying she has "the absolute right credentials and literary sensibility for what we need,” Harper’s editor Ellen Rosenbush said of Deidre Foley-Mendelssohn.  The former Paris Review Daily blog editor will begin her work in early April.  Her replacement at The Paris Review has yet to be named.

Harper’s recently came in a distant fifth in the annual by-line count of prestigious magazines as tallied by VIDA, a foundation for women in the literary arts, lagging behind The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Nation and The Paris Review in overall gender equality.

Rosenbush said she tries to have an "xx byline" in every issue and is always looking for women writers.

“It’s a mandate,” she acknowledged.

Are female editors better at bringing in women writers?

“I think it was easier for me,” she said.  “There are certain women that I’ve always admired that I went after."  These included Zadie Smithand Susan Faludi, who did "a big cover piece for us, and I’ll try to get her back.”

Foley-Mendelssohn replaces Gemma Sieff, who was named culture editor at Town & Country magazine earlier in March.

“We will miss Gemma,” Rosenbush said.  “Town & Country is a very different type of magazine, but it’s a very big opportunity for her.”

One thing the nation's second-oldest magazine has in common with Hearst’s glossy social register rag is obvious: both approach the Internet and digital editions with an open mind, although, unlike Town & Country, Harper’s posts its content online, even if behind a pay wall.

From her point of view, although Rosenbush stressed that, despite her publisher’s disdain for the web, Harper’s is in the midst of a website overhaul, due to be launched in the fall. “Obviously it’s with Rick’s approval,” she said.

The new website will make a limited amount of content available for free, but most of the current issue will stay behind the pay wall.

“We in editorial are very, very, very excited about it,” Ms. Rosenbush said of the redesign. “I can’t say it more strongly.”





Copyright 2011   AmSAW


Thursday, February 23, 2012

JK Rowling All Grown Up

JK Rowling's first adult novel is coming, from Little, Brown.  The British-based publisher has purchased world English rights to the first novel for adults by JK Rowling, the company announced Feb. 23.  Little Brown UK publisher David Shelley will serve as Rowling's editor, and Michael Pietsch will oversee publication in the US.

All other details--title, pub date "and further details about the novel--will be announced later in the year." But one important element has been settled: While the world waits for Pottermore and the Harry Potter ebooks, Little, Brown promises they will publish "both in print and ebooks."

Rowling says in the release: "Although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series, which has been published so brilliantly by Bloomsbury and my other publishers around the world. The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry's success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher. I am delighted to have a second publishing home in Little, Brown, and a publishing team that will be a great partner in this new phase of my writing life." Rowling was represented by Neil Blair at The Blair Partnership.





Copyright 2011   AmSAW