Lunch for Monday, May 5

Today's Announcements: Stage Set for Prince; Harper Confirms Video Program
Atria has announced publication this fall of pop star Prince's 21 NIGHTS, a multi-media volume promising a glimpse into his life, lyrics, and mystique, constructed as a photographic essay with never-before-published images by Randee St. Nicholas that flows from his 21 concerts in 21 nights in London last year -- also featuring "Indigo Nights," a CD of Prince's "speak-easy, after-hours, raw, live after-show sessions of pure unadulterated jams."
 
HarperCollins officially announced today their new in-house internet broadcast studio, which has been creating author videos from their offices for sales, marketing and promotional opportunities. Marisa Benedetto, formerly of the WSJ, runs the studio as executive producer, reporting to Harper Media publisher Ana Maria Allessi. The company says their goal is to produce 500 videos a year. The studio was "developed with the help of Robert Leverone and Chris Wall of the Dow Jones Video Group."

New NBCC "Good Reads"
The National Book Critics Circle has posted their recommended "good reads" lists for Spring, including:
Fiction
1. Richard Price, LUSH LIFE
2. Jhumpa Lahiri, UNACCUSTOMED EARTH
3. Steven Millhauser, DANGEROUS LAUGHTER
4. Charles Baxter, THE SOUL THIEF
    Peter Carey, HIS ILLEGAL SELF
    J. M. Coetzee, DIARY OF A BAD YEAR
    James Collins, BEGINNNER’S GREEK
    Brian Hall, FALL OF FROST
    Roxana Robinson, COST
    Owen Sheers, RESISTANCE
Nonfiction
1. Nicholson Baker, HUMAN SMOKE: THE BEGINNING OF WORLD WAR II, THE END OF CIVILIZATION
2. Drew Gilpin Faust, THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING: DEATH AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
3. Mark Harris, PICTURES AT THE REVOLUTION: FIVE MOVIES AND THE BIRTH OF THE NEW HOLLYWOOD
4. Honor Moore, THE BISHOP’S DAUGHTER: A MEMOIR
5. Susan Jacoby, THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON
NBCC blog

Press-Shy Frey Will Blog for Amazon
James Frey is "guest blogging" at Amazon's Omnivoracious this month -- and maybe he's doing other media, too. "Two big things for me this month. One is that I am guest-blogging on Amazon all month. The other is that my new novel, Bright Shiny Morning, comes out on May 13th. Will check in now and then with updates, stories, impressions. I'll be doing some press, and will be on tour for a couple weeks."
Omnivoracious

The Most News that the Business Uses
Every day, we gather, report, recap and interpret the most publishing news, deal transactions, and job offers anywhere. Today's Lunch Deluxe includes these additional stories and links:
As Expected, Washington AG Won't Touch Amazon
What Kids Are Reading
More from Dmitri Nabokov
Arthur C Clarke Award for Morgan
while PublishersMarketplace.com adds about 150 deals that went out last night in our full round-up, capsule coverage of over 100 reviews from all the top newspapers yesterday, and dozens of news stories and write-ups from last week.
 
PublishersMarketplace.com always features all of the unique data and tools that drive business every day: Unlimited access to deals, our new Top Dealmakers (with 180 lists of busy agents, agencies, editors and imprints) live contacts, our representation database, comprehensive coverage of reviews and bestseller lists from all over, special tools ranging from the Book Tracker to Amazoom, our custom publishing search index, and the new top reviewers tables.
 
Plus our popular member pages and blogs bring hundreds of thousands of focused page views from the publishing world to about 1,300 posted pages every month.
 
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A Seattle Store to Close
Seattle's Jackson Street Books will close at the end of the month as the owners retire. They note on the store blog: "There are a number of reasons why we made this decision. The most obvious one is that we just haven’t had the sales we need to sustain ourselves and make a living. In fact, we probably should have closed earlier than this, but we kept thinking we would turn the corner and start making a little bit of money.... It is fashionable for independent bookstores to blame business failures on Chain stores and Amazon, or other on-line competition. We won’t do that. Chain stores and on-line affect all of us, some more than others, perhaps, and level the playing field. Those institutions have their place, and are part of a changing world of commerce. But we would ask all of you to continue to support your local independent bookstore."
Store blog
 

More New Jobs
We've added more new jobs to our industry-leading Job Board since Friday if you haven't checked in.
 
For employers, we provide the unbeatable combination of the largest circulation in the business by far, a total focus on book publishing only, and the best prices anywhere.
 
And for job-seekers, we present great new possibilities every day and conveniences like an RSS ping to keep you posted on every new offering. Among the latest:
 
Designer  [Full Time]
St. Martin's Press (New York, NY)
 
Publicity & Marketing Associate  [Full Time]
Allworth Press (New York, NY)
 
Senior Acquiring Editor  [Full Time]
Ten Speed Press (Berkeley, CA)
 
Publishersmarketplace.com/jobs
Employers: Register here to post
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