NBCC Award Winners
Fiction
Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Autobiography
Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I'm Dying
Biography
Tim Jeal, Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer
General Nonfiction
Harriet Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical
Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
Criticism
Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
Poetry
Mary Jo Bang, Elegy
Was Finland Bumped As FBF Guest Over Business Deal?
The Frankfurt Book Fair decided this week that the guest of honor
country for 2011 will be Iceland
Director of Finnish Literature Exchange Iris Schwanck tells the paper
FBF director "Jürgen Boos admitted to me that the Bochum
situation
did not make the atmosphere favourable for Finland at the present time.
The decision is a major disappointment." The Guardian adds Finland had
reportedly lobbied for more than a decade to become the guest country
and had offered to pay €12m (£9.1m) for the
privilege. But
FBF's Thomas Minkus tells them, "The political and sociological
discussion resulting from the relocation decision by Nokia has nothing
to do with our decision."
In a statement just released, FBF adds: "The
Frankfurt Book Fair refutes claims that the decision to invite Iceland
to be Guest of Honour at the 2011 Fair was in any way influenced by a
perceived anti-Finnish sentiment in Germany
"Finland and Iceland each have rich literary traditions and cultures,
and both countries presented particularly strong bids for 2011. It has
long been the Frankfurt Book Fair’s ambition to invite a
Scandinavian country to be Guest of Honour. Exploratory discussions
were held in both Finland and Iceland and formal expressions of
interest from both countries were received in 2007. A decision was
recently made to invite Iceland to be Guest of Honour and a formal
announcement will be made in the near future.
"The Frankfurt Book Fair very much hopes to welcome Finland as Guest of
Honour in the near future and is continuing its amicable conversations
with Dr Iris Schwank of the Finnish Literature Information Centre."
Guardian
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
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April Book Sense
Times Memo: No More
Single-Source Profiles
Two Legal Tales: Mosley's Wife Can Sue; Case Against
Hyperion/Washingtonienne Renewed
Shorts: Vonnegut's Serial; Borders UK Closes DC; Beck Worries for Brad
Thor's Life
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Personnel News/Announcements
Kate Kennedy and Anne Berry have been promoted at Harmony and Shaye
Areheart Books to associate editor and assistant editor, respectively.
Both will continue to acquire narrative nonfiction, biography, memoir,
and spirituality/self-help for Harmony Books and fiction for Shaye
Areheart Books.
Random House and family of Norman Mailer will host A Celebration of the
Life of Norman Mailer on Wednesday, April 9 at Carnegie Hall, at 4pm.
In the Book World, We Just Call It "Editing"
Michael Kinsley has a tongue-in-cheek piece posted by the venerable
Time.com about the recent rash of "autophoniographies" which
inadvertently supports a favorite point from book publishing. In our
world we call them "copy editors" or "line editors" but whatever name
you use, most would have easily challenged the numerous errors of fact
and unsupportable exaggerations that appear in Kinsley's short column:
Error of usage, or fact? Autobiographies are not the same as memoirs.
Also, what is the basis to support the word "celebrated"?
Jones/Seltzer's book was on the market for four days and received a few
positive reviews. That really qualifies as "celebrated"?
The book was published in the US in 1997 by Mt. Ivy Press, and was the
focus of a Boston-area lawsuit (in 2002) and appeal (in 2005), all
widely reported and easy to find with a single web search.
And the subtitle is incorrect: it should read "A Memoire of the
Holocaust *Years*" There's this site called Amazon.com
Even in Europe, the adopted-by-wolves story was not considered
credible by many, but that's not the lie that was recently disproven,
as Kinsley implies, nor is it her greatest offense against
readers.Defonseca was exposed earlier this year for her claims to have
been Jewish (she was not) and on the run across Europe during the war
to evade the Nazis (documents support her attending a Catholic school
in her native Belgium in 1943-44, when she said she was on the run).
Every book??? All 290,000 a year? And they are never corrected, even in
errata or reprintings? I guess we could say the same about most
magazine and newspaper articles
I believe my notes from above take care of this statement without
further ado. See also: Newspaper story about Jones ran in New York
Times.
Time
Lots of New Jobs
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Director [Full Time]
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Somewhere It's World Book Day
The UK is celebrating Unesco's World Book Day today, though most other
participating nations observe on April 23. Once again, UK
schoolchildren can select from nine short books published for the
occasion and on sale for just one pound, including Neil Gaiman's Odd
and the Frost Giants and Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants and the Attack
of the Talking Toilets.
World
Book Day site
UK's Page: Maybe Online Can Save Him From Mass Market
Faber ceo Stephen Page has a World Book Day essay in the Guardian.
Technology is washing across the Atlantic more slowly than we would
have imagined, but Page does announce that "at Faber in April we are
launching a major initiative with 20th century in-copyright titles
using only digital printing to demand, a project impossible only 18
months ago."
The larger point of his essay is to brush aside e-book fever and focus
on the "the rising dominance of the mass market" as UK publishers work
hard to kill off book-focused chains and stores.
"Market forces are of course at the heart of this shift, so is it
pointless to complain? Well, no. It does not have to be this way.
Alongside a belief in the wilfulness of readers and writers, my hope
for the richness of our future reading culture lies in a cocktail of
new technology and strength of range-holding booksellers."
Guardian
Store Recovers
Chicago's Women & Children First Bookstore,"has turned the page
and is looking forward to a revitalized future," according to a
statement they provided to Shelf Awareness. After facing the
possibility of closing last year, the store reports having had its
first profitable year in a while, and co-owner Ann Christophersen says,
"At this time last year, we were considering exit strategies. Now we're
looking at five-year plans."
It's Good to Have Friends
Every time we start to worry about Judith Regan, who is so shy she
would never talk to the press, we read a story in which one of her many
unnamed friends with detailed knowledge of her thoughts, feelings and
legal strategy defends her.
Speaking today to Page Six, A Friend says the lawsuit brought by her
former new York-based litigators is "a complete fabrication" and that
Regan will countersue. "All they did was draft a complaint - and not
too well at that. [Regan co-counsel] Bert Fields didn't even want his
name on it. Judith fired the Dreier lawyers because they also violated
her strict orders not to play confidential tapes that had been locked
in a safe."
Page
Six
Lots of New Jobs
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Executive Managing Editor [Full Time]
Large Publishing House (New York, NY)
Senior Production Editor [Full Time]
Simon & Schuster (New York, NY)
Sales Representative NYC/Mid Atlantic Territory [Full Time]
Taschen (New York, NY)
Designer- Interior Text Designer/Catalog Designer [Full Time]
Other Press LLC (New York, NY)
Director [Full Time]
University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE)
Sales Manager, Children's Books [Full Time]
Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY)
Art/Creative Director for Hyperion Books for Children [Full Time]
Disney Publishing Worldwide (White Plains, NY)
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From
the AAP Annual Meeting
The AAP convened its annual meeting in New York today, but panelists
had no big surprises for the attendees.
Amazon's Steve Kessel was generally evasive in responses to Richard
Sarnoff of Random House's focused questions. One implied message was
don't expect any big physical changes in the Kindle any time soon:
"We're pretty focused on the current interation of Kindle." Their focus
is on "getting back in stock" with the devices and "increasing the
selection beyond the 100,000 or so books that are available today." He
had "no comment specifically" on Sarnoff's queries about things like a
better screen, color, and enhanced/additional features, but did
reiterate that "we made Kindle to be a purpose-driven reading deivce."
As for the price, "We think it's a great price point for the value the
customers are getting."
While sharing precious few details on the Kindle's performance, Kessel
does note that "customers tell us they are Kindlizing their phsyical
libraries. We have one customer who has already purchased over 800
books for their Kindle" and "we are seeing lots of customers doing
things like this."
We have longer coverage of Kessel and other speakers in Lunch
Deluxe
First Lady Laura Bush addressed the group briefly, placing our product
above her husband: "So many of you are responsible for the greatest
love affair of my life
Octopus Reaches Out to America
Hachette's Octopus Publishing Group has announced a new US division,
launching in January 2009. VP of client services at Hachette Book Group
US Jonathan Stolper will run the new line as associate publisher of
Octopus Books USA, reporting to Octopus deputy ceo Andrew Welham in
London. (He was formerly vp of sales and marketing at Abrams). Hachette
will distribute the line in the US and Canadian Manda will handle sales
in Canada.
Octopus has been selling co-editions to US publishers and distributing
some books directly through Sterling. Distributed titles will over to
Hachette in January 2009.
The US line will draw on all of Octopus's UK imprints as well as
appropriate Hachette Livre books from other countries, and is expected
to issue 150 titles in the first year. Launch titles will include
British chef Marco Pierre White's book to tie in with the American
broadcast of his television series.
Octopus ceo Alison Goff says "this exciting move will allow Octopus to
become a truly global publisher and gives us an even stronger presence
in the world's largest book market. We will benefit from
locally based US input into our publishing plans and we're very much
looking forward to working with our colleagues at our sister company
Hachette Book Group USA. "
Today's Extras
As noted above, today's full Lunch Deluxe features much more from
today's AAP meeting, as well as including these additional stories and
links:
The Truth About Consequences?
Harper Doesn't Do Lunch
Cooper Leaves Grove
What Is the Frequency, Oprah? Webinar Troubles
along with lots more deals
Meanwhile, PublishersMarketplace.com always features all of the unique
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Another One for Ferris
Joshua Ferris has won the 2008 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for his
first novel THEN WE CAME TO THE END. The finalists are Ravi Howard's
Like Trees Walking and Rebecca Curtis's Twenty Grand (Harper Collins).
Personnel News
Cathleen Tetro has been promoted to publisher of academic publisher
Westview Press, where she has worked for 12 years. Parent company
Perseus says "during the past four years, Westview has been completely
reinvented and become one of Perseus's most successful lines."
Lots of New Jobs
We added 5 more new jobs to our industry-leading Job Board
yesterday, still with over 120 new opportunities live in all.
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only, and the best prices anywhere.
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Web Producer - Crown [Full Time]
Random House (New York, NY)
Web Designer - Crown [Full Time]
Random House (New York, NY)
Director, Business Operations - Crown [Full Time]
Random House (New York, NY)
Editor [Full Time]
Avalon Books (New York, NY)
Editorial Assistant [Full Time]
HarperCollins Publishers (New York, NY)
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Signals From BN On
"Recessionary Pressure"
Barnes & Noble stores reported preliminary results for fiscal
2007 after the close of the market yesterday and warned that "the
company believes that recessionary pressures in this uncertain economic
environment will make 2008 an especially challenging retail year." They
added, "the company's post-holiday sales trends have continued into the
first quarter of 2008 and the bookselling environment remains very
competitive.
Though they forsee a "slightly positive" increase in same-store
sales
In the report, the company tabulated fourth quarter sales down 0.5
percent on a same-store basis at $1.511 billion. Store sales for the
full year of $4.648 billion were up 4.3 percent overall, with a
same-store increase of 1.8 percent. BN.com registered $177 million for
the quarter and $477 million for the year, up 13.4 percent from last
year.
Have already reduced their earnings guidance for the quarter in early
January, operating earnings are still expected to be in line with that
revised estimate, though two property insurance and litigation
settlements will add an extra $6.3 million after taxes.
Release
Riverhead Recalls Totally Fake Memoir
"In a sometimes tearful, often contrite telephone interview" the author
known as Margaret B. Jones (actually Margaret "Peggy" Seltzer) admitted
to the NYT that her "memoir" LOVE AND CONSEQUENCES "was entirely
fabricated." The book has been recalled by Riverhead, which printed
approximately 19,000 copies.
Seltzer's lies were discovered after the NYT profiled the author in
last week's Home section: "The reason I wanted to write the book is
that all the time, people would say to me, you're not what I imagine
someone from South L.A. would be like," she said. Her sister called the
Times and revealed the truth
Editor Sarah McGrath, who bought the book for Scribner and then moved
it to Riverhead, tells the paper, "It's very upsetting to us because we
spent so much time with this person and we felt such sympathy for her
and she would talk about how she didn't have any money or any heat and
we completely bought into that and thought we were doing something good
by bringing her story to light," She added, "There's a huge personal
betrayal here as well as a professional one."
McGrath also notes, "I've been talking to her on the phone and getting
e-mails from her for three years and her story never has changed. All
the details have been the same. There never have been any cracks."
McGrath "said that she had numerous conversations with Ms. Seltzer
about being truthful. 'She seems to be very, very naïve,' Ms.
McGrath said. 'There was a way to do this book honestly and have it be
just as compelling.'"
Riverhead publisher Geoff Kloske adds that "We feel badly for readers,
and also Peggy and her family." Noting that "we rely on our authors to
tell us the truth," Kloske says "a huge amount of evidence was provided
by the author in support of her story," including photographs, letters,
and recommendations by such individuals as her writing professor. That
supporting evidence also included Inga Muscio's 2005 book Autobiography
of a Blue-Eyed Devil: My Life and Times in a Racist, Imperialist
Society. Though Seltzer is not cited by name in the book, parts of her
invented story appear to be told within the text (and the
author thanks "Peggy Seltzer, my platonic soulmate").
NYT
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:
Justice Never Sleeps: Law Firm Sues Regan Over Settlement Fee
Laura Bush at AAP
Beautiful Film; Decent Downloads
NY's Best Bookstore
That's on top of all the new deals, all the extra news stories and
write-ups from yesterday, and all of our constantly updated national
book review and bestseller list coverage.
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Top Dealmakers (with 180 lists of busy agents, agencies, editors and
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Personnel News
Folowing yesterday's announcement of Karen Rinaldi's departure from
Bloomsbury USA for Rodale, Rodale officially confirmed her appointment
as svp, general manager and publishing director of Rodale Books,
effective April 1. She reports directly to Rodale CEO Steve Murphy. The
company says "trade distribution and marketing will be part of
Rinaldi’s group, and she will also collaborate with Rodale
Direct EVP Gregg Michaelson, looking at innovative ways to make
Rodale's titles available across all of the many
platforms—trade, mail, online, international—at the
company's disposal."
At Penguin Canada, Laura Shin has been hired as senior editor,
commercial fiction. She has worked at Harlequin, as well as YTV and the
SciFi Channel. Shin will report to executive editor Nicole Winstanley.
In the UK, David Shelley has been promoted to publisher of Little Brown
UK's Sphere, while continuing to serve as joint publisher of Hachette
Digital. Joanne Dickinson has been promoted to publisher of commercial
women's fiction,
Amanda West has joined Thomas Nelson as marketing and publicity
administrator for the corporate brands team.
And New York state has selected novelist Mary Gordon as state author
and Jean Valentine as state poet.
Lots of New Jobs
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Manager of Sub Rights [Full Time]
Harlequin Books (New York, NY)
Marketing Copywriter [Full Time]
Kensington Publishing Corp. (New York, NY)
Senior Acquisitions Editor - Multicultural Studies (Praeger) [Full Time]
Greenwood Publishing Group (westport, CT)
Designer, Ad/Promo, Alfred A. Knopf [Full Time]
Random House (New York, NY)
Journal Production Sales Representative [Full Time]
BeaconPMG (Washington DC, DC)
Managing Editor [Full Time]
Workman Publishing (New York, NY)
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Rinaldi Leaves Bloomsbury
Richard Charkin announced today, "It is with
enormous regret that I have to let you know that Karen Rinaldi,
President of Bloomsbury USA, has accepted a very senior and interesting
post at Rodale Books. Karen has
been the heart and soul of one of the most innovative and successful
publishing companies in the USA. She has been instrumental in building
a great list of books, a great team of people and a great reputation for
Bloomsbury. We shall all miss her enormously but she has left a superb
legacy on which we can build and for that we are all grateful."
Rinaldi says: "The past nine years have been rewarding in so many
ways
Strong Finish at Penguin US
Penguin came back from a weak first half of the year with sales of 479
million pounds for the last two quarters, leaving full-year sales
almost even at 846 million pounds. Down two million pounds from a year
ago, the company says "underlying" sales (if they didn't report in
pounds and/or if the dollar had not plunged) were up 3 percent. CEO
John Makinson notes "that understates the achievement in the US,"
driven by Oprah-backed Ken Follett and books like Elizabeth Gilbert's
Eat, Pray, Love, which shipped "nearly 1.5 million copies in December
alone." Penguin USA ceo David Shanks concurred that "just about
everything worked for us last year." Companywide, adjusted operating
profit rose by all measures, up 12 percent to 74 million pounds (and
said to be up 20 percent on that "underlying" basis). The company still
aims to increase margins to 10 percent for 2008.
Around the world, UK sales were "pretty flat" according to Makinson and
the DK unit was "a little bit down" balanced by "the best Canadian
publishing in our history." He notes they have "more ground to make up
in London than elsewhere in the company" while citing "progress in cost
improvement" from initiatives put in place over the past few years.
Emphasizing the company's efforts at "global publishing," Makinson
celebrated success in multiple territories for Kim Edwards' Memory
Keeper's Daughter and Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence, with
"almost 1 million copies shipped worldwide," and now in 2008 with
Oprah's
new pick Eckhart Tolle.
On the electronic front, the company is sticking with what Makinson
called "a reasonably conservative approach." He says that they are
"quite deliberately at the conservative end of the spectrum on
copyright protection and pricing issues," noting that "leadership in
one of these issues doesn't give you much" and that "if we have to
change our position, it wouldn't be too difficult to do that." In one
shift, Penguin USA has decided (again) to experiment with DRM free
downloadable audio files through e-music. While there are no firm plans
to offer such files elsewhere, Shanks says "it's very possible" that
they will join Borders' planned MP3 store this spring as well as other
initiatives. Makinson says they are aiming to have "a consistent policy
everywhere in the world" and says Penguin "may well be publishing
DRM-free downloads in the UK," too.
But Shanks is not tempted to join other publishers in experimenting
with free book files online, saying "I think it's a mistake to value a
download at zero." Similarly, Penguin will continue to price ebooks the
same as print books. "Whoever buys an electronic book is not going to
buy the paper version," Shanks says, and it would be "harmful to my
authors and harmful to my margins" to price ebooks lower. He sees
current ebook sales as driven by "the books people want to read" rather
than price. "We have an opportunity to change the economics of
publishing, and it's not supposed to be changed for the worse." With
the release of the Kindle, "our overall e-book sales [for both Kindle
and Sony Reader] are up dramatically over the first two months," Shanks
says, though Makinson adds, "that's from a very small to a slightly
less smaller number."
Separately, Pearson's Education units, which provide two-thirds of
sales, were up 4 percent, with sales of 2.684 billion pounds, while
operating profit rose 5 percent to 404 million pounds. Pearson ceo
Marjorie Scardino said in a conference call, "We will have integration
costs from the Harcourt testing business which will be meaningful, so
you should infer from that that we will be adding to our margins but
for those costs."
Pearson
results
Also from Penguin, the ten finalists for in the Amazon Breakthrough
Novel Award contest have been culled, and now the public gets to vote
online. The "panel of publishing industry professionals" will post
their comments on the manuscripts "on or about March 17."
Amazon site
More DRM-Free Audio On the Way
On the audiobook DRM front, other publishers are looking at joining
Penguin and following Random House's lead in offering more digital
audiobooks for sale as unencrypted MP3 files. Simon & Schuster
says they will unlock about 150 audio titles in the "next couple of
months" while Harper indicates they are "watching these developments
closely but
Borders says they plan "to begin selling MP3 downloads by early
spring," while BN still has "no plans to enter the audio book market at
this time."
NYT
Too Much Security and Technology Impairs "Free" Harper Download
Also on the subjects of electronic files and free-dom in its various
forms, Cory Doctorow posted on Boing Boing on Saturday about Harper's
limited-time free online posting of Neil Gaiman's AMERICAN GODS. "I
think that Harper Collins got this one wrong. They've put the text of
American Gods up in a wrapper that loads pictures of the pages from the
printed book, one page at a time, with no facility for offline reading.
The whole thing runs incredibly slowly and is unbelievably painful to
use. I think we can be pretty sure that no one will read this version
instead of buying the printed book
Noting that unauthorized copies can be downloaded with ease, he adds,
"The 'security' that Harper Collins has bought with its clunky, kudgey
experiment is nonexistent: pirates will just go get the pirate edition.
Gaiman, who has nurtured his fan base with care for years, posts on his
own site and agrees: "I'm currently talking to Harpers about ways we
can make the American Gods online reading experience a more pleasant
one. And about ways to give American Gods away that would make Harper
Collins happy while also making, say, Cory Doctorow happy too."
At the same time, Gaiman notes "I was surprised by a few emails coming
in from people accusing me of doing bad things for other authors by
giving anything away
Meanwhile, the site offers a free audio story ready to go.
BB
Gaiman
site
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:
Jan Morris Prepares Book for Posthumous Publication
WSJ May Take Piece of Reporters' Book Deals
Riggio: Business Is "Fairly Sound"
Menaker's Show Debuts
Marley and Movie
Long Lives for Short Books
while PublishersMarketplace.com adds about 155 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
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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
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Re-Stored in NY
Hasting's Good Yarns Bookshop is being bought by manager Bill Tester,
according to Shelf Awareness. He stepped in three days before the
scheduled closing, after most of the inventory and some of the fixtures
were already sold off. Shelf says "Tester is negotiating with the
landlord, who has expressed support, and aims to remodel the store,
rename it and convert it into a combination bookstore and learning
center."
BN's Online Studio
Also on the video front, BarnesandNoble.com announced via a press
release the launch of a multimedia section on their site that "will
feature a range of original content about books, readers and writers,
and showcase web video series and other multimedia content about varied
aspects of literature, complemented by user-generated material."
It's run by Mike Skagerlind, vp and head of digital media, who recently
joined the site after 12 years at Nickelodeon, most recently as general
manager of Nickelodeon Online.
One five-minute weekly series, Barnes & Noble Tagged!, hosted
by Molly Pesce, "will let book-loving viewers know what new titles to
look out for and will reveal the stories behind recent book news." The
first episode tips new releases from Jodi Picoult, Linda Fairstein,
Jeffrey Archer, Anne and Christopher Rice, and more. Book Obsessed
features regular readers talking about books they love.
BN Studio
Release
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We've added more new job listings just since Friday at our
industry-leading Job Board, the latest among over 115 opportunities
still live in all.
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:
Library Sales Representative [Full Time]
Tantor Media, Inc. (Old Saybrook, CT)
Business Manager/Finance Director [Full Time]
Hachette Book Group USA (Nashville, TN)
Publishersmarketplace.com/jobs
Employers:
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