Simon & Schuster will become the first major publishing company to dive into the booming self-publishing market, the Times reports.
Self-publishing has promised a lucrative future for book publishing, even as it seemed like the last resort for authors who have not been able to go through the traditional book publishing industry. Read More
HarperCollins’s parent company News Corp. is interested in acquiring Simon & Schuster from CBS, according to The Wall Street Journal, which is also owned by News Corp.
The prospect of a merger between Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins doesn’t come as a surprise to publishing insiders. Read More
Cover your ears, MFA rejects, conceptual poets and other miserable literary types. Yesterday, Publishers Marketplace (subscription required) yielded two new blog-to-book deals. Three if we count Hairpin domestic goddess Jolie Kerr’s My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag.
Meet the newest bloggers-turned-authors: Read More
Rob Lowe earned accolades upon the publication of his memoir Stories I Only Tell My Friends when it turned out he was literate, or as The New York Times put it, “He’s Handsome — You Noticed? — but Not Just.” That Mr. Lowe was both a celebrity and had apparently read Elements of Style put him on the bestseller list. Now he’s back for another round! Read More
The other day we noticed that Simon & Schuster imprint Free Press had advertised an opening for a senior editor on Publishers Marketplace — did this mean an expansion? Well, maybe not: today Ecco books, the imprint founded by Dan Halpern and owned by HarperCollins, announced the hire of Free Press senior editor Hilary Redmon. Ms. Redmon will serve as executive editor at Ecco with a focus on acquiring non-fiction titles. Read More
Sony Pictures has acquired the rights to Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of Steve Jobs. Titled Steve Jobs, Simon & Schuster has already moved the publication date for the book to October 24 from November 12. Sony Pictures has adapted other business books to the screen, including Moneyball and The Social Network. [Deadline Hollywood]
John “NOT the father of liberalism” Locke, a self-published author of a series of thriller novels starring an ex-CIA assassin named Donovan Creed, has signed a sales and distribution agreement with Simon & Schuster. Read More
The first book on Glenn Beck’s Simon & Schuster imprint, Mercury Ink, is entering August 28′s New York Times bestseller list for children’s chapter books at #1. It’s a paranormal young adult novel, unsurprisingly, about a bullied 14-year-old who has both Tourette’s syndrome and “electric powers.” Read More
Reality is boring. Augmented reality, however, is accompanied by “exclusive audio excerpts from Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCullough’s acclaimed audiobook, The Great Bridge.” In augmented reality, the usual meditative stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge is a nothing but a failed opportunity to learn more about history.
To eliminate any such waste, a social-media company called Read More
Simon & Schuster and Random House appear to have emerged unscathed from the boycott threatened by Facebook vigilantes who demanded statements from both publishers that they do not have any plans to publish a Casey Anthony book (both publishers put up Facebook posts saying they had no such intentions whatsoever).
George R.R. Martin’s Dance Read More
