Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster resolve dispute

Yay, so relieved to hear that the B&N and S&S dispute has been resolved. Just received the following email from Carolyn K. Reidy, President & CEO of Simon & Schuster, sent to S&S authors and their agents:

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TO SIMON & SCHUSTER'S AUTHORS AND THEIR AGENTS

I am very glad to announce that Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster have resolved their outstanding business issues, and look forward to working together on promoting your great books.

We thank you for your support during this most difficult period. I and my colleagues have felt keenly the effect this trade dispute has had on books published during this time and have tried nevertheless to achieve the best possible distribution and marketing for your books, which we know are the product of many years of effort. If you have any questions about a specific title of yours, please speak with your publisher.

While my greatest preference would be that the events of recent months had not happened, we are all pleased that once again we can focus entirely on the most important and enjoyable part of our business: bringing your books to readers everywhere and helping you find the audience your books deserve.

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Publishers Weekly posted a brief update today.

Even though the dispute is resolved, it's still worth giving some blog/social media love to the following Simon & Schuster Children's books that were affected:

New Canadian stamps feature picture book character created by children's book author/illustrator, Marie-Louise Gay

Thanks to my sister Ruth for the heads-up: 

Stella, the star of Marie-Louise Gay's picture books and a television series based on her stories, is being featured in a series of stamps issued by Canada Post.

I must get some!

Simon & Schuster Children's books affected by the B&N/S&S dispute

I've been gradually updating a list of children's and YA books being affected by the dispute between Simon & Schuster and Barnes & Noble. For more info and to find out how you can help, please see http://inkygirl.com/bn-dispute. If you're a Simon & Schuster Children's author or illustrator affected by the dispute, feel free to fill out my survey.

It's official: Penguin Random House merger is complete

Looks like it's official: Penguin and Random House are officially merged. CEO Markus Dohle sent the following to letter to Random House authors and illustrators (possibly Penguin as well? I received one because I'm illustrating the RUBY ROSE books for Random House Children's):

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To Our Authors, Today, Random House and Penguin are officially united as Penguin Random House. For us, today is a beginning, and I very much want to reach out to you on our first day as a new company, because it all begins with you: you and the books you write and entrust to us to publish. For us, this is a sacred trust, one that before today Penguin and Random House have honored separately. Now it is a commitment and a privilege that unifies us. Going forward, we will be defined by our mission for publishing with passion the books you write. In our author-focused, publisher-empowered culture, we respect that your most important day-to-day relationship is with your editor and your publishing team, and that will remain untouched at Penguin Random House. Continuity within Penguin Random House will benefit all of us: The continuity of nearly 250 imprints and publishing houses worldwide, which will retain their individual identities and autonomy. The continuity of experienced, knowledgeable global and local leadership teams, drawn from both Penguin and Random House, who will fully support our publishers in realizing their objectives and your vision for your books. The continuity of vigilant protection of your intellectual property and copyrights. Over time, as we gradually begin to integrate our companies, we will learn from one another and evolve to better serve you and your readers. With both businesses performing well, we can take our time with this process, to better understand and analyze the complexity and nuances of these important decisions. One key development I am personally most excited about involves the future investments we will be making on a global scale for growing your readership in all markets. We will be strengthening our supply chain and our support services for physical booksellers while broadening opportunities in the digital arena. We will be developing more cutting-edge marketing tools and programs, further expanding our consumer insights and market analytics capabilities, and continuing to accelerate our penetration of emerging markets worldwide, all of which will allow us to maximize the number of readers we reach on your behalf. The creation of our new company is the strongest possible affirmation of the future of trade publishing, and of the importance of maintaining strong and vibrant publishing companies, with diverse and innovative editorial teams. Our unprecedented alignment of resources and relationships is built on this foundation: the passionate belief that connecting authors and readers is at the heart of all we strive to accomplish together. On behalf of my colleagues, I deeply thank you for the opportunity to publish your books. All my best, Markus Dohle Chief Executive Office, Member of the Bertelsmann Management SE Executive Board

Amazon To Acquire Goodreads

Amazon has just announced that it's reached an agreement acquire book-based social network Goodreads for an undisclosed amount. How do you feel about this? Answer via this quickie 2-question survey, multiple choice and anonymous. Anyone who answers will be able to see survey results so far.

Also see other Inkygirl surveys and survey results.

Update on Thursday, March 28, 2013 at 6:20 PM by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Laura Hazard Owen of PaidContent just posted an interview with Amazon and Goodreads about the acquisition of the latter.

Inkygirl Golden Cupcake Winner: Kite Tails Newsletter

Congrats to the SCBWI Tri-Regions Of Southern California KITE TAILS newsletter for winning an Inkygirl Golden Cupcake Award!

KITE TAILS is a free online newsletter published by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. 

Each issue is packed with all kinds of useful info about the craft and business of writing and illustrating for young people, including interviews with agents and editors.

Some of the focus is on the West Coast, but there is still a ton of valuable advice and information of use to all children's writers and illustrators.

In the current issue, for example, you can find:

- What is a Sketchcrawl?

- Common Core State Standards: Education Reform and What It Means For Illustrators

- Report from SCBWI-L.A. Illustrator's Day includes useful details about what attendees learned. Advice from children's book writer/illustrator Dan Krall: "Don't try to second-guess what other people to see."

- If It's Work, Is It Supposed To Be Fun? A First Look At SCBWI-L.A.'s Working Writer's Retreat 2012

- On Queries - by literary agent Michael Bourret

- A Will Write For Chocolate comic by yours truly :-)

- Journey To The SCBWI Summer Conference - by my friend Maple Lam (who won a place in the SCBWI-LA Mentorship Program!)

- A Poet's Perspective - by Sheila Ellis

- The Hollywood Writer's SChmooze

- Profiles of local authors and illustrators

....and sooooo much more.

You can browse past issues in the Kite Tails archive online. And I should remind you again: all this info is FREE.

Congrats again to Kite Tails on winning the Golden Cupcake! :-)

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Here is a list of other winners of the Inkygirl Golden Cupcake Award.

Happy "Take Your Child To A Bookstore" Day!

Take  Your Child To A Bookstore Day was founded by children's book author Jenny Milchman, whose debut novel COVER OF SNOW comes out from Ballantine in January. More info about Take Your Child To A Bookstore Day:

Take Your Child To A Bookstore website

Publishers Weekly article (December 1, 2012)

Judy Blume's FOREVER available in ebook format!

Happy to hear that Judy Blume's FOREVER is finally available in digital format. I remember reading this book as a teenager for the first time, riddled with guilt (I had a religious upbringing) but totally fascinated, whispering about it with my friends in school.

It was the first book I'd ever read that dealt so frankly with the physical changes and feelings of teenaged years. I was lucky enough to hear Judy speak at the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA last year - what a down-to-earth, productive and generous woman!

From Shelf-Awareness.com:

Readers may discuss and share memories about Forever (or any Judy Blume book) using the Twitter hashtag #JudyBlumeForever. If you include the phrase "@Judy Blume's Forever is finally available as an eBook" on your Facebook page, it will automatically post to Judy Blume's fan page as well. The Forever home page includes links to purchase the e-book edition, and a link to repin your favorite Blume book covers on Pinterest.

I ran into Judy Blume and Richard Peck outside the conference hotel, and they kindly posed for a photo:

Capstone Launches Capstone Young Readers

Launching in August, "will include board books; chapter books; fiction, including early and middle grade series; graphic novels; and nonfiction titles, including paper novelty and craft books."

URL: http://capstoneyoungreaders.com/

(site still under construction)

Regnery To Launch New Children's Imprint: Little Patriot Press

 Conservative publisher Regnery Publishing plans to launch Little Patriot Press, a new children's imprint whose titles will be aimed at "teaching and inspiring children through stories about American history and government." The imprint will launch seven picture books this year.

Managing editor: Diane Reeves. Creative director: Cheryl Barnes.

URL (not yet launched): littlepatriotpress.com

On Twitter, you can find Regnery Publishing at @Regnery. Doesn't seem to be a Twitter feed for the new imprint yet.

(via Publisher's Weekly)

Bloomsbury editor on new imprint, Bloomsbury Circus

New on Tales From The Reading Room:

Bloomsbury editor Alexandra Pringle discusses the publisher's new literary imprint, Bloomsbury Circus. An excerpt:

When we look back in a year’s time I hope we will have a prize shortlist or two under our belts, a sense of having broken some established authors out of the ‘midlist’ as well as having launched some exciting new talent into the world.  What more could a publisher wish for?

You can follow Bloomsbury Circus on Twitter at @circusbooks as well as on Facebook. Here's the official announcement about the new imprint.

For those who want to find out more about Alexandra Pringle, here's the bio from the Bloomsbury UK site:

Editor-in-Chief of Bloomsbury Adult Books. She began her career in publishing at Virago Press in 1978 where she edited the famous Virago Modern Classics series. In 1984 she was made Editorial Director, later becoming part of the management team to steer Virago through their management buy-out from Cape, Chatto & Bodley Head. In 1990 she joined Hamish Hamilton as Editorial Director and four years later left publishing to become a literary agent with Toby Eady Associates. She joined Bloomsbury in 1999. Her list of authors includes Donna Tartt, Barbara Trapido, Richard Ford, Esther Freud, William Boyd, Ronan Bennett and Susanna Clarke. She is a Director of the Management Board, Bloomsbury Book Publishing Company Limited which also includes the Plc Directors.

Allen & Unwin opens Friday Pitch to kidlit/YA writers

Publisher Allen & Unwin recently opened up their Friday Pitch to children's/YA writers. Before making your pitch, make sure you read through all the guidelines carefully. They're not accepting pitches for picture book texts, for example, or poetry or short stories.

Angry Robot launches new YA imprint

From the Angry Robot site:

"We are absolutely thrilled to be able to announce the launch of our new YA imprint, Strange Chemistry The imprint will launch in September 2012, with five titles appearing before the end of that year, before settling down to one book each month. Strange Chemistry will follow AR’s strategy of co-publishing its books simultaneously in the US and UK, in both eBook and paperback formats. Subject matter will include fantasy, science fiction, supernatural and horror, and as with Angry Robot the lines between those genres are likely to be very blurry at times."

You can find an interview with editor Amanda Rutter on YAtopia. According to the interview, Strange Chemistry will be open only to agented submissions.

More info

Disney Launches New Children's Magazine

Disney Publishing is launching a new bi-monthly magazine for young people aged 6-12 called FamilyFun Kids.

More info in Min Online.

Former Bloomsbury Editor Launches Teen E-book Publisher

According to Paidcontent.org, former Bloomsbury editor Panio Gianopoulos has launched Backlit, a new young adult e-book publisher based in Santa Monica. More info in Paidcontent.org.

Kidlit/YA News Quickie Round-Up

Follow @inkyelbows on Twitter for more kidlit/YA industry news & info

Nancy Miller Named Editor-In-Chief at Bloomsbury USA (Publishers Weekly)

Bloomsbury children's market "robust and [continuing] to grow (The Bookseller)

Authors and Illustrators Team to Create Picture Book Month (Children's Book Council)

Algonquin Books to start publishing MG & YA by end of 2012 (Kathy Temean)

Jennifer Mattson joins Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Marie Lamb joinsJennifer DeChiara Literary Agency (Kathy Temean)

Wisconsin children’s book author Florence Parry Heide dies at 92; wrote more than 100 books (Washington Post)

For sources of kidlit/YA industry info, see my link list in the lower right-hand navigation sidebar.

Kidlit News Quickie Round-up

The Mighty Mom BloggersDo-it-yourself writers gain clout with publishers (Publishers Weekly)

-- Simon & Schuster celebrates mom bloggers, the new word-of-mouth publishing powerhouses

A Picture Book Proclamation (PhoenixNewTimes.com)

London, Ont., author files copyright lawsuit against Scholastic (Metronews)

-- Accusations like this could reflect badly on the authors unless they are very VERY sure.

Mysterious children's book gets new stories from a star-studded cast of authors (CSM)

-- Authors were asked to come up with text to go with some of Chris Van Allsburg's illustrations.

Web-based Kindle format good for comics, kids' books (CNET)

Amazon details new KF8 - HTML5, CSS3 e-book format (Afterdawn.com)

For sources of kidlit/YA industry info, see my link list in the lower right-hand navigation sidebar.

Kidlit News Quickie Round-up

NPR launches The Back-Seat Book Club for kids ages 9 to 14. (NPR)

Children's/YA Market Growth "Stunted" in 2012 by Borders Group Closure (Market Watch)

PLUS: if you want a fun glimpse inside the headquarters of Scholastic:

Video -- Cubes: An Inside Look at Scholastic’s Global HQ (Mediabistro)

Compiling a list of kidlit/YA news sources:

I'm also starting to collect a list of sources of children's/YA industry news.

If you have any suggestions, please do post them in the comments section. Please note that the URL must point to a site or page that focuses on kidlit/YA NEWS, not general publishing industry news and not just general kidlit/YA info with occasional news (e.g. "so-and-so sometimes posts great kidlit news" ). However, if the person tags their news items so that someone could click on that tag and see just news items, I'd be happy to add that URL to the list.

I'm also only interested in public sources that don't charge a fee for access.

Thanks so much for any suggestions! I'll post the list I've compiled every time I do a kidlit news round-up.

Here's what I have so far...

Publisher's Weekly: Children's section

Quill & Quire - Canadian focus

School Library Journal

Who's Moving Where: news & staff changes at children's book publishers, by Harold Underdown

Kidlit News Quickie Round-up

Making Sense of Digital Books for Kids Part 1 - Part 2 - Wired

Pop Star Taylor Swift Donates 6,000 Kids Books to PA Reading Public Library - School Library Journal

'Shine' Withdrawn as NBA Young People’s Literature Nominee - Publishers Weekly