Charismatic publisher who combined erudition with commercial savvy to turn Penguin Books into a global brandIn 1978 Peter Mayer, who has died aged 82, was drafted in from the US to rescue a moribund Penguin Books. He took the beloved but by then loss-making publisher and turned it into a global publishing brand, along the way transforming the publishing industry as a whole. Without doubt the greatest publisher of his generation, Mayer was also the most charismatic. Handsome, charming, witty and at times infuriating, he was also brave, defending to the hilt Salman Rushdie and his novel The Satanic Verses (published in 1988 by Viking Penguin) and refusing to go into hiding when a fatwa was issued against Rushdie, as he was advised to do.Mayer was a true intellectual but what made him unique was the combination of erudition with an overarching vision and commercial savvy. Among his first acts at Penguin, where he arrived amid the winter of discontent, was to put a pair of bare legs on the cover of Susan Isaac’s novel Compromising Positions and to pay a lot of money for MM Kaye’s Raj novel The Far Pavilions, publish it in a pricy new-fangled format called a trade paperback and pile it high in bookshops across the land. It was a very slow burn. There was outrage at a brash American defiling a British institution and it took some three years before Mayer’s work began to bear fruit, which it did, in abundance, as he reshaped the company, working with Peter Carson and Philippa... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
Amazon completely revamped its Kindle family in October when it debuted the entirely new Colorsoft ereader along with updated generations of the other three existing models: the standard Kindle, the Paperwhite and the Scribe E Ink tablet. The new Paperwhite has a slightly larger screen, a bigger... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-11-04 16:30:36 UTC ]
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The problem with studying the universe around us is that it is simply too big. The stars overhead remain too far away to interact with directly, so we are relegated to testing our theories on the formation of the galaxies based on observable data. Simulating these celestial bodies on computers... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-06-18 15:30:05 UTC ]
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The Xbox Series S occupies an interesting space in Microsoft’s gaming lineup, given it can play every current-generation title available for the Series X. It may be significantly less powerful, but it’s also smaller and a lot cheaper, making it a “good enough” option for plenty of mainstream and... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-06-12 11:15:55 UTC ]
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Michelle Obama’s 'Becoming' will be released in a young reader’s edition and in trade paperback on March 2; originally published in 2018, the former First Lady’s memoir became a #1 international bestseller, with sales topping more than 15 million copies worldwide. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-03 05:00:00 UTC ]
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On March 24, President Trump told a Fox News virtual town hall that he’d love to have America “opened up and just raring to go” by Easter. Bill Hemmer, who was hosting, chuckled, and said that would be “a great American resurrection.” Later the same day, during a second appearance on Fox, Trump... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-04-13 12:02:48 UTC ]
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Century has signed a two-book deal with actress and writer Emma Kennedy, including a "moving, multi-generational" novel called The Box of Dreams. Launching Kennedy's career as a novelist, Arrow deputy publisher Emily Griffin acquired world rights in all languages in two books from Kennedy... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lebhar-Friedman, the 93 year-old, family-owned publisher serving the retail industry, has been acquired by Chicago-based EnsembleIQ, the latter announced this week. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, includes a trio of trade magazines—the monthly Drug Store News, the bimonthly... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2018-07-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Charismatic publisher who combined erudition with commercial savvy to turn Penguin Books into a global brandIn 1978 Peter Mayer, who has died aged 82, was drafted in from the US to rescue a moribund Penguin Books. He took the beloved but by then loss-making publisher and turned it into a global... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There's money to be made with Facebook's mid-roll video ads -- if you have scale. The post ‘It’s going to be a slow burn’: Publishers are starting to see money from Facebook’s mid-roll ads appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2017-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Earlier this month, InStyle launched its first sweepstakes in partnership with Pinterest. The spring-themed contest is part of the magazine's push to focus on the platform, as it's the only one whose followers continue to grow, 22 percent year over year. "Our other social platforms are maxed... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2016-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The latest instalment of Fifty Shades of Grey has sold 1.1m copies in the US in all formats, Penguin Random House has revealed. Anne Messitte, publisher of Vintage Anchor in the US, said Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian sold 1.1m copies in trade paperback, ebook and audio in the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Well my IBM eBook is finally available. Right now that’s just on Amazon.com for the Kindle (just click the link to the right) but by next week it will be on every eBook platform (iPad Nook, etc.) and there will be a trade paperback as well as an audio edition. I’ll announce all of those here as... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2014-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The books will be reissued in both trade paperback and ebook formats, and will feature updated interiors and new cover treatments. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The social network announces it is seeing huge mobile success, even on non-smartphones. That great mobile push launched by Mark Zuckerberg six months ago is starting to bear fruit. Yesterday Facebook published a blog post claiming 100 million users sign into the social network via its... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The trade paperback format lost some ground to ebooks through the first nine months of 2011, according to Bowker Market Research, but it remained the most popular print category. Still, the question being asked is what consumer segment the trade paperback is serving in a time when ebooks often... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 04/11/2011 - 10:53 William Heinemann has acquired a debut crime novel, the first in a series to feature civilian investigator Catherine Berlin, written by Annie Hauxwell. Publisher Jason Arthur bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 03/10/2011 - 17:16 Cornerstone has acquired a book written by Tottenham MP David Lammy about the 2011 riots. Guardian Books acting publisher Katie Roden acquired world rights in Out of the Ashes: Britain After the Riots by Lammy through... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of print books in the major trade categories fell 22.9% in the first six months of 2011 at the houses that report figures to the Association of American Publishers. The declines were greatest among the adult segments, with sales down by more than 20% in the hardcover, trade paperback, and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-09-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 08/07/2011 - 11:00 Arrow has acquired an autobiography of the spiritualist and healer Helen Parry Jones. Editor Gillian Holmes bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Sheila Crowley at Curtis Brown. The book will tell the story of Parry... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The publisher Algonquin is offering digital books at a discount or free to customers who buy certain trade paperback or hardback books. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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