Molly Ringwald is Now an Author

Molly Ringwald, the redheaded teen queen of the 1980s John Hughes movies, is handing out advice on parenting, aging and other topics in her self-help book, "Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family and Finding the Perfect Lipstick (It Books, $25.99)," that is on store shelves today.  Read the article below to find out more.

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Lucinda's Web by Dorothy Morrison

Tess Logan knows magic. She knows how it works, why it works, and what it takes to make it work. But that’s not all. She also knows how to make it happen. It’s simply a part of who she is, for Tess Logan—despite all the other attributes that make her such a thoroughly modern woman—is a thoroughly modern Witch.
No amount of magical experience or expertise, though, could have ever prepared her for this. In fact, she never even dreamed it possible: A living, breathing set of spells cast more than a hundred years ago with enough stamina to follow her into the present day. Yet, here it is, writhing and twisting with activity, permeating every sector of her life, and slipping its tentacles into the lives of everyone she holds dear. Now, she’s faced with having to disentangle each slippery strand and destroy the magic without destroying those she loves—or herself.

5 Stars from David Salisbury

Now, I don't read to much fiction but I was pleasantly surprised upon picking up this book. The character of Tess Logan made me giggle out loud nearly at the turn of every page. I very much enjoy the authors books on magick which urged me to get this book. I am very glad I did! I read it the whole way through in just a day or two and and I'm very happy with it.

Click here to purchase your kindle copy of Lucinda's Web for only $5.99

Molly Ringwald is Now an Author

"Pretty in Pink" Star Publishes Self-Help Book

(CBS) Molly Ringwald, the redheaded teen queen of the 1980s John Hughes movies, is handing out advice on parenting, aging and other topics in her self-help book, "Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family and Finding the Perfect Lipstick (It Books, $25.99)," that is on store shelves today.

Now 42, the mother of three and a star on the teen soap "The Secret Life of The American Teenager," Ringwald has penned a light-hearted look at turning 40 that includes fashion tips, relationship advice and personal anecdotes, though little star gossip.

The former Brat Packer wants every woman who reads her book to become "the sexiest, funniest, smartest, best-dressed, and most confident woman that you can be."

As she dispenses advice on how to do this, Ringwald also looks back on her own life, which included child stardom - her parents got her through that, she said - a period of finding herself in France, a failed first marriage and the difficulties of getting along with a large clan of Greek in-laws. Her husband, Panio Gianopoulos, is a book editor and writer.

Ringwald, who appeared in TV series such as "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Facts of Life," has dozens of movies to her credit, but she is best known as the star of such John Hughes teen angst classics as "Sixteen Candles" and "Pretty in Pink."

Ringwald belonged to the 1980s' Brat Pack along with Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez and Andrew McCarthy.

ICandymobile Brings Rich Media To Paper Books

The popularity of using smartphones and the iPad to read often means that prose will be accompanied by video, animation, and sound. Ricoh Innovations, a unit of the electronics manufacturer focused on developing new technology products, has developed an app that will allow users who pick up a paper book to have access to rich multimedia content via their handheld device and links to that content placed on the printed page.   Read the article below to find out more.

But first, take a look at our Featured Sponsor.

Lucinda's Web by Dorothy Morrison

Tess Logan knows magic. She knows how it works, why it works, and what it takes to make it work. But that’s not all. She also knows how to make it happen. It’s simply a part of who she is, for Tess Logan—despite all the other attributes that make her such a thoroughly modern woman—is a thoroughly modern Witch.
No amount of magical experience or expertise, though, could have ever prepared her for this. In fact, she never even dreamed it possible: A living, breathing set of spells cast more than a hundred years ago with enough stamina to follow her into the present day. Yet, here it is, writhing and twisting with activity, permeating every sector of her life, and slipping its tentacles into the lives of everyone she holds dear. Now, she’s faced with having to disentangle each slippery strand and destroy the magic without destroying those she loves—or herself.

5 Stars from David Salisbury

Now, I don't read to much fiction but I was pleasantly surprised upon picking up this book. The character of Tess Logan made me giggle out loud nearly at the turn of every page. I very much enjoy the authors books on magick which urged me to get this book. I am very glad I did! I read it the whole way through in just a day or two and and I'm very happy with it.

Click here to purchase your kindle copy of Lucinda's Web for only $5.99

ICandymobile Brings Rich Media To Paper Books

By Calvin Reid

The popularity of using smartphones and the iPad to read often means that prose will be accompanied by video, animation, and sound. Ricoh Innovations, a unit of the electronics manufacturer focused on developing new technology products, has developed an app that will allow users who pick up a paper book to have access to rich multimedia content via their handheld device and links to that content placed on the printed page.

ICandymobile is an iPhone app (an Android version is in the works) that will do just that, said Jamey Graham, research engineer at the company. At the heart of iCandymobile, Graham said, is Ricoh's visual search technology, which finds links to multimedia content set in print and allows them to be replayed. Much like "augmented reality"—which, for example, would reveal available apartments when a user looks through a smartphone camera that is pointed at a building—visual search can detect and replay bar-coded multimedia content, or "hot spots," placed in print works.

Using an iPhone with the iCandymobile app, the user can take a picture of a page ("zapping" the page, Graham joked) that includes "hot spots" and then play content linked to that page through the iPhone. Graham said Ricoh's visual search technology will go a step beyond both one-dimensional bar codes (the familiar digital stripes found on packaging) or QR codes (squarish bar codes that can hold more data), both of which are too obtrusive to place in books. Ricoh's visual search technology can transform the actual pattern of text on a page into an unobtrusive link that will activate content either placed on the reader device or stored online. Not only can the technology put links to video and audio content directly into the text of a printed book, but the codes can then be tracked for data on who, where, and how many users scanned the codes.

Graham said Ricoh is in the process of meeting with book and magazine publishers in hopes of turning iCandymobile technology into a new business model. He said costs will vary depending on whether data is stored online in the cloud or on the device. But when content is stored "in the cloud," as it increasingly is, he said the cost "is negligible," noting that Amazon 3S, an online storage service, charges 15 cents per gigabyte per month.

"We think we can connect online media to physical books and magazines," said Graham, who stressed that the technology can be used in anything from newspapers to posters and travel guides to add supporting multimedia content. Ricoh has teamed with novelist Matt Stewart, author of the recently released novel The French Revolution (Soft Skull Press) and with the California Department of Motor Vehicles to put the technology to two very different uses.

Working with Stewart, Ricoh has taken his already quirky novel—The French Revolution was first released on Twitter in 2009, sentence by sentence, using 3,700 tweets—and made it even more unusual. A comic novel about a contemporary family in San Francisco, the print version of The French Revolution has been embedded with music, recipes, author interviews, history, a virtual tour, maps, and much more. Using the iCandymobile app, the user can zap any page in the novel and unlock an endless stream of supporting and entertaining content.

In the same way, working with the California DMV, Ricoh created DriveTube, an app that lets the user zap a page in the 2010 California driver's handbook and get videos illustrating everything from how to park to traffic lane markings and what they mean. Graham acknowledged that both the novel and the driver's handbook were experiments ("technical trials," he called them) to put iCandymobile and visual search technology on display.

"With our technology, publishers can add all kinds of online content to print works," Graham said. "We're talking to publishers right now, and we're getting good feedback. We're looking into turning this into a business model, and we need marketplace validation."

Kobo Launches Desktop App

Kobo Launches Desktop App

By Craig Morgan Teicher 

On September 8th, Kobo announced a new desktop app that allows users to build, manage and read their e-book libraries on their desktop computers, as well as to connect to Kobo’s own e-reader or third-party devices, such as the Sony Reader. The app works with both PCs and Macs and can be downloaded free at http://www.kobobooks.com/desktop.

As with Amazon’s Kindle desktop apps, the Kobo app connects directly to the Kobo e-bookstore and syncs bookmarks and reading progress across devices, so readers can stop reading on their mobile device and pick up where they left off on the desktop app.

Kobo has recently made several bids to become an increasingly major player in the e-reader space, launching its own inexpensive E-Ink e-reader, partnering with Borders, and launching software that allows third-party manufacturers to use Kobo to power their devices. This desktop app is another piece of that puzzle, giving Kobo users a home on yet another device.

Kobo also has e-reader apps available for Apple’s iOS devices, Android, Blackberry, and Palm’s WebOS. The new desktop app also comes pre-loaded on Kobo’s own e-reader.

Lots of Little Improvements Make the Kindle 3 The Best E-Ink E-reader

Lots of Little Improvements Make the Kindle 3 The Best E-Ink E-reader

By Craig Morgan Teicher

The Kindle 3 is the best e-reading device currently available; arguably, the iPad blows any single-purpose device out of the water, but that’s a topic for another article, and if you prefer and E-Ink screen to the iPad’s LCD, the Kindle 3 is far and away the best device you can get. It’s been thoughtfully redesigned with small but meaningful updates on the design and functionality of the Kindle 2, which, while they don’t amount to a big change in how the Kindle works or what it does, they do make the Kindle 3 easier and more fun to use.

The most noticeable improvement is the much sharper screen: it has a whiter tint than the screen on the Kindle 2, and the text is considerably crisper. It’s similar to the difference between the display on the iPhone 3Gs and the “Retina” display on the iPhone 4: even if you didn’t mind your old display, this new screen is so much better that it makes you think your old Kindle screen was comparatively grainy, so Amazon solved a problem you didn’t know you had.

Next, the Kindle 3 is a lot faster, than the Kindle 2. Page turns no longer have that little lag; they happen, if not almost instantly, in about the time it takes to turn an actual paper page. The new Kindle spends less time “thinking” in general, from opening and closing books, entering and moving around the Kindle store, to waking and sleeping. Again, the old Kindle wasn’t that slow, but this one is faster than any other e-reader out there.

Amazon also made a bunch of improvements to the body and physical mechanics of the device. First off, the Kindle is a good deal smaller--it’s somewhere between the length and width of a mass market and trade paperback, and about as thick as a pencil. It’s noticeably lighter, too. Best of all, the buttons are all much more satisfying to press. The page turn buttons--which are now smaller and mirrored on the left and right of the screen (no more big home button on the right side--it’s been moved down into the keyboard)--are nice and springy. You can actually blackberry-type on the keyboard, which is a huge improvement. Instead of the weird little joystick that’s on the Kindle 2, you’ve got an embedded directional control with a big “select” button in the middle which is perhaps a bit too sensitive. The new graphite body of the Kindle also has a satisfying, vaguely gripy back. The on/off slider is also now on the bottom of the device, which is confusing if you’re used to looking for it on the top, as on the Kindle 2.

The other cool thing Amazon’s come up with is a branded case with a built-in book light that slides out of the upper right corner. It’s powered by the Kindle’s rechargeable battery, so only turns on when the Kindle is in the case and switched on. The case costs a hefty $59, but it’s cool.

As far as the downsides, you are, of course, still locked into Amazon’s store, but that’s not going to change--Amazon, at its core, isn’t a hardware manufacturer, it’s a company that innovates retail. Neverminding it’s nice features, the Kindle is, finally, a portable gateway into Amazon’s store. The Kindle is also an E-Ink device, and all it does it display text; some users may be comforted by that limited functionality, others frustrated. Apple is likely to introduce a smaller iPad soon, which may push E-Ink, and dedicated readers, toward the background. We’ll see.

But this is the best E-Ink device you can get right now. The changes and updates, while very cool, might not, however, justify scrapping your Kindle 2 in exchange for a Kindle 3--they’re still pretty similar. Maybe wait for the Kindle 4, which is rumored to have a feature that will let you read books that, as of today, haven’t even been written.

Russian Book Market Revs Up

Russian Book Market Revs Up

By George W. Slowik Jr.

Attending the Moscow Book Fair 20 years after a first visit to the U.S.S.R., then as publisher of PW and as part of a U.S. Information Agency delegation, is a world away from my prior experience. Then, the ideas of advertising, promoting, and marketing a book were alien concepts, and creating a commercial book itself was an impossibility. Now, in a freer system of book commerce, there is a thriving array of commercial publishers. On the first day of the fair, which ran from September 1 to 6, the show was smaller than anticipated, considering that it is a consumer event, but later in the week, particularly on the weekend, the crowds swelled. The exposition hall is a new, column-free structure that BookExpo America's Steve Rosato envied until he learned that the only restroom was at the far end of the massive hall and required a hike to a second level.

Vladimir Grigoriev, known to most simply by his last name, is the indefatigable director of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication (FAPMC), of which publishing is but a small component. Given his own background as a publisher, he takes personal pride and great interest in the advancements of this nascent industry. FAPMC has big plans for next year, when Russia serves as London Book Fair's official country, and 2012 promises the same for BEA.

As yet, the Moscow Book Fair has modest international participation even as more Western publishers are beginning to take note of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), which represent a collective population of almost three billion.

Will Atkinson, sales & marketing director of Faber & Faber, told PW that the size of the Russian market alone suggested that more attention should be paid by Western houses. Anna Rafferty, director of Penguin Digital UK, gave a spirited presentation at a well-attended meeting, outlining Penguin's aggressive efforts in the rapidly changing e-book field. My own presentation covered highlights from the new Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading study just released by the Book Industry Study Group. My co-presenter, Alexei Kuzmin, agreed that most of the major U.S. market demographics were true of the Russia market as well. Russian e-books are priced in the 30–45 ruble range (about $1–$1.50), he said, and nearly 10,000 e-book titles were sold daily. Unfortunately, those sales are only 10% of the turnover, with the other 90% being pirated titles. Kuzmin hoped that new Russian Federation regulations will help curb piracy and eliminate some of the red tape of current taxing legislation. He predicted that prices may increase over time, to the $3–$5 range and that U.S. prices would decline to meet in the middle.

Academia Rossica started more than 10 years ago to introduce contemporary Russian writers into the English-speaking world. Svetlana Adjoubei, the whirlwind director behind AR's efforts, reports that AR, with offices in both Moscow and London, will now serve as a full literary agent, helping authors featured in English translation in the organization's semiregular publication Rossica, the International Review of Russian Culture (for copies, go to the Web site academia-rossica.org).

Grigoriev explained that the translation infrastructure of agents, scouts, interpreters, and the like does not exist in Russia in an organized way. So the FAPMC plans to introduce these elements in a more structured manner. During this year's fair, FAPMC hosted more than 100 interpreters from 27 countries. Grigoriev said that while countries like France, Germany, and Italy have strong programs and a historic understanding of the benefit of including of Russian literature in their publishing platforms, the Anglo-Saxon countries lag. Andrew Nurnberg is perhaps the best-known agent for Russian translation into English-language markets.

The International Lounge, organized and hosted by AR, held hourly presentations on such issues as the merits of participating in LBF and BEA. The end of the BEA presentation was greeted with a q&a, including two animated Russian reporters. They made long-winded speeches before delivering questions reminiscent of previous times.

Vladimir Putin created his own stir by showing up for the second day of the fair, an event broadcast on national TV. In fact, it was the fair's second night of coverage as the opening was also featured on TV. Vadim Meshcheryakov, publisher of IDM Books, presented Putin with a copy of his children's Best Book Award for Letters from Insects. Meshcheryakov said that the international publishing community gave his books far more serious consideration after he published them in German and presented them as German titles. Meshcheryakov plans to introduce his titles via new publishing operations in France and Italy within the next year.

Among Russian publishers exhibiting at the fair was Irina Shishova, foreign rights director of Eksmo, which reported sales of $215 million before the global economic crisis and now has annual revenue of about $200 million. Last year alone, Shishova acquired nearly 1,300 foreign titles on behalf of Eksmo, of which 15% were children's. Eksmo's publishing program includes nearly 1,000 titles per month and over 100 million copies printed last year. The company reports that it commands 17% of the domestic children's market, making it the market leader, as well as a 37% share of science fiction and a 15% share of contemporary fiction. Not unlike other global optimists, Eksmo predicts that digital sales will represent 25% of revenue by 2014.

Arkady Vitruk, CEO of Azbooka-Attikus, and winner of this year's adult Best Book Award, which was presented on the first day of the show, discussed with PW some of the challenges a Russian publisher faces. Piracy, pricing, and transportation echoed the concerns of several others. Pricing in Russia is controlled by the retailers, a fact that makes rights deals based on retail price impractical and challenging for foreign publishers. The high cost of shipping to the Urals, Siberia, and Vladivostok, for example, makes a single retail price impractical as costs are too high for retailers to absorb and too variable for publishers to factor in. The costs of shipping are exacerbated by the need to carry inventory for ultimate sale with the average book being printed and inventoried in print orders of 12,000–15,000. Vitruk said that this domestic market reality is difficult for foreign publishers to understand, yet he still acquires nearly 70% of his titles from abroad, mostly from Europe. Azbooka-Attikus's revenue exceeds $50 million on a list of nearly 500 titles.

During a meeting with Grigoriev later in the week, he acknowledged the challenge that the vast land expanse represents and that the FAPMC is exploring additional printing capabilities through a new plant outside Moscow, with explorations of POD capabilities that could address the problem of delivery costs and inventories currently required to be kept on hand. He reported that currently much printing is being done in Hong Kong.

Touchstone Drops 'Fireside'

Touchstone Drops 'Fireside'

By Lynn Andriani

Founded in 1970 as the trade paperback division of Simon & Schuster but with two names, the imprint formerly known as Touchstone/Fireside will be known as simply Touchstone beginning this week. Though losing half its moniker may seem a fairly momentous change, the move really just formalizes a reality that's existed for some time now: the imprint has one mission, one staff, and now just one name.

"People would say, ‘I'm just so confused by your name,' " said publisher Stacy Creamer, noting that agents in particular were unsure of the distinction between Touchstone and Fireside. She added that when the imprints were founded there was a reason for two names: Fireside published paperbacks, mainly in the areas of diet, health, exercise, and self-help, while Touchstone focused on serious nonfiction and popular trade paper fiction. But the Internet changed all that. Creamer said that as people began going online for information that Fireside's key categories covered, "the whole nature of the industry... changed. Those books were the bread and butter of Fireside, but they've gotten harder to publish." Then, in 2003, both imprints began publishing new hardcovers and trade paperback originals. "We really are one team, one staff, and one unique publishing imprint. It seemed that we only needed one name," said Creamer.

Editorial direction typically changes when new editors and publishers join imprints, and that has been the case at Touchstone. Creamer came to Touchstone/Fireside from Doubleday Broadway in May 2009. "Ever since I got here, I have been eager to rebrand us," she said. "It's more like the name catching up with reality than anything else." Under Creamer's direction, Touchstone has delved deeper into some areas it had previously dabbled in, especially thrillers. In January, it will publish The Obelisk, a thriller by Howard Gordon, executive producer of 24 and, in March, The Mozart Conspiracy by Scott Mariani, which Creamer called "a Ludlumesque, action-packed thriller." Touchstone also publishes a fair number of celebrity memoirs: books by Australian singer Rick Springfield, Black Eyed Peas member Taboo, and hip-hop artist Albert "Prodigy" Johnson are slated for publication next spring, while a book by Duff McKagan, founding member of Guns n' Roses is due out next fall. It is also continuing to publish in health, narrative nonfiction, women's fiction, and historical fiction.

Books on Touchstone's fall 2010 list will carry the new name and colophon, as will any backlist titles that are repackaged. For other backlist titles, the publisher said it will decide to use the new name on "a case by case basis."

Touchstone's new colophon of a figure flying through the air next to a star represents "a winged creature in motion, aiming for the stars," Creamer said. She chose it, she said, because it expresses "the vibe we have here of genuine energy and enthusiasm.... The S&S sower [the parent company's colophon shows a figure walking on the ground]—seemed at odds with Touchstone's mission. We felt the new colophon was in the tradition of S&S, but spoke to the passion we feel for our books."

October Is National Reading Group Month

WNBA plans events

By Publishers Weekly Staff

Next month marks the fourth annual celebration of National Reading Group Month. The Women’s National Book Association began the 31-day endorsement of reading groups in 2007, and as in years past, the 2010 celebration will include activities hosted by traditional and online book clubs and at bricks-and-mortar bookstores and libraries. WNBA National president Mary Grey James said the organization “proudly endorses this national celebration of reading groups at a time when there is much talk about the ‘decline of the book’ and ‘reading at risk…. National Reading Group Month is a perfect platform for book clubs (individual members and groups) to gather at their local bookstores and libraries to pick their future reading lists and celebrate the congeniality which naturally springs from the reading group experience.”

The nine WNBA chapters—in Boston, Charlotte, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.—will participate in National Reading Group Month. Among the planned festivities are the National Reading Group Month Signature Event, which will be held at the Nashville Public Library Downtown on Saturday, October 9. It will include breakfast and book signings by Melanie Benjamin (Alice I Have Been), Tom Franklin (Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter), Sena Jeter Naslund (Adam & Eve) and other authors. The event is co-sponsored by the Nashville Public Library and Davis-Kidd Nashville.

Additionally, WNBA’s National Reading Group Month Selection Committee has chosen 13 books, 12 novels, and one memoir as this year’s Great Group Reads. The books are listed at www.wnba-books.org, as is a complete list of WNBA chapter National Reading Group Month events.

Official sponsors of this year’s Reading Group Month include HarperCollins, Hyperion/Voice, Simon & Schuster, and Unbridled Books.