Scholastic to Roll Out New Multi-Platform Series

January 10, 2013

Scholastic to Roll Out New Multi-Platform Series Scholastic has announced the fall 2013 launch of Spirit Animals, the company's first multi-platform series in the fantasy genre. As with the publisher's 39 Clues and Infinity Ring series, the Spirit Animals books will be written by different authors and will be linked to a simultaneously released online game. The story arc for the seven-book middle-grade series was created by Brandon Mull, author of the Beyonders and Fablehaven series; he will also write the debut novel, Wild Born, due out September 10. Maggie Stiefvater has signed on to pen the second installment, scheduled for January 2014. more » The Wal-Mart Effect Last week was the first time that Nielsen BookScan added Wal-Mart data to its report on book sales. Wal-Mart sales are now part of BookScan's mass merchandisers & other strata and as you might suspect, provided a huge boost to sales in that segment. In the week ended January 6, 2013, units in the segment rose 65% to over 1.8 million units from 1.1 million in the first week of January 2012. more » Lulu Drops DRM for E-books Sold Natively In an announcement sent out on January 8, self-publishing Web site Lulu.com stated that it is going to stop using Digital Rights Management to protect e-books that it sells directly to consumers. However, Lulu e-books purchased from mainstream online retailers will continue to be protected, but by the bookseller rather than Lulu. more » Tor Tests E-Serial Approach for New Scalzi Book For The Human Division, the latest novel in John Scalzi's Old Man's War series, Tor is teasing the hardcover with staggered digital "episodes." The book is coming out in print (and, simultaneously, in e-book) in May 2013 but, before then, Tor is releasing the story through a series of e-books, the first of which, called "The B-Team," goes on sale January 15. more » Today's Job Grey House Publishing is seeking a Book Production Assistant. Maybe it's you! For more about this and other jobs, visit PW JobZone. To post a new job, click here. Chegg to Offer Open Source eTextbooks with OpenStax & 20 Million Minds Almost exactly one year to the day after Chegg introduced a platform for online textbooks, its HTML5 eTextbook Reader that can be read on any Internet-connected device, it announced that it will begin offering open source e-textbooks through OpenStax College and the 20 Million Minds Foundation. Beginning this month, students will be able to access eTextbook Reader tools for open source digital titles, including community q & a, social highlighting, and note taking. Two additional titles will be available in the spring. more » » Diamond Releases Top Graphic Novels Charts for 2012 Diamond Comics Distributors released its annual figures ranking the top performers in the direct market in 2012. more » » 2013 Charles Taylor Prize Shortlist Announced The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, which recognizes excellence in Canadian non-fiction writing, has its five nominees for 2013: Carol Bishop-Gwyn for The Pursuit of Perfection (Cormorant Books), Tim Cook for Warlords (Allen Lane), Sandra Djwa for Journey with No Maps (McGill-Queen's University Press), Ross King for Leonardo and The Last Supper (Bond Street Books), and Andrew Preston for Sword of the Spirit (Knopf Canada). The $25,000 award will be presented on March 4. more » » Job Moves: January 10, 2013 Kate Dresser has been named associate editor at Harlequin HQN and Harlequin LUNA. She was previously assistant editor at Gallery Books, Pocket Books and Threshold Editions. more » » THE ROUNDUP Joe Simpson Dumps 'Bullying' RH: Mountaineer Joe Simpson, author of a bestselling memoir, Touching the Void, has dumped his "bullying" publisher Random House after failing to reach agreement with them over over e-book royalties. 50 Shades Gets Hardcovers: To be released January 29. Lousy Book Covers: A Tumblr that looks at books like "Spending Christmas with a Yeti." Books on Beechwood Gets High-Tech: The story of how the Ottawa bookstore was bought. Paragraph Launchs Lit Mag for iPad Age: A new iPad magazine called Paragraph Shorts curates the "best short stories" from across the web and presents them in a Flipboard-like interface. VIEW ALL » Authors on the Air Authors on the Air January 10, 2013: Jeff Kinney, Phoebe Baker Hyde On Publishers Weekly Radio, Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, will be in the studio. The show airs at 3 pm ET on SiriusXM Book Radio. More information here. On January 11, Phoebe Baker Hyde, will be on Katie for her book The Beauty Experiment (Da Capo, 978-0738214658). more » » BLOGS PWxyz Blog Gabe Habash Can You Guess These Classic Books From Their Phantom Covers (Round 4)? The fun, nifty game for book lovers returns! more » Beyond Her Book Barbara Vey WW Ladies/Men Book Club I'm sitting in the sunshine, sipping an iced drink with an umbrella in it. Somehow, the book is even better. more » ShelfTalker Elizabeth Bluemle Books We Love Most but Recommend Less…. Are there books you passionately love, but forget -- or hesitate -- to recommend to young readers? Why? more » Genreville Rose Fox Books I Loved in 2012 Fun, deep, tasty SF/F and YA published in 2012. more » ListenUp Adam Boretz Now Playing: Death of a Cozy Writer A cozy listen for the long winter. more » PICTURE OF THE DAY Ginder and Lipsky at powerHouse To celebrate the launch of his new novel, Driver's Education (Simon & Schuster), Grant Ginder held a reading and conversation with David Lipsky (author of Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself) at powerHouse Arena on January 9.	Of Note Barbara Meade Retires from P&P After 35 years in bookselling, Barbara Mead, former owner of Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C., has retired. "On December 31 . . . I hung up my book bag," she wrote in a letter on the Politics and Prose Web site. Since selling the store with Carla Cohen's husband, David, a year and a half ago, she had been active in helping new owners Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine make the transition. more »

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