Penguin Putnam

Penguin Random House’s annual indie bookselling initiative for the holidays, two-day transit for orders, starts today, October 3, one month earlier than in years past. Not only is the start date for the two-day transit shipping program before Columbus Day, but PRH will offer expedited shipping well beyond the Christmas holidays. The program continues through…

Penguin Random House unveils Unbound Worlds (www.unboundworlds.com), the successor online destination to Suvudu, dedicated to the literary worlds of science fiction and fantasy. The website will offer readers insight into books and authors from all publishers and occupy the crossroads of science fiction and fantasy, including slipstream, pop science, fairy tales and folklore, magical realism,…

Listening Library, Penguin Young Readers and Random House Children’s Books are celebrating Pride Month with a newly redesigned ReadProudListenProud.com, an online resource for LGBTQ literature recommendations designed to spark discussion in the classroom and at home and to encourage understanding through storytelling, celebrating everyone for who they are. Teen transgender rights advocate Jazz Jennings has been named the…

Can Sony do for electronic books what Apple has done for digital music and video? The electronics giant took its first steps in finding out, as it formally revealed its much-talked-about digital reading device and a dedicated online electronic bookstore. The company began offering both to bibliophiles in the United States in early October. Sony announced that its paperback-sized Portable Reader System (PRS-500)—which is a half-inch thick and weighs nine ounces—would retail for $349.99. The device, which Sony states is able to hold up to 80 electronic books without expanded memory, went on pre-sale on the company’s Web site and became available in

Can Sony do for electronic books what Apple has done for digital music and video? The electronics giant took its first steps in finding out, as it formally revealed its much-talked-about digital reading device and a dedicated online electronic bookstore this week. The company said Tuesday that both would be available to bibliophiles in the United States starting in October. Sony announced that its paperback-sized Portable Reader System (PRS-500) -- a thin, half-an-inch device weighing only nine ounces -- would retail for $349.99. The device, which Sony states is able to hold up to 80 electronic books without expanded memory, went on pre-sale Wednesday on

Book publishers have used catalogs to sell their titles for many years. However, in this digital age, the advent of digital catalogs would seem to be a foregone conclusion, especially as many magazines launch digital counterparts. These digital editions—more than Web sites featuring content—actually mimic the print publications, some even creating a visual page-turning experience. According to those in the digital catalog business, there may be as many as a dozen vendors offering book publishers the ability to recreate the look-and-feel of their print catalogs in digital form. Still, the concept has yet to become a sweeping trend. In fact, some solutions providers

You would think it was one of the best kept secrets in the publishing business. … It's not that publishers don't repackage and remarket returns and unsold inventory. It's that they don't want the consumer to know. "This is a secret because no one wants to talk about it. It is recycling at its best," says David Dunn, chairman of Dunn & Co., in Clifton, Mass., a self-proclaimed "book hospital" that repairs books and repurposes hardcover returns. If the public perceives such books as "recycled," the publishers would have a perception problem, and the consumer may reconsider the purchase. Traditionally, publishers deplete unsold inventory through discount

Book editors, publicists, and marketers sent a collective "thank you" to media queen Oprah Winfrey, when the Association of American Publishers presented her with its AAP Honors award. The reason for the award: Oprah's Book Club, a wildly popular segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show. The segment routinely turned titles into bestsellers. But while publishers love the show's impact on revenues, dealing with massive, often unexpected surges in demand can vex even the most efficient supply chain. The format of Oprah's Book Club was simple and effective. Winfrey chose a novel, then broadcast a reader discussion and author interview. The first book featured: The

Those vinyl books that make bath time so much fun for kids present a much different challenge to Nadine Britt. She is the production director at Penguin Putnam (www.penguinputnam.com) and oversees the Dutton, Grosset & Dunlap and Price Stern Sloan mass merchandise children's imprints. With 11 children's imprints and 15 adult imprints, Penguin Putnam is a division of the Penguin Group, the second-largest English-language trade book publisher in the world. Formed in 1996 as a result of the merger between Penguin Books USA and The Putnam Berkeley Group, the Penguin Group has primary operations in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and