BTW News Briefs

A New Plan for University of Missouri Press

Administrators have reversed their plan to close the University of Missouri Press and have instead decided to reorganize it into a “teaching press,” a plan that does little to satisfy the thousands of people who petitioned the university to save the press, according to the Riverfront Times, which noted that there are no plans to rehire the 10 press staff members who were let go.

Speer Morgan, an English professor and editor of the Missouri Review literary magazine, has been named the new director of the press, which will rely on graduate students to do some of the editing and faculty from the university’s four campuses for peer review. The reconfigured press will inherit the University of Missouri Press backlist, but Morgan said that future plans call for more e-books and utilization of other new reading technology.

2012 Thriller Award Winners Announced

During a gala celebration at Thrillerfest on Saturday, July 14, in New York City, the International Thriller Writers named the winners of the 2012 Thriller Awards:

• Best Hardcover Novel: 11/23/63, by Stephen King (Scribner)
• Best Paperback Original Novel:The Last Minute, by Jeff Abbott (Sphere/Little, Brown UK)
• Best First Novel:Spiral, by Paul McEuen (The Dial Press)
• Best Short Story:“Half-Lives,” by Tim L. Williams (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

Also honored during the ThrillerFest VI Awards Banquet were Ann Rule, who received the True Thriller Award; Richard North Patterson, the recipient of the Silver Bullet Award; and Jack Higgins, who was named ThrillerMaster, in recognition of his legendary career and outstanding contributions to the thriller genre.

Chain Launches E-Book Gift Card Program

Livrada, a Los Angeles-based startup, has partnered with Target to sell gift cards for specific e-book titles in the chain’s stores nationwide, according to a report by Paid Content.

The program launched on Sunday, July 15, with six bestsellers (five from Random House and one from HarperCollins) available for Kindle and Nook, with plans to make titles available on other platforms by the end of the year. Gift card recipients are directed to the Livrada website to activate their gift card.

Livrada will collect affiliate fees from Amazon and Barnes & Noble for referring sales, according to Paid Content, and will collect marketing fees from the books’ publishers. Plans are in the works to expand the program to other publishers.