Macmillan

Osama Bin Laden‘s death was carried out by a group of United States Navy SEALs called Team Six. Past member, Howard E. Wasdin, signed a book deal with St. Martin’s Press one year ago. In light of current events, the publisher is preparing for wide spread interest in the title.

On May 24th Wasdin’s memoir, SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper, will be released. Publishers Weekly reports that the memoir will have full national distribution by the middle of next week.

The book was co-authored by Meio University professor Stephen Templin. According to the description, the book talks about Wasdin’s entrance into military service and a past mission concerning Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.

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Macmillan has created a new online community for crime fiction and nonfiction readers, CriminalElement.com.

Here’s more from the press release: “At launch there will be excerpts, original fiction and articles by authors Joseph Finder, Steve Hamilton, Rosemary Harris, Charles Ardai, Luis Alberto Urrea and more…CriminalElement.com is ‘publisher neutral,’ meaning that it will include author participation from all publishers and other content creators, and is not exclusive to Macmillan authors.”

Crime writers from any publisher can submit original short stories and pre-release excerpts to senior manager Liz Edelstein. This site will also have a Facebook page and Twitter page.

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Graphic designer Rodrigo Corral (pictured, via) has been named creative director at Macmillan’s Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG). According to Unbeige, Corral actually worked at FSG from 1996 to 2000 following his graduation from the School of Visual Arts.

Here’s more from Unbeige: “He begins in his new post early next month and will continue to run Rodrigo Corral Design, the nine-year-old studio behind such memorable book covers as those for James Frey‘s A Million Little Pieces, a shelf of Chuck Palahniuk novels, Debbie Millman‘s smashing How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer, and Jay-Z‘s recent memoir-cum-lyrical codex, Decoded.”

Rodrigo’s work has appeared in New York Magazine, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Book Review. His art has also been seen on books published by Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group (USA), and W.W. Norton.

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Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program director Jill Lamar will serve as the next editor-in-chief at Henry Holt. She will start on March 14th.

Lamar has lead Barnes & Noble’s program since 1999. Her publishing career began at Dell, where she served as an associate editor in the 1990s.  She also worked as an acquisitions and project editor at BDD Audio–acquiring 100 titles a year.

Henry Holt publisher Stephen Rubin praised Lamar in a memo: “Given this diverse background and the current volatile marketplace, Jill’s often uncanny and savvy knowledge of what makes a book sell will, I believe, be brought to a higher level of fruition as she helps shape the Holt editorial profile, making us a major player in the publishing of literary and commercial books of both fiction and nonfiction.  Her warm and engaging personality and her can-do enthusiasm, combined with her publishing smarts, has impressed the publishing, agenting and book buying communities for more than a decade.”

Metropolitan Books has moved up the publication date for Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei‘s book, The Age of Deception: Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times. The author has recently gained public attention for his public opposition to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The book will now come out on April 26th. Dr. ElBaradei signed with Macmillan’s Metropolitan Books last year. The Nobel Prize winner holds a Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D.) in international law from New York University’s School of Law.

Here’s more from the press release: “Originally scheduled for June 2011, the book is Dr. ElBaradei’ s account of his three terms as the director general of the U.N.’ s International Atomic Energy Agency, where he found himself at the heart of the world’ s most explosive conflicts. For his work toward nuclear non-proliferation and a secure future for the world, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.”

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President and publisher of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Dan Farley announced he will be stepping down from his current position.

Farley’s residence is officially California, but his job demands that he spend two weeks per month in New York. He wants to be west coast-based on a full-time basis. Farley’s exit will occur sometime in the next few months after a successor has been secured. Farley first came to Macmillan in 2008 at the Henry Holt imprint. He ascended to publisher before moving to Macmillan Children’s in 2009.

Farley’s memo said: “We’ve determined that my new plans would not mesh with the business needs of the Group…With publishing programs and operations performing effectively, with consolidation richly underway, with smart and well-thought-out strategic planning poised to be implemented, and with our talented and collaborative staff, this seems a positive time to proverbially pass the baton.” (Via Publishers Weekly)

The Washington Post reported today that a Google Books entry accidentally broke the embargo on Jimmy Carter‘s upcoming release, White House Diary. While Google has since removed the preview, the first 50 pages of White House Diary were available briefly as a Google Books preview ahead of its September 20th publication date.

Like many political memoirs, the publisher won’t send advance copies of the book until its release date. While publications regularly buck these embargoes, the Google Books excerpt made a scoop for the newspaper.

White House Diary editor and Macmillan executive vice president John Sterling offered this comment: “We consider this the sort of glitch that is bound to happen occasionally given the technical complexities involved in coordinating the publication of books in both physical and electronic form.”

The brand spanking new Publishers Weekly blog PWxyz shared a cheery story about Macmillan today.

According to an anonymous Consumerist reader, the major publisher send a new copy of Mars Life by Ben Bova to one customer who bought a used copy of the book with 30 missing pages. What do you think? Should publishers salvage more used copies to earn readers?

Here’s more from Consumerist: “It’s a hardcover copy of the book I bought at a Salvation Army thrift store for a dollar. The book isn’t damaged, it just looks like the pages were never put into the binding. I went to the website listed inside the cover and sent them a message about it, including telling them I bought it used at a thrift store. Someone replied the next business day asking for my address so they can send a new copy!”

Macmillan CEO John Sargent continued to address readers’ comments on his new blog today. The post comes on the heels of some controversial comments Sargent made about libraries and eBooks.

Here are his thoughts on pricing, from his blog: “We believe at first release an e book is worth more and people will pay more for it. Over time it will become worth less as demand tapers. However, some digital books will retain their value over time just like print books. Some will increase their value over time (many physical books are now only available as trade paperbacks, after they have been out in the cheaper mass market formats). So our digital pricing will vary to reflect the value of the book at the time. But in general, our plan is to price books below ten dollars after there initial sales demand slows (usually within a year).”

Following a highly publicized spat with Amazon over pricing, the CEO addressed eBook pricing directly. Under the publisher’s new agency model, he had these general prices for eBook editions: new hardcover releases will range between $14.99 and $12.99; hardcover New York Times bestseller-listed books will be $12.99 or below; and new paperbacks will range between $9.99 and $6.99.

Thoughts?

Liz Edelstein has been named the new digital content & marketing manager at Macmillan Audio.

Edelstein once served as senior program manager at America Online/Netscape Communications and earned an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA.

Here’s more from the release: “Most recently, Edelstein worked as an Online Book Marketing Specialist, designing and developing social media strategies and online promotions for a variety of authors. Under a pseudonym, Edelstein is also a published author of twelve romance/science fiction novels.”