UNC Wilmington's New Lookout Books Imprint Garnering Rave Reviews with Debut Volume

The debut volume from Lookout Books, the new literary imprint of the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, has been greeted with glowing reviews this week by the New York Times and LA Times. The book, Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories, by Edith Pearlman, was featured on the cover of the NYT Book Review's Jan. 16 edition. All of this attention is happily overwhelming for members of the Creative Writing faculty, who have nurtured the idea of a literary imprint at UNCW since 2007.

Smith founded Lookout Books with Ben George, editor of Ecotone--the Creative Writing department's award-winning literary magazine--and now editorial director of Lookout. The imprint grew out of the university's decade-old Publishing Lab, a teaching press that offers students the opportunity to learn the publishing process through apprenticeship. Students were involved in every step of publishing Binocular Vision, including discussions about the selection and order of the stories, as well as researching the cover design and typesetting.

Lookout Books publishes trade paperback originals and seeks "emerging and historically underrepresented voices, as well as works by established writers overlooked by commercial houses." George said Pearlman, who has had two stories published in Ecotone, was the perfect choice for the imprint's debut author. At age 74, Pearlman has won three O. Henry Prizes, her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize anthology, and she has published three previous collections. Still, her writing had not achieved widespread recognition.

Pearlman will visit UNC Wilmington in March for the official launch of Lookout Books. She will read at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 3 in Morton Hall Auditorium, with the reading followed by a reception and book signing. Pearlman will also speak Wednesday, March 2 at 7 p.m. at B'Nai Israel Synagogue, 2601 Chestnut Street, on her identity as a Jewish writer and what that has meant to her.

Lookout Books is currently working on its second short story collection, Steve Almond's God Bless America, which will appear this fall.For more information about Lookout Books, go to http://www.lookout.org/index.html.

Loud Crow Interactive Partners with Bestselling Children's Author Sandra Boynton

Loud Crow Interactive Inc. is extremely pleased to announce that it has partnered with bestselling children's author and illustrator, Sandra Boynton, to develop and publish digital interactive versions of Boynton's popular children's books. Boynton has written over fifty books including four that reached the New York Times best sellers list, and has sold over 30 million copies worldwide.

The partnership will see Loud Crow develop and publish interactive digital books under a new imprint, Boynton Moo Media. The digital books will be based on Boynton's titles, which include the popular Moo Baa La La La, The Going To Bed Book, and Barnyard Dance. The book apps will be produced for a variety of devices such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Boynton is also a Grammy-nominated songwriter and record producer, with three gold record albums, and future plans also include musical apps that will feature Boynton's well-known recordings

The first Boynton Moo Media title that will be produced is The Going To Bed Book which Publishers Weekly names as being one of the best selling children's books of all time. The digital book will feature innovative interactive elements including touch and gesture-based animations, audio, and narration. Like all of Loud Crow's books, The Going To Bed Book app will offer the educational read-to-me mode and word-repeat-by-touch functionality and will be narrated by British invasion singer, Billy J. Kramer. The Going to Bed Book app is currently scheduled for release in February of 2011.

Announcing a New Publishing Imprint -- Napoleon Hill on Brilliance Audio

The Napoleon Hill Foundation and Brilliance Audio, Inc., today announced a new imprint, Napoleon Hill on Brilliance Audio, that has launched with the publication of an e-book and audio editions of a newly discovered work, "Napoleon Hill--The Road to Riches."

At the University of Virginia archives, Don M. Green, CEO of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, was doing a routine inventory when he discovered a box of 16 mm film canisters circa 1960. After restoring and digitizing the content, what was discovered was "pure gold"—Napoleon Hill and his longtime partner W. Clement Stone sharing their inspirational insights on the "master keys to success." The foundation commissioned Greg S. Reid, co-author with Sharon Lechter of "Three Feet from Gold," to take the archival film and create a new motivational program. The result is a one-of-a-kind audiobook, where you will not only hear the voice of Hill and Stone discussing the "master keys to success," but gain additional insights from some of today's top motivational speakers, including Bob Proctor, Brian Tracy, Les Brown and Mark Victor Hansen as they put a modern spin on Hill's classic principles of achievement. The 3-CD audiobook also includes a bonus DVD of the original film footage.

"We were searching for an audio publishing/e-book distribution that could leverage the future and propagate Napoleon Hill's message of prosperity well into the 21st century, and we believe we have achieved exactly that by working in concert with Brilliance Audio, Inc.," said Don M. Green, CEO of the Napoleon Hill Foundation.

In coming months, other releases under the Napoleon Hill on Brilliance Audio imprint will include the authorized edition of Hill's classic "Think and Grow Rich" with a new introduction by Lechter, Hill's "Keys to Success," "Selling You" and "Think and Grow Rich—Instant Motivator."

Best-Selling Author Steve Farber Signs Deal Repurchasing Rights to his Top 100 Business Book

No Limit Publishing Group and best-selling author Steve Farber announced today a signed unprecedented deal following Farber's high five-figure repurchase of all rights to his best-selling leadership books Radical Leap and Radical Edge from Kaplan Publishing.

"We are extremely excited to sign such a prolific author to our thought Leader imprint and show the publishing industry that authors and publishers can truly partner in this world and that there is a third option that solves the economical injustice of traditional deals, while simultaneously solving the myriad of quality, marketing and distribution issues with authors who choose to self-publish," said Chris J. Snook, Editor-In-Chief of No Limit Publishing, following the deal signing on December 23 in San Diego, Calif.

"The Farber Deal" will consist of a co-investment by each party, a lucrative author-buyback provision, 50/50 split on net royalties for both digital and print formats and worldwide distribution rights for No Limit Publishing for a minimum of three years with renewals.

Farber has joined a growing list authors who are contracting with No Limit Publishing's proprietary Rising Author Modern Media Platform (RAMMP) program at an undisclosed sum. As part of RAMMP, No Limit Publishing Group will provide a complete multi-media, print and digital publishing and distribution plan estimated at a mid six-figure development level.

Scholastic to Re-Launch Animorphs Books by Bestselling Author K.A. Applegate

Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, announced today that it will re-launch K.A. Applegate's bestselling "Animorphs" series in May 2011. Each book will be published with a lenticular cover that actually morphs.

Since the first Animorphs book was published in June 1996, the brand has grown to include 54 books, two spin-off series and ten companion books -- totaling more than 35 million books in print worldwide. In addition, the Scholastic Media-produced television series was sold to 35 countries globally and aired on Nickelodeon in the United States. The Animorphs series empowers kids with the desire, skills and supernatural abilities to achieve such noble virtues as heroism, loyalty and respect for nature's creatures -- all while engulfed in an urgent quest to save the world from evil.

K.A. Applegate is the author of the bestselling Animorphs series, as well as the Remnants and Everworld series, Home of The Brave, and the Roscoe Riley Rules series. She lives in Southern California.