Onetime publishing execu tive turned literary agent Larry Kirshbaum‘s jump to Amazon to head up a new publishing operation has rival publishers nervous.
The move comes at a time of tremendous upheaval in the business.
Book sales are down, major chain Borders may disappear from the retail landscape and Amazon reported earlier this month that ebook sales on its Kindle device are now outselling hardcover and paperback books in print.
So why then is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos venturing into the risky world of publishing?
“Everyone is wondering what they are up to,” said one executive yesterday at the BookExpo America, the annual book trade fair now underway at the Javits Center. Many had expected or feared a move by Amazon into frontline consumer publishing for months and the hiring of Kirshbaum — and Amazon’s tight-lipped lack of communication on the strategy — has only fanned speculation.
Kirshbaum was a popular executive when he was heading Time Warner Publishing, before the group that included Warner Books and Little Brown imprints was sold to the Hachette Book Group and he left to open the LHK Literary Agency.
On Monday, Amazon revealed Kirschbaum was going to be the new publisher of its book publishing operation, but outlined very little about its plans.
Amazon, which has a relatively small publishing presence, has a booth at BEA. When Media Ink stopped by yesterday, one of its authors, Johnny Shaw was dutifully signing copies of “Dove Season,” from the AmazonEncore imprint.
AmazonEncore takes what it feels were overlooked books and works with authors to re-introduce them to the public.
Said another publishing executive who did not want to be quoted, “The hiring of Larry says two things: one, he was getting tired of being an agent, and two, Amazon realizes that if they are going to be in the game, they had to get someone who knows how to publish a book, from relationships with authors and agents to editing and marketing. . . . It’s a lot more complicated than sticking a book in a box and sending it to consumers.”
Whither Jann?
“Tough Jews” author Rich Cohen, who was working on an authorized biography of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, has apparently dropped the idea because Wenner has withdrawn support for the project.
The Spiegel & Grau imprint of Random House, headed by Cindy Spiegel and Julie Grau, had verbally agreed to the book — for a seven-figure deal, according to one source.
But then the subject abruptly decided against the project, which appears to have sunk it.
Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Cohen’s agent and co-head of the William Morris Agency’s Worldwide Literary Department, said, “Jann had come to Rich asking him to do it. After it got snapped up, Wenner had a change of heart.”
She said she was not sure why Wenner dropped the project but she said Cohen is not pursuing it independently. He has a bio, “The Fish That Ate the Whale,” on the Russian immigrant Samuel Zemurray, who took over United Fruit, in the works.
A spokesman for Wenner declined to comment.
It’s the second Wenner authorized biography to sink in recent years.
Knopf head Sonny Mehta had paid what is believed to have been a mid-six-figure advance to Los Angeles-based writer Lewis MacAdams to write a bio back in 2003 or 2004. MacAdams seemed an odd choice. Although he had written “Birth of the Cool,” he bills himself first as a poet and is one of the driving forces behind the Friends of the Los Angeles River project.
Wenner was said to be cooperating, granting interviews and access, at least initially. Many of the people that Wenner had feuded with over the years were also said to be anxious to talk to MacAdams, and some sources said that was what was making Wenner nervous.
One source even speculated that Wenner himself had gotten a look at the manuscript, was unhappy with it, and paid off MacAdams to keep the inside dirt from being published — a claim that is denied by MacAdams.
“I was not paid off by anybody,” said MacAdams, “and I still own the copyright.”
Another source said Wenner had withdrawn cooperation and threatened legal action if it went forward without him. MacAdams referred any additional questions to an LA-based lawyer, Deborah Drooz, but she shed little new light on the topic. “I have no idea what Mr. Wenner is going to do,” she said.
MacAdams apparently never submitted a final manuscript and so never collected the final payments on his advance.
“We paid out a portion of the advance,” said a Knopf spokesman. He insisted that the project, which is now at least five years overdue, could still happen — someday. Maybe. “We still have the Lewis MacAdams book under contract,” said the publisher. “We have a reputation for being a very patient publisher.” kkelly@nypost.com