Barnes and Noble, which purchased e-publisher Fictionwise is 2009, has announced that it will be closing Fictionwise in December. U.S. Fictionwise customers will cease to have access to their Fictionwise Bookshelf through the site after December 21, 2012. Customers outside the U.S. will cease to have access to their Fictionwise Bookshelf through the site after January 31, 2013. Fictionwise customers will be notified of this and U.S. and U.K. customers will be given an opportunity to move their customer accounts, including their eBooks purchased at the Fictionwise websites, to a Barnes & Noble NOOK Library.
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Steven H Silver has announced his resignation as the publisher and editor of ISFiC Press. Silver helped found the press in 2004 and has overseen most aspects of it from production to fulfillment since 2003. Silver will work with ISFiC, the Press’s parent corporation, to develop a transition plan to make sure fulfillment and production continue. Under Silver’s guidance, ISFiC Press published 12 books, included Aurora winner Relativity, by Robert J. Sawyer and Hugo nominee Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches, edited by Joe Siclari and Mike Resnick. ISFiC Press’s most recent books are Win Some, Lose Some: The Complete Hugo Award Winning (and Nominated) Short Science Fiction and Fantasy of Mike Resnick and Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots, by Seanan McGuire.
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The Walt Disney Company has purchased LucasFilm for 4.05 billion dollars in cash and stock. The deal gives Disney the rights to not only Star Wars, but also Indiana Jones and other LucasFilm properties. Disney has already announced plans to release a new Star Wars trilogy, beginning in 2015. The new trilogy will take place after the original trilogy and Disney says it will continue to release new Star Wars films every couple of years after the new trilogy is completed.
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Credit card swipe machines at 63 Barnes and Noble stores across the country have been hacked, recording and sending credit card and PIN information. The breach was discovered in mid-September and all machines were taken off line and fixed on September 14. Anyone who shopped at a B&N prior to that date should confirm their credit card statements.
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Managing Editor Helen Marshall has announced that after three years she is stepping down from her position at ChiZine. During her tenure, she co-founded the Aurora Award-nominated Chiaroscuro Reading Series and the Aurora Award-winning Toronto SpecFic Colloquium and oversaw the growth of the publisher from a print-on-demand to having world-wide distribution. Samantha Beiko will be taking over the duties as Managing Editor.
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Agent Wendy Weil (b.1940) died on September 27 while reading manuscripts. Weil, who headed her own agency since 1987, represented genre authors Karen Joy Fowler, Molly Gloss, Carol Emshwiller, James Morrow, and astronaut Scott Carpenter. Weil won the Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications, Inc. and served as Literary Vice President of the Association of Authors’ Representatives.
ChiZine Publications has announced a new imprint focusing on Young Adult fiction. ChiTeen will launch in the Spring of 2014 with The Unlikely But Totally True Adventures of Floating Boy and Anxiety Girl, by Paul Tremblay and Stephen Graham Jones. ChiTeen will offer the same dark and weird stories as the works ChiZine has previously published, but with subject matter more suited for a younger audience.
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Stanley Schmidt has announced his retirement as editor of Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, effect of September 7. Schmidt has served as editor since 1978, when he took over the reins from Ben Bova. His thirty-four year tenure meets or exceeds the tenure of Astounding/Analog editor John W. Campbell, Jr.’s tenure. During Schmidt’s time as editor, he discovered an nurtured many authors who are integral to the field, including Roger MacBride Allen, Michael A. Burstein, Michael F. Flynn, Janet Kagan, Geoffrey Landis, Elizabeth Moon, Jerry Oltion, and many, many more. Schmidt will be succeeded by Trevor Quachri, who has been serving as Managing Editor of both Analog and Asimov’s for several years.
Neil Clarke, editor of Clarkesworld has announced that he suffered an heart attack at Readercon and is currently in the hospital waiting to hear his prognosis.
An Owomoyela has joined Strange Horizons as a fiction editor. Owomoyela has published her fiction in Clarkesworld, Fantasy Magazine, and Lightspeed. Along with her appointment, publisher Niall Harrison has announced that Senior Fiction Editor Jed Hartman, who was part of the magazine’s original editorial staff, will be stepping down after more than a decade working on the magazines.
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