Editorial Inspirations

Several organizations have teamed up to create “N,” a series of made-for-mobile phone video episodes adapted from a story in Stephen King’s forthcoming story collection Just After Sunset.

Drawn by a team from Marvel, adapted by TV show creator Marc Guggenheim with King, and featuring a full cast of voice actors, the two-minute episodes were released one per weekday between July 28 and August 29. The episodes will be available to mobile phone users at no extra charge through CBS Mobile, on the Web through CBS Audience Network and its partners, and at www.nishere.com. Episodes will also be available for paid download at $.99 for five, or $3.99 for all 25.

A limited printed collectors’ edition of the book, packaged with a DVD of all 25 episodes, will be available when the regular edition of Just After Sunset goes on sale in November.

Borders announced on June 3 “a corporate payroll reduction that includes the elimination of 156 corporate positions spread across virtually all departments of its Ann Arbor headquarters.  Employees at the company’s headquarters were informed of the job eliminations this morning. In addition, Borders Group has eliminated 118 corporate posts that are based outside its headquarters, impacting primarily corporate employees in distribution centers, the field marketing organization, and the corporate sales division. These employees were informed yesterday.”

The employee cuts were almost entirely corporate employees, reducing corporate staff by 20 percent. The company called the reductions part of “an aggressive plan to reduce annual expenses by $120 million” and added they “expect to save half of that amount yet this fiscal year.”

Later that week, it was announced that Borders has reached an agreement to sell its Australian, New Zealand, and Singapore storesto A&R Whitcoulls in a deal that could be worth as much as $104 million. Earlier this year, talks between the two companies broke off at the last minute over what is believed to have been the terms of the deal. Under the new agreement, Borders will receive $90 million upon the closing of the transaction and another $14 million if certain performance targets are met.

James Frey, the author who took down the reputation of the memoir, has a new book out, Bright Shiny Morning. With Frey’s controversial reputation, Harper has had to make some tough decisions on how to market this new book.

In an interview with Vanity Fair’s Evgenia Peretz, Frey said that he “fears and loathes” the press and would not be doing any other interviews. However, Frey did appear on the Today show and also did an interview for USA Today. But that, according to Tina Andreadis at Harper, is all the national media currently lined up for Frey.

When asked about whether Frey is avoiding the press, Andreadis said the author is not afraid of the press. She noted that Frey is prohibited from discussing the details of what happened with Random House and A Million Little Pieces for legal reasons.

In addition to the three interviews, Frey went on a book tour for the latest book. He’ll be stopping all over the country, sometimes with author/friend Josh Kilmer-Purcell, and also doing some local radio. In addition to traditional signings at stores like Book Passage in Corte Madera, Calif., and Book Court in Brooklyn, Frey appeared with some bands at a May 13 at New York’s Blender Theater and May 15 at West Hollywood’s Whisky A Go Go.