Archives for April 2005

Scholastic Buys Cunningham’s Chicken Scholastic has purchased the UK’s Chicken House, run by Barry Cunningham. The companies had been partners in the US, Canada and Australia, on such books as Cornelia Funke’s DRAGON RIDER (with 900,000 copies in print in North America) and recent Jonah’s Pick Stuart Hill’s THE CRY OF THE ICEMARK. Cunningham says in a statement, “Now with the resources and depth of experience that Scholastic offers, we will be able to offer our authors and artists even greater distribution and exposure worldwide.” Cunningham will continue to work out of the UK, but reports to US-based Scholastic Trade […]

Fresh Book Sales The NYT reports on the growing presence of books in supermarkets. The Kroger chain, called “among the most aggressive in expanding its book sections,” is carrying up to 2,800 titles per store. Lance Parsons, who manages Kroger’s book line, comments: “When you look at our business versus a bookstore, we have the opportunity to capture the same customers three times a week.… Now publishers are beating down our doors.” Harper president of sales Josh Marwell concurs: “Supermarkets are definitely taking a bigger share of our business.” And chains like Wegmans are hosting author signings: a recent event […]

Herz Launches Small Imprint Doubleday Broadway’s Suzanne Herz will become publisher of a new imprint for the house, Flying Point Press, focusing on popular culture and fiction and aiming to publish up to six books a year. Herz will “work closely with senior editor Phyllis Grann” and other members of the Doubleday Broadway team. The first announced acquisition is a book by CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien about the importance of family, co-written with Sally Jenkins and to be edited by Grann. Herz has been with the house for 11 years. She relinquishes her position as executive director of publicity for […]

Apple Retaliates for Wiley Bio Wiley says that Apple Computer “told us that our technology books were immediately being pulled from their Apple retail stores,” the company’s Kitt Allan says, “in apparent retaliation for the upcoming publication of a biography of Apple CEO Steve Jobs,” the San Jose Mercury News reports. The paper says the action follows “a month of increasingly contentious discussions” about Jeffrey S. Young’s iCON STEVE JOBS. SJMN Edwards Will Shift to W&N Malcolm Edwards will give up his title as managing director of Orion Books, becoming managing director of Weidenfeld & Nicholson instead, while remaining group […]

RH Buys Half of Scottish Publisher Random House UK has taken a fifty percent stake in Scottish nonfiction publisher Mainstream. Bill Campbell and Peter Mackenzie will continue as joint managing directors of the company, founded 27 years ago, and it will continue to operate from Edinburgh. Random UK’s Ian Hudson and Brian Davies will join Mainstream’s board, and RH “intends” to take over UK and international sales later this spring. Harper UK’s Soft Results Operating results for Harper UK released recently were covered by the Observer this weekend, showing sales down slightly to 165.5 million pounds and operating profits down […]

Bologna Report Publishing News has a long overview on the recent Bologna Book Fair, reporting a steady show with few big stories. “While still, to all intents, a fiction fair, it was noticeable, almost wherever you went, that publishers are not giving up on picture books. Despite a market, particularly in the US, that appears to have gone beyond freefall, and the directive from Waterstone’s that looks like it will see a two-thirds reduction in the number of picture books stocked, hopes were still high.” PN Book Sense Kid’s Picks Also on the children’s book front, Book Sense has posted […]