Archives for November 2006

Regan’s Regulars and More Confessions It’s already well-known that the man who actually wrote OJ Simpson’s alleged hypothetical confession Pablo Fenjves had a long-standing working relationship with Judith Regan, and now Lunch has discovered another player in the project as well. Contrary to previously published reports, “advance payments” for the project were not paid directly to Lorraine Brooke Associates, but rather went to Transactional Marketing Partners in Santa Monica, CA, care of company president Bret Saxon as agent for Lorraine Brooke Associates. HarperCollins disclosed this information to Denise Brown’s attorney Natasha Roit by e-mail last week. Roit mentioned Saxon and […]

Turner to Run New Sterling Imprint, and Other Personnel News Sterling announced yesterday the hiring of Carroll & Graf editor-in-chief Philip Turner, who will serve as editorial director of a new narrative nonfiction imprint, Union Square Press, starting in mid-January. Turner comments in the announcement, “This is a new direction for Sterling, and one that I’m confident will be a great complement to the superb publishing they’re already doing. Union Square Press titles will be imperative books, books that matter in people’s lives.” The line, which will incorporate Turner’s special focus on “truthtellers, whistleblowers, and muckrakers” that was the focus […]

Personnel News William Kiester has been named publisher of the Fair Winds Press and Quiver imprints of Quayside Publishing Group, starting in February 2007 in the Gloucester, MA office, reporting to Quayside CEO Ken Fund. At Chronicle, Liza Algar has been promoted to executive eirector of marketing and Sarah Williams has been promoted to executive director, new business development. At Abrams, Lisa Dolin has joined the company as executive director of special markets, reporting to sales and distribution svp Steve Tager. Most recently, she spent five years as director of special sales at Rodale. Canongate non-fiction editorial director Andy Miller […]

Borders Readies New Strategy Just like the flailing chains in the UK that suddenly realized the Internet matters, Borders indicated it will introduce a new online strategy that may include a change in its five-year relationship with Amazon. That’s just part of a larger strategy that new CEO George Jones will unveil next February or March. He said, “We need to differentiate ourselves so that a customer is willing to drive by our competitor’s stores for certain products we carry. We want to focus on certain key categories where we will really stand out.” Bloomberg Students Sue Over Textbook Pricing […]

Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace.com if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Giller Prize and Governor General’s Award-nominated author Rawi Hage’s DE NIRO’S GAME, […]

Better Bad News for Borders Borders’ bad quarter was a little less bad than forecast. Their big loss of $39 million was in line with analysts’ expectations and the company’s own guidance, while sales of $852 million were higher than Wall Street was prepared for. Most importantly, same-store superstore sales (comprising $583 million) actually rose 1.8 percent, rather than falling as projected. In remodeled stores, “the cafe and gifts and stationery categories were the strongest performers.” International sales were $144.6 million, up almost 15 percent, as same-store sales fell 0.3 percent — good in comparison to the other ailing book […]