“At least 50 titles about Lincoln are due out between next month and early 2010, not counting those recently published,” the Boston Globe notes, with the bicentennial of his birth on Feburary 12, including “at least seven children’s books.” Simon & Schuster editorial director Alice Mayhew says, “People are hungry for details about Lincoln. He’s clearly the greatest hero, with a poignance and a sadness – what he had to endure as president and in his personal life.”Globe
Archives for September 2008
Lunch Weekly for Monday, September 22
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace 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 Filmmaker Shandi Mitchell’s UNDER THIS UNBROKEN SKY, about an immigrant family […]
Michigan Adds Espresso Book Machine
The University of Michigan has installed a machine from On Demand to print their own books one at a time, drawing on their collection of digitized out-of-copyright books, thanks to Google. They say its costs about ten dollars a book, and “the service is available to researchers, students and the public.” In the announcement, Michigan notes that their libraries have digitized “nearly 2 million books” since 1996.UofM post
S&P Cuts BN Rating
With shares in the bookseller up considerably from their pathetic level earlier this summer, Standard & Poor’s lowered their recommendation on Barnes & Noble’s stock to “sell” on “continued challenges in the bookselling market.” The report says, ““while we applaud (Barnes & Noble) for managing costs effectively in a challenging environment, we remain concerned about further gross margin erosion, driven by competitive pressures from online peers.”Forbes
Credit Crunch Ends Informa Buyout Bid
After Informa rejected a reduced bid of 1.9 billion pounds (down from an original bid of 2.2 billion pounds), the consortium of private equity groups hoping to buy out the company “has decided to withdraw its proposal.” The group, led by Providence Equity Partners, reportedly had trouble raising financing for the deal. But the group “said they reserved the right to make or participate in an offer for Informa within six months subject to certain conditions.” In today’s markets, Informa shares are trading over 20 percent below that reduced offer (the group bid 450p a share; the price is now […]
Big City Bookstore Dreams
Jessica Stockton Bagnulo’s efforts to grow a bookstore in Brooklyn are Timesworthy, as the paper’s metro section looks at the party thrown by the Fort Greene Indie Bookstore Initiative. “Given everything else going on in the world, [it] felt like a pocket of irrational exuberance, even extravagance — a through-the-looking-glass scene in which an independent bookstore, of all things, was the cause for great optimism and celebration. “Halfway through the event, Ms. Stockton Bagnulo announced with glee that she had a business partner — Rebecca Fitting, a 34-year-old sales representative for Random House who decided a few weeks earlier to […]