On Wednesday at the Frankfurt Book Fair, I moderated a panel discussion with John Makinson from The Penguin Group, Brian Murray at HarperCollins, and Arnaud Nourry of Lagardere Publishing. FBF has posted a video of the conversation (see the link at the bottom), but here are some notable excerpts. Makinson suggested that once the economic crisis has stabilized, publishers will need to make structural adjustments in the role that some wholesalers play as Britain’s EUK is threatened by the instability of their corporate parent, Woolworth’s. “One concern I do have is whether the merchandising wholesaler model, where a number of […]
Archives for October 2008
People, Distribution, and More
Dan Weiss has left Barnes & Noble, where he was most recently publisher and managing director of Quamut.com, their “how-to” website and printed guide venture started in late 2007. He can be reached at dweissco@gmail.com. Barnes & Noble spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating confirms for us that the SparkNotes.com and Quamut.com teams have moved to BN.com. (Spark had been under BN Publishing Group president Alan Kahn.) VP of digital media Mike Skagerlind “will take responsibility for directing and managing these strategies in addition to the other content and community features at Barnes & Noble.com.” Jed Donahue is leaving Crown Forum after […]
Wylie Takes Over Bolaño, and "Finds" Another Novel
Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency has taken over representation of Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño’s literary estate from Spanish agent Carmen Balcells and is offering publishers the manuscript of THE THIRD REICH. The unpublished novel was unknown to Balcells and Bolaño’s Spanish publisher, Jorge Herralde. The Guardian says it “is said to have been written in the early 1990s before Bolaño began to work on a computer. The Wylie agency was touting the book at Frankfurt as ‘a type-written, completed novel that is meticulously corrected by hand.'”Guardian
Some US Publishers Actually Buy to Translate
Motoko Rich looks at some of the “handful of American publishers who regularly seek out books to translate during the [Frankfurt Book] fair every year.” They include David Godine, Chad Post from Open Letter (based at the University of Rochester), Jill Schoolman from Archipelago Books, and Fiona McCrae at Graywolf. The publishers that look for translations do so with a clear business strategy in mind. McCrae says, “Philip Roth is not going to suddenly be published by Graywolf. So you see who is the Philip Roth of Italy or who is an interesting writer out of Sweden.” And in many […]
Charkin Winds Down
Filing on Saturday from Frankfurt, Richard Charkin’s last blog post: “Hall 8 is emptying. The bigwigs have all left for home and now the sales and rights directors have the place more or less to themselves. The atmosphere has been less hectic than usual, a natural consequence of the world economy. There seem to be fewer people but there is still business being done, albeit at highly competitive prices and with lower print quantities. For those of us in our dotage this is familiar territory. Batten down the hatches. Publish well. Waste less. Throw complacency out of every window. We have […]
King Deadline Comes with No Apparent Delivery
Penguin had said they would cancel their contract for an autobiography based on taped conversations with the late Coretta Scott King if “promised photos, personal writings and intimate letters” were not delivered by today. Attorney for King Inc. Nicole Wade indicates to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the delivery deadline had already been postponed several times. “These papers were originally supposed to be provided in July. They’ve been rather patient.” The AJC says “last week a judge ordered Bernice King, executor of her mother’s estate, and Martin Luther King III to turn over their mother’s papers to an auditor or ‘special […]