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 Chris Greenhalgh’s COCO CHANEL & IGOR STRAVINSKY, a first novel and […]
Archives for July 2009
Sales Rise at Penguin on Currency; Profits Decline, But Education Powers Pearson Gain
Sales rose 22 percent at Pearson for the first half of their fiscal year, at 2.398 billion pounds, with earnings of 28 million pounds, compared to a loss of 62 million pounds this time a year ago. Education, which comprises over 60 percent of the total revenues, was up 29 percent for the period. Penguin sales of 452 million pounds were up 11 percent from a year ago, or 44 million pounds, though operating profit for the division fell 19 percent to 21 million pounds, down from 26 million pounds a year ago. The sales gain was due entirely to […]
People
At HarperCollins, Margot Schupf has been named to the new position of SVP, editorial director, digital publishing for the Morrow/Avon/Eos group. She will “oversee e-book publishing from a content perspective, working to create enhanced products that drive sales and create added value for readers.” Schupf will also acquire “high-profile non-fiction” for Morrow, focusing on lifestyle, diet, and health. At the Simon & Schuster imprint, Danielle Lynn and Kimberly Cowser have both joined the publicity department as senior publicists. Most recently Lynn was a publicist at CBS News, and Cowser was previously at Harper. Simon & Schuster Children’s has hired Fiona […]
E. Lynn Harris Dies
“Pioneer of gay black fiction” and “literary entrepreneur E. Lynn Harris died last night, “after being stricken while at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills” according to the AP. The 54-year-old author was on a book tour for BASKETBALL JONES. His personal assistant indicates to EW “that Harris’ health had declined.” Doubleday says “to our knowledge, the cause of his death is unknown at this time.” Harris’s longtime publicist at Doubleday Alison Rich says: “We at Doubleday are deeply shocked and saddened to learn of E. Lynn Harris’ death at too young an age. His pioneering novels and powerful memoir […]
Google on EFF Privacy Objections to Settlement: "We Will Protect Readers' Privacy Rights"
In response to recent complaints about privacy issues by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Google Books Engineering Director Dan Clancy explains why their policy hasn’t gone into details about how privacy will be enforced: “We have a strong privacy policy in place now for Google Books and for all Google products. But our settlement agreement hasn’t yet been approved by the court, and the services authorized by the agreement haven’t been built or even designed yet.” As a result, while Clancy promises that “whatever we ultimately build will protect readers’ privacy rights,” and points to a FAQ page for further questions, […]
Amazon Apologizes for Deleting Copies of '1984'
In more Amazon news, CEO Jeff Bezos issued a statement yesterday afternoon on the company’s customer forum, apologizing for deleting Kindle editions of unauthorized editions of George Orwell’s 1984 and other illegally sold copies without prior warning. “Our ‘solution’ to the problem was stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles,” wrote Bezos. “It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.”Bezos statement