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 […]
Archives for August 2009
Sales Down 4 Percent at Random As Profits Are Hit Harder
Sales fell in the first six months of the fiscal year at Random House by 4 percent, declining 32 million euros to 734 million euros, as operating EBIT dropped even more at just 20 million euros for the period (down from 31 million euros a year ago.) The company blamed the decline on “the continued […]
Reading Rainbow Ends After 26 Years
Sadly, PBS’s groundbreaking program Reading Rainbow broadcast its final episode last Friday after 26 years, led by host LeVar Burton. It was the third-longest running children’s show on PBS, after Sesame Street and Mister Rogers, winning two dozen Emmys along the way. John Grant at public broadcaster WNED in Buffalo said that no was willing […]
Bookselling: Study Says 400 Bookstores Could Close This Year
A study by Chicago’s Grant Thornton warns that 10,000 retail stores across the US may close this year–twice the number of last year’s closings. Among the sectors they predict will be hardest hit are bookstores, with the firm saying that 400 bookstores could close in 2009, which they calculate as a 500 percent increase over […]
People: Munro Leaves Giller to Others
Recent Man Booker International Prize winner and two-time Giller winner Alice Munro, 78, has withdrawn her just-released story collection TOO MUCH HAPPINESS from consideration for the 2009 Giller prize. Publisher Douglas Gibson says: “Her reason is that she has won twice and would like to leave the field to younger writers. In my role as […]
BN to Distribute Smashwords Titles
Ebook distributor and online self-publishing platform Smashwords announced late Friday that BarnesandNoble.com will sell titles from the company as part of its new “premium feed.” Smashwords, which says they publish about 2,600 titles electronically, will sell to BN.com at a traditional discount of approximately 50 percent, and will keep approximately 7.5 percent as their commission, […]