Following reports we heard from the international community earlier this week, Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum confirms that the traditional Thursday night party in Frankfurt in conjunction with the book fair, held jointly by Random House and Bertelsmann’s Direct Group, will not be convened this year. Applebaum notes, “This party always has been the financial responsibility of the two companies, whose ceos made this determination. For Random House, this course of action is consistent with our not hosting any coporate social events this spring at the LBF or BEA. We’ve been informing many of our longstanding invited international guests of […]
Archives for August 2009
B&N Sales and Outlook Fall in Second Quarter, But Beat Expectations
For the second quarter ending August 1, total sales for Barnes & Noble declined 5% to $1.2 billion. Store sales were off 5%, to $1 billion, while sales through Barnes & Noble.com increased 2% to $102 million. Comparable store sales fell 6.9% for the quarter, within the Company’s guidance for a decrease of 5% to 7%. Net profit fell to $12.3 million, or 21 cents per share, from $16.8 million, or 27 cents per share last year. Excluding a benefit from an insurance settlement, net income was 14 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, had expected […]
More B&N News: Shareholders Sue Over College Deal; New Program to Republish Out-of-Print Titles
A group of Barnes & Noble shareholders, led by the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees Retirement System, has filed suit in a Delaware Chancery court to block the retailer’s proposed purchase of privately-owned Barnes & Noble College. The plaintiffs allege breach of fiduciary duty by the company and its directors. Shareholders are concerned that the deal lacks transparency in not providing more historical financial data on the College retailer; pays Len Riggio more than another buyer would; reduces BN”s working capital; and represents an investment in a segment that is in “permanent decline.”Courthouse News Separately, in a complex posting about the […]
Some Small Nuggets of News Contained Within THE LOST SYMBOL Hype
With little more than speculation to go on about the contents and the reception to Dan Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL, USA Today’s writearound about “pent-up demand” teases out one amusing tidbit from Sessalee Hensley, the fiction buyer for B&N. She said 50 stores asked for advance copies: “I had to explain there aren’t any.”USAT But don’t look for an e-book edition in Germany, as Lübbe has no plans to release one of the German translation.Buchreport.de (via Publishing Perspectives)
Elizabeth Gilbert Follows up Eat, Pray Love with Book on Marriage
A year after scrapping a 500-page followup, Elizabeth Gilbert went back to the drawing board and in January Viking will publish Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage, a memoir of the “tumultuous year” that came after the mega-success of Eat, Pray, Love (with 4 million copies sold as per Bookscan’s report) and “meditation on wedlock” to her Brazilian-Australian husband. Viking has announced a first printing of 1 million copies, but the NYT helpfully points out that while “such numbers are known to be widely exaggerated, they indicate the publisher’s ambitions.”NYT
Former Viking Editor Ray Roberts, 71, Dies
Ray Roberts died after a short illness on Wednesday, August 12, in New York. He was 71. Roberts began his long career in publishing at the University of Chicago Press, and was an editor at Macmillan, Doubleday, Little Brown, Henry Holt and most recently at Viking, from which he retired in 2005. His many distinguished authors include Ansel Adams, David Attenborough, John Fowles, Martha Grimes, Greg Mortenson, Frances Partridge, and Thomas Pynchon.