Susan Hobson has been appointed director of international rights at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency. Macmillan Audio has hired Robert Allen as editorial director, effective immediately. Most recently he was a co-founder of Brands-to-Books, after serving as publisher of Random House Audio. A memorial service has been announced for book marketing and sales consultant Jim Sutton, on December 5 at 2:00 pm at Christ Lutheran Church in Baltimore. Sutton, 64, died recently in Germany after suffering a heart attack at the Frankfurt Book Fair. He first made his mark with the launch of Tom Clancy’s career with the publication of […]
Archives for November 2009
Lunch Weekly for Monday, November 23
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 Susan Froderberg’s OLD BORDER ROAD, about a girl who marries too […]
Amazon Files Motion to Irritate Judge Chin
Amazon asked Judge Denny Chin to reverse his recent preliminary approval of the amended Google Books Settlement. They object–again–to a provision that remains the same from the original settlement, in which Google is released from future as well as current liability, which Amazon says makes the settlement unacceptable on its face. So they are really telling the judge that he has already been wrong twice. And they also ask that, even if the judge disagrees with their motion, that he reverse himself and allow a gigantic wave of repeated and expanded objections rather than limiting new filings to objections to […]
Harlequin Drops Brand from Self-Publishing Line, As Criticism Continues
Harlequin has continued to suffer criticism on multiple fronts on their new self-publishing program, and while they have not altered the offering itself, they are removing the name Harlequin from the line. CEO Donna Hayes said in a statement replying to the Romance Writers of America’s declaration that the publisher would no longer be eligible for certain resources at the organizations conference: “We are changing the name of the self-publishing company from Harlequin Horizons to a designation that will not refer to Harlequin in any way. We will initiate this process immediately. We hope this allays the fears many of […]
Sales Drop Lessens at Books-A-Million
BAM announced third quarter sales of $111 million, as same-store sales declined 1.9 percent compared to a year ago. Their net loss of $1.6 million was an improvement over last year’s loss of $2.2 million. Bear in mind, however, that for all booksellers comparisons this reporting quarter, the bar is already quite low. It was this time a year ago, for example, that BAM reported same-store sales had dropped 9.9 percent. So this time they are a doing just a little worse than last year–but last year they were performing terribly. CEO Clyde Anderson reiterated, “Comparable store sales for the […]
Court Sets February 18 Google Books Hearing; Grants Preliminary Approval and New Opt-Out
Judge Denny Chin has reviewed the revised Google Books Settlement proposal and found it to be “within the range of possible approval” and set a February 18 hearing date. The court granted preliminary approval of the amended agreement (a procedural formality rather than a judgment) and recertified the revised settlement classes for settlement purposes only and accepted the expanded author and publisher plaintiffs. Chin has approved a new round of notice beginning December 14 to anyone who registered at the settlement website, opted out, or filed papers with the court, and the new deadline for opt outs and objections is […]