Stacy Boyd has been promoted to Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire. She was most recently with Harlequin’s Feature and Custom Publishing Program. Edward Orloff has joined McCormick & Williams as an agent after six years with The Wylie Agency. John Groton will be joining the National Book Network as VP, Sales effective August 2. Previously he held senior and executive sales positions at Simon & Schuster, Random House, and most recently Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Sandra Homer has joined The Bukowski Agency as the new Manager of Contracts and Translation Rights. Effective January 1, Fordham University Press titles will be distributed and […]
Archives for July 2010
Borders Will Sell Paperchase for $31 Million in Debt-Reduction Measure
Borders has agreed to sell its Paperchase stationery unit for $31 million to Primary Capital, a UK-based private equity firm. Under the agreement, set to close next week, Borders will continue to purchase and sell Paperchase products in its stores, and use $25 million of the proceeds to reduce the amount outstanding under its $90 million term loan credit facility, as specified under the terms of the loan agreement reached this past April. The deal comes just a month after Borders laid off an unspecified number of Paperchase staff, its third round of job cuts in 2010, and six years […]
BN Trial Zeroes in on Possible Burkle-Aletheia Alliance
On day three of the case brought before Delaware court by Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa challenging Barnes & Noble’s poison pill, testimony from expert witnesses finally delved into what’s been openly speculated about for months: if Burkle is able to wage the proxy fight he wants at the upcoming annual meeting this fall, it would hinge on an alliance between Yucaipa, and its more than 19% stake in BN, and the next-largest stockholder, money management firm Aletheia Research & Management, with a more than 16% stake in the company. Testifying on behalf of Yucaipa, CEO of MacKenzie Partners Inc. Daniel Burch […]
Shack Attack
One of the bestselling inspirational books ever has turned from success to suits. As the LAT reports, author of The Shack William Paul Young is engaged in complex litigation against his former partners, Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings at Windblown Media, and Hachette Book Group has been drawn in as well. The dispute, focused on money but also involving copyright and the movie rights, seems to stem from the original working agreement behind the book, which was an oral understanding arrived at long before the success that has led to sales of at least 8 million copies in the US […]
Waterstone’s to Freeze All Staff Pay
On the heels of another dismal quarterly report, Waterstone’s has confirmed that staff pay will be frozen this year. “No pay awards are being made across HMV Group this year as we continue to contain our costs,” a spokesperson to The Bookseller, revealing little more about the reasons for the across-the-board cost cuts. The move comes just a day after the bookstore chain announced it would open a movie theater in its flagship (and very large) Piccadilly branch after it signed an agreement with Curzon Artificial Eye.The Bookseller
The $99 E-Reader Has Arrived – Sort Of – and More eNews
Yesterday Amazon was selling refurbished Kindles through its warehouse at $109 (the company is now out of stock) but Books-a-Million customers can now buy the Sony 505 e-reader for $99 (or $89.10 for those with membership cards)AmazonBAMM The Entourage eDGe is priced nowhere near $99, but the dual-screen e-reader is now shipping from Best Buy.Listing The WSJ profiles a number of Japanese publishers tackling digital initiatives, including printing company Da Nippon, which announced last week that it would open Japan’s largest store for electronic books by the fall.WSJ A copyright infringement lawsuit launched by Zhonghua Book Company against Hanvon, the […]