Skyhorse Publishing has officially announced their purchase of “all assets of Arcade Publishing,” which has been in bankruptcy since the death of co-founder Richard Seaver last year. They note that Skyhorse president Tony Lyons “was passionate about owning the titles acquired by Dick Seaver, a publishing legend who devoted his life to new literary voices.” He says in the announcement, “We believe that the timeless quality of many of the books on the list fits nicely into the Skyhorse model of finding great books; producing well-priced, handsome packages; finding the customers who will read and love them; and keeping them […]
Archives for July 2010
Penguin Sales Up 9 Percent As Profit More than Doubles
Sales at Penguin for the first half of the year rose 9 percent, at 493 million pounds–as did sales across Pearson–and operating profit at the book publisher more than doubled, at 44 pounds (up from 21 million pounds a year ago). The company says the increase in margins is “the result of a strategy of targeted and sustained investment in publishing, digital change and reorganization.” They go on to cite “a series of organizational changes made in 2009 at Penguin UK and Dorling Kindersley to strengthen publishing, accelerate the transition to digital, reduce costs and shift design and production to […]
On Wylie’s Odyssey, Backlist Royalties, and More
In a bulletin posted this morning, the Authors Guild tells members their “understanding” is that Andrew Wylie and his recently-announced Odyssey Editions “as agent and publisher is taking no more than it would as an agent. That is, Wylie/Odyssey is limiting its total compensation to its rate for commissions.” The Guild tells us they are “confident” about the accuracy of this understanding. Of course that raises again the question of what makes Odyssey a publisher instead of an agency making e-only deals, but the publisher himself remains on vacation. Many other elements of the deal remain opaque, including how Odyssey’s […]
Dark Data Update: AT&T Added More iPads than eReaders
In discussing quarterly results last week, AT&T revealed that they activated “roughly 900,000 connected devices” on their network in the past three months. That category includes 3G eReaders from Amazon and Barnes & Noble–along with netbooks, personal navigation devices, digital photo frames and all kinds of other gizmos. And would seem to include iPads as well. In answering an analyst’s question, the company said in just two months they activated 400,000 to 500,000 iPads alone. You can do the math on ereaders from there… Separately, Apple reported shipping 3.27 million iPads so far.
Lunch Weekly for Monday, July 26
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 Molly Shapiro’s LOVE.COM, a story about four women dealing with the […]
People
Daniel Clancy, who has served as Engineering Director for Google Books since 2005, is moving to a new leadership role with responsibility for engineering at YouTube (also owned by Google). In the coming months, he will continue to be involved in key technology and business issues with respect to legal matters, existing partnership interactions and overall strategy for Google Books. Engineering director James Crawford will continue to oversee engineering for Google Editions, the Google Books Library Project and the Google Books Partner Program. Author and former editor Jason Pinter will join the Waxman Literary Agency as an agent on August […]