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 Ayad Akhtar’s unsparing debut novel, AMERICAN DERVISH, about an American Muslim […]
Archives for September 2010
Final Salvos in the Battle of Barnes & Noble; Burkle Says “I’m Not Trying to Take Over”
Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies issued an “open letter” to Barnes & Noble employees–who must vote their 401(k) shares by the end of the day today–along with a press release criticizing the bookseller for not allow them to communicate directly with workers. A spokesperson says in the release, “Barnes & Noble used company resources and the company’s internal communications systems on multiple occasions to solicit votes for Leonard Riggio and his hand-picked nominees to the Board of Directors. But when Yucaipa requested an opportunity to respond, we were blocked from distributing a letter filed publicly with the Securities and Exchange Commission. […]
Indie Booksellers Meet with Connecticut AG to Explain How Agency Model Helps them Compete with Web Giants
Connecticut booksellers Fran Keilty, Suzy Staubach, and Annie Philbrick along with ABA and NEIBA staff met a week ago with Connecticut Senate hopeful and current Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Their purpose was to explain to the AG “that they strongly support the agency model for the sale of digital content because it prevents predatory pricing practices by online superstores and allows for a wide diversity of retailers in the marketplace. In addition, they noted that the agency model benefits consumers because it ensures the continued distribution of books by small, independent businesses with a wide variety of viewpoints.” Staubach says […]
People, Distribution, Etc.
Black Dog & Leventhal has signed with the new Abrams and Chronicle Books London-based distribution service for export sales in the UK, Ireland, European export, Japan, Korea and “several other international markets” starting on January 1, 2011. Separately, they have signed with Murdoch Books for sales and distribution in Australia, also as of January 1. (They have been using Scribo/Bookwise in Australia.) At Bellevue Press, Erika Goldman has been promoted to publisher and editorial director, and Leslie Hodgkins has moved up to associate editor.
Amazon Gets Patent for Six-Year-Old Concept to Sell Your Book Previews
On Tuesday Amazon was granted a business method patent, first filed for approval way back in the pre-Kindle days of July 2004, that covers the sale of book previews and excerpts. The complex filing also includes various scenarios for giving customers “personal viewer” discounts and credits in return for reading certain promotional excerpts, as well as schemes to vary preview fees “dependent on the work being viewed and/or the consumer’s prior purchase or previewing activity.” For now there’s no basis for concluding that this is something the etailer plans to implement, and the original filing is so old that it’s […]
Internal Bloomsbury Motivational Video Goes Online–And Then Goes Away Again
For a few hours today a Bloomsbury UK sales conference that was accidentally made “public” on YouTube was discovered and served as the book trade distraction of the day. Something similar happened earlier this spring when Penguin’s video take on “Empire State of Mind” was accidentally public online for a short period. By the afternoon, the Bloomsbury UK players’ take on the copyrighted Glee cast version of the song “Don’t Stop Believin” was gone again. On Twitter, reactions ran from gleeful to glum, since the music video also included a mock-serious narrated set-up from company executive Richard Charkin (who termed […]