Just to confirm ourselves, we received additional confirmation from a current employee of Dorchester of our story that ceo John Prebich has left the company. Bob Anthony is now said to be in charge (and Prebich’s former extension now has a voice mail recording from Anthony). The company is said to be preparing a press release, so that’s all the detail we have for now. Bestselling author and television personality Chelsea Handler has reportedly signed a new three-book deal, again with Grand Central, that creates for her a small imprint: Borderline Amazing/A Chelsea Handler Book. The deal seems to cover […]
Archives for November 2010
Publishing Flat At Courier As They Take Another Writedown on Creative Homeowner Line; Hastings Keeps Selling Fewer New Books
Courier reported that both fourth quarter and full-year sales rose 3 percent, at $68.4 million and $257.1 million respectively, but weakness in the home improvement market led to yet another writedown at their Creative Homeowner publishing unit. They took a $4.7 million non-cash impairment charge due to “the systemic problems it currently faces in the home improvement market,” bringing fourth quarter net income down to $1.1 million. The publishing division had sales of $11.9 million in the fourth quarter, even with a year ago, as a 6 percent increase at Dover was negated by a 23 percent decline at Creative […]
Barnes & Noble Ships Nook Color A Little Early, to Generally Good Reviews
Barnes & Noble has started fulfilling preorders for the new Nook Color a few days ahead of schedule with units starting to arrive today. Demonstration devices and “very limited quantities of devices available for purchase” will start showing up in Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Walmart and Books-A-Million stores “beginning this week.” At least a few review units have been distributed, with tech sites posting their appraisals this morning. So far the write-ups are generally quite positive. Engadget calls it “definitely a major step forward,” saying “the Nook Color is an elegantly, thoughtfully designed piece of technology.” On the basics […]
Prebich Reported Out At Ailing Dorchester, and More People News, Etc.
Former employees of Dorchester report that ceo John Prebich (who also ran the company’s magazine division, Dorchester Media) left the company on Friday. Queries to Prebich and other remaining employees were not answered. Rob Crawford will join The Overlook Press as editor on November 29. He has been an assistant editor at Harper. Nicholas Brealey Publishing has hired Hillary Park as publicist. She has formerly worked as associate publicist at Putnam and Riverhead and event marketing manager for Borders. The company has also partnered with Shelton Interactive to develop a new social media platform and website, and is working with […]
Bookselling: Borders’ Relaunches Website
Borders has announced a redesign of their website. Gone is the “magic shelf” that they were excited about when they ended their agreement with Amazon and first built their own site. Highlighted verticals include sections labelled posters, crafts, and scrapbooking–which are new product lines for the site–alongside the more traditional merchandising sections. The company is promoting “new lower prices” through discounts on “more than 100,000 of its top selling” books, They’ve integrated commonplace features like expanded user reviews, working with PowerReviews. And they have partnered with UsingMiles for a “travel perks” program (which helps users manage and use their loyalty […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, November 15
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 Claire McMillan’s untitled modern retelling of the House of Mirth set […]