The National Book Festival, held annually on Washington, DC’s National Mall, will expand to a two-day event this year, convening September 24 and 25. The Library of Congress says “the added day will let us plan for at least 90 authors over the entire weekend.” The media found a preliminary metadata posting on Amazon for a memoir by Bristol Palin, set for publication by William Morrow on June 21. It was listed as a $25 hardcover. Amazon removed the listing, but the cached version is still viewable (for now). In separate Amazon-related news, the famously customer-centric is finally giving in […]
Archives for February 2011
People
Maria Campbell Associates has named Mary Pender-Coplan vice-president, the first time the scouting agency has appointed someone to this position. She has been there for five years and is responsible for the dramatic rights and children’s book scouting. They have been appointed exclusive US literary scout for AST Publishing Group in Russia; both Wahlstrom & Widstrand and children’s publisher Bonnier Carlsen in Sweden; Locus in Taiwan; Shanghai 99 in China; and Warner Bros. Television (joining longtime client Warner Bros. Pictures). Longtime Atria executive editorial director Emily Bestler will establish an eponymous imprint, Atria Books-Emily Bestler Books, and has been promoted […]
Bloomsbury to Reorganize, Dropping Country Focus for Global Publishing Divisions
Bloomsbury announced a worldwide reorganization, effective March 1, that eliminates their geographically-driven structure and replaces it with four global publishing divisions. So the company’s units will comprise adult (run by Richard Charkin); children’s & educational (see below for the new executive); academic & professional (under Jonathan Glasspool), and information & business development (still headed by Kathy Rooney). Their offices in the UK, USA, Germany and, most recently, Australia, will each serve the four publishing divisions, and Evan Schnittman runs sales, marketing, publicity rights and technology as a global services division for the entire company. Chief executive Nigel Newton says in the announcement, […]
Lamar to Join Holt As New Editor In Chief
Holt has reached beyond traditional circles to hire Jill Lamar as their new editor in chief, starting March 14, reporting to division publisher and president Steve Rubin. (Lamar will oversee the Henry Holt imprint; other Holt imprints such as Metropolitan Books and Times Books will continue to be run separately.) As Rubin said to us, “why just reshuffle the deck again?” He notes, “Jill has been universally respected as the director of Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program since 1999 and was the driving force behind B&N Recommends.” Prior to her 13 years at BN, in the mid-90s […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, February 7
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 Regina O’Melveny’s debut novel THE BOOK OF MADNESS AND CURES, a […]
What Do We Know About Publishing Bankruptcies?
With expectations of possible Borders bankruptcy filing mounting, and corporate writedowns already beginning even without a filing as we noted on Friday with respect to Wiley, we’ve been looking at past bankruptcies to provide some sense of expectations, scope and scale. The closest US publishing-related bankruptcy comp in recent memory is probably the late 2006 collapse by AMS (Advanced Marketing Services). When they filed, the company owed the 40 largest publisher creditors alone $220 million, including $43.3 million to Random House. (The debtor list did also include publishers they distributed via PGW.) AMS also held $70 million worth of books […]