Though Bloomsbury reported results for 2010 this morning, the company’s biggest news come informally out of Bloomsbury USA, where according to executive Evan Schnittman ebook sales jumped to comprise 40 percent of net sales in January 2011, up from 15 percent in December 2010. (That’s consistent with a recent report from Sourcebooks, in which they said their January ebook sales also jumped to 35 percent of sales.) Rising ebook sales and a Booker winner on the list helped Bloomsbury USA reach its “best performance ever,” with sales of 19.1 million pounds–up just 1.6 percent–but profit of 1.3 million pounds, up […]
Archives for February 2011
Lunch Weekly for Monday, February 28
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 Simon & Schuster editor and Columbia MFA grad Karen Thompson Walker’s […]
Four Publishers On Borders Creditors Committee; Real Estate Manager Expects Additional Stores to be Closed
The official committee of unsecured Borders creditors was formed yesterday, comprising representatives from Penguin, HarperCollins, Random House and Perseus, along with Sony Music, GGP, and Simon Property Group. Separately, Chain Store Age has an interesting interview with Andy Graiser, co-president of DJM Realty, which is marketing the leases on the stores that Borders is liquidating. He says they have been “getting interest from all categories of retailers,” adding “Borders competitors aren’t in the mix yet, but I’m sure they’ll be there.” Graiser believes that Borders will indeed exercise its option to close some additional stores beyond the 200 that are […]
Records Show Fox News Head Roger Ailes Asked Judith Regan To Lie to Investigators
The memory of Judith Regan’s inauspicious 2006 exit from HarperCollins – as well as the breach of contract lawsuit against News Corporation she settled for $10.7 million – had long faded into the background. But a New York Times front page story this morning brings those events to the forefront thanks to the apparent solution to one of the more explosive allegations Regan made at the time: that a prominent News Corp executive urged her to lie to investigators about her former lover Bernard Kerik, then a candidate to run the Department of Homeland Security and now in jail for […]
Bookselling: Second Store for Mysterious Galaxy, and 25 Newly Opened ABA Stores in 2010
San Diego-based independent mystery & science fiction bookstore Mysterious Galaxy will open a second location in Redondo Beach later this summer, with grand opening events in October. The new 4,000 square-foot store grew out of a popular book-and-author series “Ladies, Lunch, and Literacy” hosted in the area by co-owner Terry Gilman.BTW In related news, the ABA rounds up twenty-five new member stores that opened in 2010, which the association sees as a sign that “growing support for locally owned businesses, along with continued support for bricks-and-mortar stores.”
People, Etc.
At the Random House Publishing Group, Noah Eaker has been promoted to senior editor; Lindsey Schwoeri has been promoted to editor; and Ben Steinberg has been promoted to associate editor. Karen Fink has been named associate director of publicity at Random House. At their Ballantine Bantam Dell division, associate publisher Kim Hovey has been promoted to senior vice president; Shauna Summers has been promoted to executive editor; and Jennifer Smith moves up to senior editor. Karen Chaplin has joined Harper Children’s as an editor, acquiring hardcover tween and teen fiction, reporting to Barbara Lalicki. She was previously an editor at […]