On Friday Crain’s reported that Amazon was among the bidders in the recent Amanda Hocking auction, citing “insiders” who say the etailer “actually made the highest offer of the six bidders,” but “insisted on exclusivity for the e-book edition.” Those “insiders” also say Amazon “brought in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt” as its print partner in the bid, though both Amazon and HMH did not comment to Crain’s for the story. What is clear, we can now report, is that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has made two print-only deals with Amazon for adult trade books. In the larger deal, HMH has licensed North […]
Archives for April 2011
Borders Revises Recent Sales
In Borders’ extensive statement of financial affairs filed with the bankruptcy court last week, already covered here in general, we note that the company appears to have revised downward their estimate of sales prior to declaring bankruptcy. The statement puts fiscal 2010 sales at $2.177 billion, which is 5 percent lower than the sales of “approximately $2.3 billion” the company reported when they filed for Chapter 11 protection in February. That means our initial estimate of the decline in sales during 2010 was too low; by the new figures, Borders’ sales fell at least 17 percent over the past year. […]
eNews: Harry Potter eBooks Now in Play; Europe’s Slow Start; and More
Last May JK Rowling‘s agents at the Christopher Little Agency upgraded their position on the possibility of Harry Potter ebooks from “monitoring” the field to “actively” evaluating and “”currently considering all the options and opportunities.” Now there is a fresh round of media attention as a spokeswoman for Rowling reiterates the same thing to the Daily Mail: “The ebook format is now something that is being actively considered.” Neil Blair from the Christopher Little Agency also stands on his previous remarks, saying “we are continuing with our evaluation of all options relating to Harry Potter ebooks.” The Daily Mail The […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, April 4
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 Suzanne Joinson’s debut A LADY CYCLIST’S GUIDE TO KASHGAR, exploring the […]
People: Machinist Moves to Janklow, and More
Literary agent Alexandra Machinist is leaving the Linda Chester Literary Agency to join Janklow & Nesbit Associates. Mort Janklow says in the announcement, “Alexandra is another example of the kind of bright and established younger agents whom we have been bringing into our firm.” Phil Budnick has been named editorial director of Plume. He spent the past ten years as a national account sales manager for Penguin. In promotions at Crown, on the trade team, Sarah Brievogel moves up to assistant director of publicity and Dyana Messina is now senior publicist, as Julie Cepler becomes associate marketing director. At Crown […]
Briefs: Billy Joel Cancels Memoir; Open Road Projects $10M in Sales in 2011; and More
A little more than two months before HarperCollins was due to publish Billy Joel‘s memoir The Book of Joel, with a finished cover unveiled and a manuscript draft turned in, the book deal is off. “It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I’m not all that interested in talking about the past, and that the best expression of my life and its ups and downs has been and remains my music,” he said in a statement. Spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said that Joel’s memoir “was well into the editing process, but that Joel had not approved […]