At Random House, Jeff Weber has been promoted to director, online digital sales and Candace Chaplin moves up to VP and director of sales and marketing, nonfiction brands, a newly created position. Deb Shapiro has launched Deb Shapiro & Company, a PR/marketing company for authors and books. For the past seven years, she was director of publicity and online marketing at Bloomsbury Publishing. The late Kim Ricketts’ daughter Whitney confirms that Lara Hamilton will take over running Kim RIcketts Book Events, as the family remains “closely connected to the business.” “Lara shares my mom’s passion for good books, cooking, and […]
Archives for May 2011
Lagardere Sales Slide As US eBooks Hit 22%, Plus UK Digital Stats and Asian Device Updates
Today’s stories offer digital statistics and hints from all over. Lagardere issued a brief first quarter trading update. Publishing revenues were 390 million euros, down 9.8 percent on an absolute basis, and down 10.4 percent from a year ago on a like-for-like basis. Once again, they attribute the drop to Stephenie Meyer’s declining sales. (The same period a year ago “notably” included Meyer rights sales as well.) eBooks comprised approximately 22 percent of sales in the US in the quarter through the end of March, and grew to 5 percent of sales in the UK. For the full year, they […]
Publishers Line Up Instant eBooks on Bin Laden Death
President Obama’s announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death Sunday was followed quickly by book publishers planning what they could issue digitally as quickly as possible. The WSJ reports that Random House executive editor Jon Meacham will oversee and write the introduction for “Beyond Bin Laden: America and the Future of Terror,” an essay collection featuring a half-dozen other contributors that the publisher hopes to release as an ebook next week. (One essay that seems certain to be included is Salman Rushdie’s op-ed published by The Daily Beast yesterday.) In addition, Free Press is “eager” for a digital book on the […]
People, Etc.
Lynn Smith will join Ruckus Mobile Media in the newly created position of director of business development, effective May 23. Previously she was director of licensed publishing at Scholastic. Jessica Sindler has been promoted to editor at Gotham, where she has worked since 2003. Allison McLean has been promoted to publicity director for Portfolio, Sentinel and Current. Brigantine Media will launch two new imprints, with Voyage devoted to Vermont fiction and Compass specializing in education books, beginning in Fall 2011. The Children’s Choice Book Awards honored Rick Riordan as author of the year and David Wiesner (Art and Max) as […]
Barnes & Noble Revises Credit Line; Goldman Sets $14 A Share Target
In other bookseller financial news, Barnes & Noble said they have amended their $1 billion line of credit to lower their financing costs and increase their borrowing capacity. CFO Joe Lombardi says in the release, “Amending our revolving credit facility enables us to lower our anticipated cost of capital and enhance our financial flexibility as we continue to transform the company and execute our strategic plan. We appreciate the strong level of support we received from our lenders.” They will write-off $6.4 million in deferred financing fees in the current fiscal year, which ended April 30, and say that in […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, May 2
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 Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace.com if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form FICTION Debut Irish journalist Kathleen MacMahon’s THIS IS HOW IT ENDS, a transatlantic love […]