A previously unpublished novella by Kurt Vonnegut, BASIC TRAINING, is available today from RosettaBooks as a Kindle Single for $1.99. The 22,000-word autobiographical novella, “satirizing the military, authoritarianism, and most of the assumed mid-century myths of the family” was originally written in the late 1940s and meant to be published under the pseudonym “Mark Harvey.” In a complaint filed in Rhode Island federal court on March 16 and obtained by Courthouse News, Gabrielle Lisnoff claimed that Dr. Michael Stein, who treated her for drug addiction between 2005 and 2010, violated her privacy by using “her most private, embarrassing, and traumatizing […]
Archives for March 2012
People, Etc: Schnittman to Hachette As Chief Marketing & Sales Officer
Evan Schnittman is joining Hachette Book Group on May 7 in a new executive position of evp, chief marketing and sales officer. He will oversee marketing and sales for all divisions of the company, which includes digital sales and marketing, advertising and promotion, and the market research and analytics group. He has been managing director, group sales and marketing, print & digital at Bloomsbury. HBG ceo David Young says in the announcement, “He brings great marketing and sales experience to his new role, and has worked at the intersection of technology and content for much of his career – expertise […]
People, Etc.
Marysue Rucci will return to Simon & Schuster as vp, editor-in-chief on April 2. She was most recently editorial director at Putnam and originally worked at S&S from 1997 through 2010. “Marysue will be the leader and architect of Simon & Schuster’s fiction list,” said publisher Jonathan Karp in a statement. “She will supervise all our fiction acquisitions, build her own list of authors–both novelists and nonfiction writers–and provide counsel to our editors. Under her guidance we expect to be an industry leader, publishing novels of the highest quality and the greatest appeal. We are all delighted that Marysue is […]
Connecticut Court Ruling Says Scholastic Book Clubs Liable For Sales Tax
One week after issuing third quarter results, Scholastic issued a statement saying that the company needed to revise its earnings report after they were notified that the Connecticut Supreme Court “had reversed an earlier trial court decision and found that Scholastic Book Clubs was liable for sales taxes relating to the operation of its school book clubs business in Connecticut.” The Hartford Courant reported that the unanimous ruling, issued on March 19, said Scholastic “owes $3.2 million plus interest and penalties going back to 1995 to the state,” based on the Book Clubs division having enough of a presence in […]
Next Wimpy Kid Set For November 13 Release in Seven Countries
Jeff Kinney’s seventh installment of the bestselling Wimpy Kid series will go on sale on November 13 from Amulet Books, with the UK, Australia, Germany, Greece, Japan, Korea, and Norway to follow the next day. Abrams said that Kinney’s books have sold more than 75 million copies worldwide. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think that Greg Heffley’s stories would be enjoyed by kids around the world,” Kinney said in the announcement. “I’m incredibly excited to have the chance to lay down the seventh Diary of a Wimpy Kid book in seven countries at the same time. My international […]
HMH Downgraded Again With Another Restructuring “Likely”
With declining textbooks revenues, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s $3.1 billion in debt was downgraded last week to a lowly Caa 3 rating by Moody’s, which said the publisher’s finances are “unsustainable without a significant rebound in earnings” and judged “a debt restructuring in the near term is increasingly likely.” The ratings service says privately-held HMH’s sales fell 16 percent last year, and are targeted to fall 5 percent this year. They had already downgraded HMH’s debt in January as well. The near-term problem is that “Houghton’s management indicated in the fourth quarter earnings call that the company…doesn’t have funding for all the […]