Profile Books has bought Birmingham-based publisher Tindal Street Press, which will become an imprint at the publishing house as of November 1, overseen by Serpent’s Tail publisher Hannah Westland. Tindal Street Press Director Alan Mahar said in a statement: “We’re proud of what we’ve achieved during Tindal Street Press’s fourteen years of independent publishing in Birmingham. We found new English writers and published them with conviction and flair, earning prize-listings for the Man Booker, Orange and Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes, a British Book Award and two Costa Prize winners.” Profile Books MD Andrew Franklin added: “It’s always sad to see the […]
Archives for October 2012
Supreme Court Ask Tough Questions on Wiley Case to Block US Resale of Books Made Overseas
Though many offices on the East Coast were shuttered Monday, the Supreme Court was open for business and heard arguments on the closely-watched Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons case. Lower courts have supported Wiley’s contention that the first-sale doctrine does not apply to goods produced overseas (in this case overseas editions of their textbooks, which they don’t want to see resold in the US), and those books cannot be resold domestically without the manufacturer’s permission. In the closest comparable case, Costco v. Omega, the court divided 4-4 on a similar question regarding watches. (Justice Elena Kagan recused herself because […]
Further Sizing Up of Penguin Random House
From comments to the Guardian by Penguin ceo John Makinson and other reading between the lines, it’s clear that the Penguin Random House deal began on the Pearson side of the fence. Makinson made clear to the paper, “It has been a very thorough process. The board of Pearson examined [every option] exhaustively. There was a great deal of analysis of all options available to Penguin. We looked at selling, merging, buying, running it differently within Pearson. We concluded this was the best option for Pearson’s shareholders and the publishing industry.” (That may also be why the reaction to News […]
People, Etc.
University of North Carolina Press editor-in-chief David Perry intends to retire in March 2013 after 34 years with the publishing house. He was named editor-in-chief in 1995. At Counterpoint and Soft Skull Press, Earlita Chenault has been hired for the new position of publicity manager. She was most recently publicity manager at New Harbinger Publications, where she worked for nine years. As you probably either know or would have expected, most events planned for early this week in New York will not be held, due to the storm. That includes the Goddard Riverside Book Fair Gala honoring Michael Jacobs, which has been postponed, […]
AJ Jacobs’ DROP DEAD HEALTHY Tops Hudson Booksellers Best Books of the Year Picks
Hudson Booksellers picked AJ Jacobs’ DROP DEAD HEALTHY (Simon & Schuster) as its Book of the Year, selecting an additional ten best in fiction, non fiction, business, and YA/children’s as follows: Fiction Justin Cronin, The Twelve Matthew Dicks, Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend Jonathan Evison, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl Peter Heller, The Dog Stars Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds ML Stedman, The Light Between Oceans Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins G Willow Wilson, Alif the Unseen Nonfiction Mark Bowden, The Finish Christopher Hitchens, Mortality AJ Jacobs, Drop Dead Healthy Jenny Lawson, Let’s […]
Penguin Sales Are Down Slightly for The Year
Separate from news of the planned joint venture with Bertelsmann, Pearson issued a brief update on their third quarter results on Monday morning. Companywide sales rose 5 percent in the first nine months of the year (they were up 7 percent at the halfway mark), and operating profit was down 5 percent, “reflecting the sale of FTSE in 2011, acquisition integration costs and continued weakness in UK professional training.” At Penguin, sales are down 1 percent on a currency-neutral basis, and 2 percent on an underlying basis (taking out both currency changes and portfolio changes). That’s a modest improvement from the […]