Anna deVries joined Picador as senior editor earlier in November, acquiring both nonfiction and fiction hardcovers and trade paperback originals, while also assisting in the publishing of paperback reprints. Most recently, she had worked at Scribner for seven years. At Kobo, Pieter Swinkels has been promoted to vp, acquisition and “will be leading Kobo’s global publisher outreach and content acquisition team” from their Toronto headquarters. Julia Pastore has joined Demos Health as executive editor where she will help grow their list of trade health and self-help titles. She was a senior editor at Crown Archetype and Harmony Books.
Archives for November 2012
eNews: Kobo Has A Date In Brazil; Nook App Updates; Amazon Sells Bonds (and Kindles)
Kobo will officially launch in Brazil under their previously-announced partnership with bookseller Livraria Cultura on December 5. The Brazilian version of the Kobo Touch device went on sale for pre-orders starting today at R$399 (or roughly $190 US). Nook has updated their iOS and Android apps in a variety of ways. Like the recently-added support to the Nook hardware for reading aloud books, the new version of their iOS app supports Apple’s VoiceOver technology (which also reads aloud to aid the visually-impaired). The Nook apps now support French, Italian, German, Spanish and British English, and they are available for download […]
Simon & Schuster Pairs with Penguin’s Author Solutions for Archway Self-Publishing Service
Simon & Schuster is joining other publishers such as Thomas Nelson and Harlequin in pairing with Author Solutions–now owned by Penguin/Pearson–to offer its own self-publishing service. (Now that Nelson is owned by HarperCollins, that connects ASI to three of the largest trade publishers.) The service, operated by ASI under license, brings back the old Archway brand and will be known as Archway Publishing. (Archway was an S&S line of young adult paperbacks, which published lines including Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys.) It will be overseen through Simon & Schuster digital, with S&S business development executive Devu Gandhi serving as […]
Remembrances: Davis, Rosenblatt, Geiser and O’Connor
Chief financial officer of Random House Anne Davis, 50, passed away Monday after a battle with cancer. CEO Markus Dohle writes: “Anne was more than a brilliant CFO. She was our anchor, our heart, our inspiration. She not only made our company much more successful, she made it a better place to work, and for those of us who knew her personally, she made us better people.” She joined the company in 1995 as assistant controller. Hachette Book Group senior national accounts manager working with B&N Judy Rosenblatt passed away last weekend from ovarian cancer. A longtime member of the […]
Bookselling: Books and Boos Opens in CT; BN Sixth Avenue Location To Close on December 31; and More
Barnes & Noble will close its West Village location on Sixth Avenue on December 31, according to a notice posted on the store’s window we observed last week. New and used bookstore Books and Boos opened in Colchester, CT last week. Owners Jason and Stacey Harris, also on the board of directors of the New England Horror Writers’ Association, told the Norwich Bulletin “it was something we always wanted to do” and that the store caters to “those of us who enjoy a good book, a good time and a good scare.” Yawn’s Books and More in Canton, GA will […]
McGraw-Hill Education Sale to Apollo Finally Confirmed, for $2.5 Billion
McGraw-Hill is finally unloading their shrinking education publishing division–which is what their shareholders preferred all along–selling it to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion. The deal is expected to close quickly, either before the end of the year or in early 2013. (Apollo co-founder Leon Black’s family recently purchased Phaidon.) Apollo has been considered the leading prospect since July. McGraw Hill’s stock rose this morning on relief that fixing the education division will become someone else’s problem. Even though the company will take a non-cash impairment charge in the fourth quarter of $450 to $550 million related […]