Amazon has given their children’s book publishing more distinctive imprint names to work with than just “Amazon Children’s.” Picture books are being published under the Two Lions banner and teen books are listed under the Skyscape name. The imprint names and logos are introduced in the Amazon Children’s Publishing catalog from their Brilliance Publishing unit, which distributes those titles. Amazon’s children’s publishing program incorporates the more than 450 titles they acquired in late 2011 from Marshall Cavendish as well as the titles they have been acquiring directly. (As with other Amazon imprints, some of those acquisitions include books that were […]
Archives for January 2013
Corporate: Springer Sale Delayed; Oxford University Press Acquires Nelson Thornes
The impending sale of Springer Science & Business Media, announced last fall, has been delayed indefinitely by Swedish private equity group EQT Partners, Bloomberg reports, after potential buyers “balked at the asking price” of between 3 billion and 4 billion euros. (EQT enlisted JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to solicit potential buyers.) When EQT bought Springer in tandem with the Government of Singapore in 2009, the company was valued at 2.3 billion euros. An auction scheduled for this month has been postponed, as have IPO preparations. Oxford University Press has acquired vocational teaching resource publisher Nelson Thornes from Infinitas Learning […]
People, Etc.
Richard Bach continues to recover and improve after “four months in a Seattle hospital with massive brain, chest and spine injuries”–and is well enough that he has finished a fourth part of Jonathan Livingston Seagull which he recently sent to his publisher, the AP reports. “In the new section, the flock struggles to find meaning. They first worship Jonathan, then write him off as a myth as years pass before his return.” Novelist Elif Shafak, called the most widely read woman writer in Turkey, was named as the London Book Fair’s Market Focus Author of the Day. The program “showcases […]
Pearson Falls On Modest Profit Warning
In a trading update ahead of their full late-February earnings report, Pearson said to expect profits slightly short of what analysts had been expecting. Forecast operating profit of approximately £935 million and adjusted earnings of approximately 84 pence per share is only nine-tenths of a pence below expectations–but Pearson generally outperforms those expectations, and the stock has fallen in London on the news, down 4.5 percent over the past two days of trading. The release itself is disarmingly pleasant and polite. Penguin “benefited from a good fourth-quarter publishing performance and traded in line with our expectations,” and “will report revenues in […]
People, Etc.
At Random House, Inc., Christopher Dufault has been promoted to vp, director, international marketing and British Commonwealth sales. Fiona Kenshole has joined Transatlantic Literary Agency, where she will represent children’s authors and illustrators. Previously she was vp, development acquisition at animation studio Laika and before then, publishing director for OUP Children’s. Random House mentioned at DBW yesterday that they have soft-launched a Facebook app–BookScout–which will be formally announced and ready for outside traffic new Tuesday. Another effort to help improving discovery of new books through one of the internet’s most popular platforms, the app provides book recommendations and promises to […]
Sizing the UK eBook Market
The Bookseller obtained 2012 unit sale data on ebooks from six of the UK’s largest publishers, leading them to postulate that the total British ebook market comprised £235 million in publisher sales last year. (If their estimate is correct, it would mean that the top publishers have a much smaller share of ebook market in the UK than the US.) Reported to them by publishers (akin to AAP sales reports), Random House sold 11.2 million ebook units; Hachette 8.7 million; Harper UK 7.2 million, and Pan Macmillan 4.5 million. Some of those units were driven by the deep-discount 20-pence promotional […]