BEA organizers have announced the books to be featured on the convention’s three “buzz” book panels for adult, young adult, and middle grade books. with one panel each day starting on Wednesday. The adult panel is on Wednesday afternoon (May 29), with the YA panel on Thursday morning and the middle grade panel on Friday morning. In one marked variation, the adult panel, which usually comprises mostly fiction, will feature four nonfiction books this year. Adult All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior (Ecco, January 2014) Knocking on Heavens Door: The Path to a […]
Archives for March 2013
Apollo Lines Up Financing for McGraw-Hill Education Purchase; Will Pay More Cash
The sale of McGraw-Hill’s education unit to Apollo Global Management is expected to close before the end of the month now that the private equity firm has lined up financing for the acquisition. With that financing comes a slight revision of terms in which McGraw-Hill will receive more cash upon closing than planned, in exchange for what looks like a slight reduction of the selling price. The original agreement called for a price of approximately $2.5 billion, but that deal included McGraw-Hill providing $250 million of financing in the form of senior unsecured notes. But now McGraw-Hill says they will receive […]
BBC May Have Buyer for Lonely Planet
Rafat Ali’s travel site Skift reported Monday that wealthy Kentuckian Brad Kelley “is in final stages of negotiation” with the BBC to “buy a majority controlling stake in Lonely Planet.” The story says the BBC would retain “a small-but-sizable stake to help maintain editorial control through current management, as well as save on inter-country taxes.” Veering further into speculation, the piece suggests that Kelley–who made his money from cigarettes, and then became a significant land-owner and conservationist–might pay “close to $100 million” for that unspecified share of the publisher. The BBC replied to the story with a statement that is […]
Bookselling: Book Stall Finds Owner
Roberta Rubin, owner of the Book Stall in Winnetka, IL, has completed the “exit strategy” she began formulating last May. After telling the Chicago Tribune in November that she was “in conversations with three prospective buyers,” PW reports that Stephanie Hochschild has signed a letter of intent to take over the store on June 1. As with many other bookstore sales, Rubin was assisted by Paz & Associates. Separately, Indianapolis-area store Mudsocks will close in early April after five years in business. Owner Cindy Rushton says, “Every year we lose less money, but I’m still losing money. People can go […]
People, Etc.
Kevin Powers won the PEN/Hemingway Award for his debut novel THE YELLOW BIRDS. He will receive his award at a ceremony at the JFK Presidential Library & Museum on March 24. In the UK, Tesco has hired Gavin Sathianathan to head their ebook portion of their blinkbox digital media offer, to launch later this year. Tesco had purchased Mobcast last September as the foundation of their ebook program. They will offer digital books, music and movies under the blinkbox name. Currently working at Facebook, Sathianathan had worked as an intern at the previous incarnation of blinkbox (a streaming video company). […]
HMH to Pull Second Lehrer Book HOW WE DECIDE From Stores
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced Friday that it is “taking…off sale” Jonah Lehrer’s 2009 book HOW WE DECIDE. In an email to the Daily Beast HMH publisher Bruce Nichols said an internal review “uncovered significant problems with the book” and as a result, has “no plans to reissue it in the future.” Nichols added that HMH will “shortly alert accounts about How We Decide and offer to refund returns” — similar to the approach taken when the publisher pulled Lehrer’s third book, IMAGINE, from sale last July, following the discovery of fabricated quotes — but that PROUST WAS A NEUROSCIENTIST, Lehrer’s […]