On Friday afternoon, Ballantine Books announced that, “After careful consideration, [it] has made the difficult decision to cancel the publication of Paula Deen’s New Testament: 250 Favorite Recipes, All Lightened Up.” As we noted earlier in the week, it was the first title in a multi-book deal that was announced in January 2012 between Deen and Ballantine, and marked her departure from Simon & Schuster. Deen’s agent Janis Donnaud confirms that Random House “has cancelled the entire multi-book contract.” While “not at liberty to share our future plans yet,” Donnaud writes, “I am confident that Paula Deen will have a new […]
Archives for June 2013
Hyperion’s Adult List Sells to The Logical Buyer, Hachette
Hyperion’s adult trade list of over 1,000 titles, plus 25 new titles under contract but not yet published, are being sold to Hachette Book Group — which was always the most likely purchaser, since they took over distribution for Hyperion and Disney Publishing under long-term contract earlier this year. While a WSJ article from March on the sale gave a vague impression of what Disney intended to sell, those familiar with the offering book have said all along the intention was to sell all of Hyperion’s adult books with the exception of a small number of Disney-related titles. Those “franchise” […]
Cengage Bankruptcy Filing Expected Shortly
Cengage’s long slow, reckoning with a bankruptcy filing — the only way the company can deal with its mountain of more than $5 billion in debt — is nearing its culmination. As previously reported, a payment of $225 million due July 5 remains the trigger point. The WSJ essentially confirms the obvious: Cengage “is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection in the coming days, said several people familiar with the plans…currently negotiating a prearranged bankruptcy restructuring with senior creditors.” But the actual filing could come “a couple of days after July 5 depending on how the negotiations progress, some of […]
Hothouse Tops New Indie Next Picks
Boris Kachka’s book about FSG is the No. 1 pick on the August Indie Next List — and Alexander Maksik’s novel is the sixteenth of the 28 books featured in our Spring/Summer Buzz Books sampler to be named to a bookseller’s “best of the month” list. (The new edition is packed with substantial excerpts of 40 big fall and winter books that you can enjoy right now.) Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, by Boris Kachka Brewster, by Mark Slouka Snow Hunters, by Paul Yoon Babayaga, by Toby Barlow Paris Was […]
People, Etc.
Seale Ballenger will move to Disney Publishing on July 8 as publicity director. He has been director of marketing and publicity at Zola Books. James MacNevin will join McGill-Queen’s University Press on August 1 as acquisitions editor. Most recently he was acquisitions editor at Canadian Scholars’ Press in Toronto. Former Chicago Sun-Times books editor Henry Kisor reports on his blog that the newspaper will discontinue their books coverage. Kisor, who retired from his post at the paper in 2006 “at the beginning of the disaster,” writes: “I can’t say I was surprised. In fact, I’m amazed that authors and books […]
Librarians to Create Monthly List of Top 10 Recommended LibraryReads
There is a wave of library-related press releases with the ALA’s annual conference and exhibition starting today in Chicago (and running through July 2). One announcement of broad interest is the launch of LibraryReads this fall, a recommendation program that aims to serve as a national “library staff picks list.” The initiative will highlight ten adult titles every month “that library staff have read, have loved, and cannot wait to share with their patrons.” LibraryReads is managed by a steering committee of public librarians and library advocates, and they have allied with the ALA, the AAP, and even the ABA, […]