The Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency announced last week at the agency’s 35th anniversary celebration that Jennifer Weltz will succeed Jean Naggar as president of the agency, with Naggar moving to the new position of chair. Naggar noted that her daughter Weltz, who was named partner in 2004 and later vice president, “has been president in all but name these past few years” and that “her incisive intelligence, energy, marketing acumen, love of books, ready humor, and editorial flair have combined to build and lead JVNLA confidently into a future all of us here are reaching to identify.” Director of […]
Archives for September 2013
Goodreads Creates Controversy
Goodreads has attracted considerable attention — and controversy — for recent moves to limit readers and authors attacking each other on their site. In simplest form, Goodreads is getting stricter about removing reviews that “primarily…talk about author behavior” in a negative way. One of the primary objections from members was that the site acted unilaterally, without any prior notification, in removing reviews that were judged as violating the site’s guidelines from member pages. In their most recent note, Goodreads claimed that their actions so far were limited to only 21 members so far. At the same time, they have realized: […]
Simon & Schuster Offers eBooks to Schools
Simon & Schuster announced a pilot program to distribute a selection of popular books in school environments for K-12 classroom use. The titles are usable for one year from purchase, and are limited to use by one student at a time. The pilot collection includes such titles as CLICK, CLACK, MOO: COWS THAT TYPE by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin, HATCHET by Gary Paulsen, OUT OF MY MIND by Sharon Draper, FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury, works from the Folger Shakespeare Library, and FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS by Ernest Hemingway. S&S is working with four school distributors […]
UK Cutbacks
UK publisher Haynes is restructuring in the face of declining results and a changing market. The company will move from its current headquarters in Somerset to “more suitably sized premises” and is exiting the distribution market. CEO Eric Oakley said, “The book distribution market has changed significantly. The investment that would be needed to upgrade the UK facility for the requirements of a modern day logistics operation would far outweigh the future benefit to the business.” What the company calls a “relatively small number of roles” will be eliminated as part of the moe. The company reported annual sales of […]
Nelson Continues to Lift Harper’s Results
News Corp. reported results for their fourth quarter and full fiscal year, ending June 30. HarperCollins had sales of $329 million and EBITDA of $22 million in the fourth quarter (derived from the annual report), and for the full year, they recorded sales of $1.369 billion and EBITDA of $142 million. That compares to sales of $1.189 billion and EBITDA of $86 million in fiscal 2012. All but $5 million of the sales gain was attributed to the acquisition of Thomas Nelson (which accounted for $172 million in sales). And $27 million of the EBITDA gain came from Nelson as […]
People, Etc.
In the continuing consolidation of responsibilities and reporting lines at the merged Penguin Random House, Random’s Cyrus Kheradi has been promoted to svp, director of international sales & marketing for Penguin Random House, overseeing all of the company’s U.S.-originated activities in his area, including the sales team for Penguin’s export market and its international marketing group. The company indicated that “selling responsibilities for the individual international reps at Random House and Penguin are unchanged.” Kheradi also continues as director, East Asia business development for Random House. He reports to Penguin Random House US president and coo Madeline McIntosh, who said: “For […]