Last week’s Digital Book World conference did a lot to bridge the gap between start-ups from outside the publishing business and innovators within the industry, and one of the more inspiring presentations came from Sourcebooks ceo Dominique Raccah in one of the closing sessions. Her slides on Rethinking Failure: Finding The Opportunities In Our Challenges are available online now. “We have to rethink our whole view on failure,” Raccah said. “It is hurting us.” The essence of her presentation was to suggest that we stop talking about failure when trying new things, and stick to discussing “experiments and results.” (When we […]
Archives for January 2014
Winter Institute Buzz Books and Beyond: Nonfiction To Watch
For the second year in a row we are helping to amplify the ABA’s Winter Institute with a new free ebook Buzz Books 2014: Spring/Summer, featuring 10 authors appearing at WI9 and another 30 anticipated “discovery” titles from the season ahead. (Download the trade edition — with detailed marketing, rights and publicity information, and click-throughs after each excerpt if you’re interested in the full galley — from this page, in an an EPUB or Kindle file or from NetGalley for any reader. Or share the regular edition, which readers everywhere have come to rely on for sampling the season ahead […]
Following Big Loss, Quercus Starts Sale Process
After the disclosure last week of a large and unexpected holiday loss and “discussions” with its bank about the company’s revolving credit line, Quercus has announced it will “seek potential offerors by means of a formal sale process,” which the board decided “would be in the best interests of the company’s shareholders.” Livingstone Partners is running the sale, and the publisher has received permission under the UK’s takeover rules to allow bidders to keep their identity confidential. The company “continues to have constructive dialogue with its bankers, Barclays” and notes the “sale process is at an early stage and…there can be […]
Apple Wins At Least A Brief “Administrative Stay” of Monitor, Pending Appeals Hearing
With no opposition from the government, Apple has at least won a short “administrative stay” from the Appeals Court of Judge Cote’s imposition of an antitrust compliance monitor, while her broader verdict and September 2013 injunction in the ebook pricing case is under appeal. That delay remains in place until a three-judge Appeals Court panel can hear Apple’s formal motion for a stay blocking monitor Michael Bromwich and objecting to his conduct. That motion “shall be heard as soon as possible.” The government has until Friday to file their formal opposition to granting a permanent stay.
People
Alibris parent company Monsoon Commerce has brought in Tommaso Trionfi as their new CEO, as Jim Cruckshank moves over to chairman of the board of directors. Trionfi has served previously as CEO of Merchantry, and Wimba prior to that. He has hired his former colleague Rob Teichman as vice president of engineering. Brooks Sherman will join The Bent Agency on January 27, representing picture books, young adult and middle grade fiction, and adult fiction and select nonfiction. He was previously an agent at FinePrint Literary Management. Veda Kumarjiguda has replaced Sooji Kim as digital marketing coordinator for Simon & Schuster Children’s and will work with Matt […]
Publishing Flat, Printing Rises At Courier
Both sales and income rose at Courier in their fiscal first quarter, ending December 28, with revenues of $73 million (up 12 percent) and earnings of $2.6 million (up 9 percent). The company “reported strong sales growth in all three of its principal book manufacturing markets of education, religious and specialty trade.” Their publishing division was flat at $9.1 million, while the operating loss was cut in half to $600,000, “largely driven by improvements at Dover, which broke even in the quarter.”