Lagardere’s book publishing units finished the year with a good fourth quarter (after another soft year overall): sales of €569 were up 4.2 percent overall from €546 a year ago, and up 6.7 percent on an underlying basis. The UK division, which has been lagging most of the year, finished with an “exceptional performance,” up 12.6 percent, and their big French unit also had notable gains in both general literature and distribution. For the full year, sales of €2.066 billion were up down slightly on an actual basis (from €2.077 billion), but up 1.0 percent on an underlying basis (primarily […]
Archives for February 2014
Appeals Court and Government Agree that Apple Monitor’s Role Is Limited
Apple appears to have gotten most of what they wanted from the extended court skirmish over the scope and role of court-appointed monitor Michael Bromwich. Yes, their request for a complete stay of the monitor pending appeal of Judge Cote’s verdict was denied by the three-judge Court of Appeals panel, but the ruling did explicitly and significantly limit what the monitor can do. The Court of Appeals writes that during oral arguments even the government “explicitly stated” the order for the monitor’s duties “should be interpreted narrowly.” So in their brief ruling, the Court of Appeals reaffirms that the monitor […]
People, Etc.
Kate Johnson has joined Wolf Literary Services, where she will focus on adult fiction, based in Scotland. Kate was previously an agent and vice president at Georges Borchardt. Adriann Ranta is now vp and senior agent, and Allison Devereux has been promoted to associate agent and foreign rights manager. Sara Sargent has joined Simon Pulse as editor. Previously she was an associate editor at Balzer + Bray. At Metropolitan Books, Guy Connor has been promoted to assistant editor. Nathan Filer’s Costa Award-winning debut novel, published in the UK as THE SHOCK AND THE FALL but in the US as WHERE […]
Open Road Acquires E-Reads
Open Road Integrated Media announced Monday that it has an agreement to acquire literary agent Richard Curtis’s E-Reads, one of the pioneering ebook publishers, with a catalog of over 1,200 titles. That list, focused on science fiction and fantasy (and including mystery, thriller, romance, and horror books) will significantly enlarge Open Road’s list of 4,200 titles. The deal is expected to close on April 1, at which point Open Road will decide which if any of E-Reads staff of 5 full- and part-time employees they want to retain. E-Reads founder Richard Curtis will continue to run his longstanding literary agency, […]
Packer Asks “Is Amazon Good for Books?”
And if you have to ask, the implied — but not particularly explicit — answer is no. George Packer looks at Amazon and the book business in this week’s New Yorker. Much of the piece will be familiar to our readers. He does find evidence of a forgotten Amazon imprint from late 1999 from former employee James Marcus, when “Amazon tried publishing books, leasing the rights to a defunct imprint called Weathervane and putting out a few titles,” mostly revived remainders. “Weathervane fell into an oblivion so complete that there’s no trace of it on the Internet. (Representatives at the […]
Folio Prize Names Eight Nominees
The UK’s new literary award The Folio Prize was set to announce their inaugural shortlist Monday afternoon, until the embargo was broken via Twitter. The nominees, culled from 80 titles; are: Red Doc, Anne Carson Schroder, Amity Gaige Last Friends, Jane Gardam Benediction, Kent Haruf The Flame Throwers, Rachel Kushner A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing, Eimear McBride A Naked Singularity, Sergio De La Pava Tenth of December, George Saunders McBride’s book, which already won the Goldsmith Prize, comes from Galley Beggar Press. It is not available in ebook form, but last summer Coffee House Press bought rights for the […]