Two months after reaching an agreement with its primary creditors and investors, Cengage announced it has completed its financial restructuring, which eliminated $4 billion of its $5.8 billion total debt, and has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The remaining debt — which is slightly less than the company’s annual sales of approximately $2 billion — will be addressed in a new round of financing. Though headquartered in Stamford, CT, Cengage has relocated its management team to a Boston office and ceo Michael Hansen tells the Boston Globe they intend to employ about 500 people in the area by the end […]
Archives for April 2014
People: Creamer to Hachette Books, and More
Former Touchstone publisher Stacy Creamer will join the new Hachette Books imprint as executive editor, starting June 16 and reporting to newly-named publisher Mauro DiPreta. Creamer left Touchstone last November after more than four years with the imprint. She says in the announcement, “I look forward to acquiring and editing exciting new narrative nonfiction, memoirs, and novels, especially with the extraordinary sales and marketing support that HBG has demonstrated time and time again.” Phaidon Press has announced more new hires: Emily Takoudes has joined the company as executive commissioning editor for food in New York (she was most recently senior editor […]
Awards and Lists: PEN/Faulkner to Fowler, Amazon and Pennie’s Picks
Karen Joy Fowler won the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, of which judge Manuel Muñoz said in the announcement, “Fowler captures an altogether new dimension of the meaning — and heartbreak — of family dynamics.” Amazon’s best books of April features Peter Matthiessen’s In Paradise as the “spotlight pick” and Ted Thompson’s The Land of Steady Habits as the month’s featured debut. Their other picks of the month are: Astonish Me, Maggie Shipstead Casebook, Mona Simpson Updike, Adam Begley Sous Chef, Michael Gibney Secrecy, Rupert Thomson Essentialism, Greg Mckeown Afterparty, Daryl Gregory Inheritance, Sharon Moalem Listen to the Squawking […]
A Strong Finish for Trade, Even with eBook Decline, As Every Other Major Publishing Segment Rises In 2013
Trade publishing finished 2013 with two strong months of sales, according to the publishers who report to the AAP, closing the gap to put full-year trade sales a little shy of the big 2012 results. Measured sales from the approximately 1,200 reporting publishers were $6.441 billion for 2013, down by $74 million (or 1 percent) from 2012 — which was a banner year, thanks to the Hunger Games and Fifty Shades trilogies. (By comparison, total AAP trade sales in 2011 were $6.082 billion, when Borders went bankrupt and liquidated.) November sales of $651 million were up strongly, by $62 million […]
People
Elizabeth Bewley will join Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s as executive editor on April 14. Previously she was senior editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. In addition, Taylor Foley has been promoted to digital product manager. At Bloomsbury, Erica Barmash has been promoted to director of children’s trade and digital marketing. In addition, Melissa Kavonic has been promoted to executive managing editor, Bloomsbury Children’s, and Katie Gallof has been promoted to senior acquisitions editor at Bloomsbury Academic. Theresa Collier has joined as publicist in the adult division. Previously she was a publicist at Overlook. At Gallery, Adam Wilson has been […]