Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter‘s December issue letter is online in advance of the issue itself, in which Keith Gessen “lays out a vivid and highly original account of the almost schoolyard conflict going on now between Amazon and the French-owned publishing giant Hachette.” Carter says Amazon’s response to Hachette “amounts to an economic blockade” and says of Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos, “make no mistake about it: he’s not the underdog in this pitched battle; he is the overdog. The book business is puny compared to its visibility and importance to the nation’s well-being.” Separately, Seattle Weekly has a long and […]
Archives for November 2014
Corporate: Harlequin Sale Gives Cash Influx to Torstar; Second Consecutive Quarterly Increase for Indigo
Harlequin‘s former parent company Torstar announced third quarter results on Wednesday morning, and as previously indicated, Torstar booked a gain of approximately $225 million (CA) on the $455 million sale of Harlequin to HarperCollins, which closed on August 1. President and ceo David Holland said in a statement the company was “pleased to complete the sale of Harlequin in the third quarter and all outstanding debt was retired using a portion of the sale proceeds.” Reporting Harlequin’s results as revenue from discontinued operations, sales for the quarter up until the sale (for the month of July) were $30.2 million. Canada’s dominant bookseller […]
Awards: Writers Trust, Samuel Johnson, UK National Book Nominees
In Canada, Miriam Toews won the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for her novel All My Puny Sorrows, which is also nominated for the Giller Prize. Toews won the prize previously, in 2008, for The Flying Troutmans. Other Writers’ Trust winners included Joan Thomas, honored with the Engel/Findley Award for a mid-career writer in recognition of a “remarkable body of work.” went to Winnipeg’s Joan Thomas. Her latest novel, The Opening Sky, is in contention for Governor General’s Award. Helen MacDonald‘s H IS FOR HAWK (Jonathan Cape) won the UK’s Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction, the first memoir to win that honor. Grove/Atlantic has the US […]
People: Cobb to Retire from WaterBrook Multnomah As Crown Names New Leaders
President and publisher of Crown’s WaterBrook Multnomah Steve Cobb “has decided that he is ready to embark on the next chapter of his life and will be retiring in March 2015,” Crown president Maya Mavjee announced. A founding executive of WaterBrook in 1996, when the imprint was launched as an autonomous evangelical Christian division of then Bantam Doubleday Dell, he “has led and managed a business that has realized consistent profitability while building an extraordinary legacy as a nurturer of author talent.” Crown’s svp, publisher of Christian Publishing Tina Constable wrote to staff that with Cobb’s transition “we are at a […]
David Kent to Leave Harper Canada, As Unit Shifts Distribution to Donnelley and Drops Client Publishers
President and ceo of HarperCollins Canada since 2001 David Kent will leave the company at the end of year. There will be no direct replacement; instead Iris Tupholme has been promoted to svp, executive publisher, and Leo MacDonald has been promoted to svp, marketing and sales. Harper ceo Brian Murray says in the announcement, “David is renowned in the industry as an international publisher and exceptional advocate for authors. He has made many wonderful contributions to HarperCollins Canada over the years, and overseen a successful publishing company that has received a myriad of literary prizes. We are grateful for his many contributions and […]
Digital: Diversion Launches Romance eBookstore; More Kindle Unlimited; Start Buys Cleis; and More
Digital publisher Diversion Books has set up a new division “to go deeper into the romance vertical,” EverAfter — which has launched an ebookstore and reader app on iOS and Android. “Exclusively dedicated to romance ebooks,” the store offers over 100,000 titles from traditional houses and self-published authors. They promise “flash sales, special pricing, recommendations and thousands of free ebooks” for romance fans, along with curated categories of recommend “essential titles.” The app is licensed from Page Foundry, which develops mobile ebookstore apps for clients including HarperCollins’ Book Perk; the Indie Reader Bookstore, the Chicago Tribune’s TribBooks. All titles are […]