Erin Stein will join Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group as publisher of a new, yet-to-be-named new imprint on December 1, reporting to Jon Yaged. Her imprint will focus on branded publishing and new content creation, as well as acquiring original commercial fiction and picture books. Previously she was editorial director of branded, licensed, and media tie-in publishing for Little, Brown Children’s. “MCPG has enjoyed fabulous growth over the past several years, and we are always exploring new ways to accelerate our growth. Erin’s phenomenal track record with licensed publishing and new content creation makes her the perfect fit for us. I could not be […]
Archives for November 2014
Late to Our Own Party
We are later than usual in acknowledging the anniversary of PublishersMarketplace.com — typical for a teenager, now that the site is just over 13 years old. (We actually get to celebrate two birthdays, since Publishers Lunch came first, in early 2000, with PublishersMarketplace.com as a second start-up the follow year, after the internet bubble burst and just weeks after 9/11. Timing.) On the one hand the numbers have us just passing out of childhood, but of course 13 internet years is like multiple lifetimes. One thing I’ve been thinking about recently is just how crazy this venture is. Absolutely no […]
Holiday Picks From Barnes & Noble; Governor General’s Awards; and More
The Governor General’s Literary Award announced winners in a number of categories this morning, with THE BACK OF THE TURTLE by Thomas King taking the prize for fiction and THE END OF ABSENCE by Michael Harris winning for nonfiction. Barnes & Noble announced its top books for the holiday season in fiction, nonfiction, young adult, and children’s, choosing from “personal recommendations and customer favorites”: Fiction All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett Gray Mountain by John […]
People, Etc.
Promotions At Workman After moving up to ceo of Workman Publishing five months ago and relocating to New York in October, Dan Reynolds has announced a number of promotions and new assignments, part of his work to shape how “we could all work together in a way that was most productive, efficient, inspiring, collegial, and conducive to growth.” While some of the changes are “global, with the goal of lifting all the imprints…others are designed to strengthen and grow Workman’s core book business.” David Schiller has been promoted to group creative director, acting as Workman’s “in-house creative agency” and reporting to Reynolds. […]
Growing Subscription Reads Drive KDP Select Payments Down
Amazon made their monthly report to KDP Select publishers over the weekend, electing to add $2.5 million to the compensation pool for October reads/borrows through Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owner’s Lending Library. But the most closely watched number by authors — the amount paid per read — declined again, to $1.33. That’s the lowest amount paid per read since KOLL began in late 2011. Authors were paid $1.52 per read for September (on 3.29 million reads), and $1.54 per read for August, the first full month of the Kindle Unlimited subscription program. As usual, authors’ opinions are mixed on Amazon’s forum and Kindle […]
Children’s/YA Sales Drive Sales Again In August
The AAP released their monthly Stat Shot statistics from approximately 1,200 reporting publishers for August, with sales remaining true to the pattern from all of 2014: Strong children’s/YA sales — in all formats — continue to carry the trade, accounting for all of the gains and then some, as new release adult hardcovers (and thus companion ebooks) remain lackluster. For August itself, adult sales of $415 million did rise slightly from $408 million a year ago, and children’s/YA sales of $170 million were up from $141 million last August. Adult hardcover sales were down again, though, and have been weak all year […]