At Random House’s digital imprints (Loveswept, Flirt, Alibi and Hydra), Gina Wachtel has been promoted to vp, editorial director of digital and associate publisher of romance, reporting to Scott Shannon. VP, director of digital strategy Matt Schwartz will add responsibility as associate publisher for digital, overseeing the overall strategy and pricing for those digital imprints, also reporting to Shannon. At Penguin Random House, Skip Dye has been appointed to the companywide role of vp, director, sales operations, continuing to report to Jaci Updike. Dye will also remain in his role as vp, director, academic marketing & library sales, Random House and Crown Publishing […]
Archives for February 2015
In Restructuring, Centre Lane Takes Control of Perseus LLC Funds, Including Perseus Books Group
The long, messy restructuring of the Perseus LLC private equity investments in the wake of Perseus chairman Frank Pearl’s death almost 3 years ago has come to an end. A new private equity firm, Centre Lane Partners, prevailed as the winning bidder in the auction run by advisory firm Cogent Partners, acquiring controlling interest in funds said to own or control approximately 11 different companies — including the Perseus Books Group — and now acting as manager partner for those interests. That makes Centre Lane the new entity in control of PBG, which confirmed the investment on Tuesday evening with an […]
November AAP Sales Down Again On Weak Hardcover Shipments
After a surprisingly positive October 2014 sales report, the AAP’s statistics for November returned to the pattern that they have followed for most of the year: Adult sales declined almost 8 percent, down $37 million to $442 million, as children’s rose, up $23.6 million to $190.6 million. The real weakness was in those market-leading new hardcovers that we have been talking about in past reports, with net sales in November of $155.5 million — versus $206.2 million in 2013. eBook sales also declined for the second consecutive month, at $116 million overall, with adult ebook numbers roughly flat and children’s/YA […]
True: Harper Lee to Publish Second Novel with Harper
The AP reported on Tuesday that HarperCollins will issue Harper Lee’s second novel, GO SET A WATCHMAN, on July 14, with a planned North American first printing of 2 million copies. The book is “essentially a sequel” to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, though it was written first. The 304-page book was “rediscovered last fall.” The 88-year-old Lee says in a statement: “In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called ‘Go Set a Watchman.’ It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort. My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to […]
For the Groundhogs: A New Subscriber PM Discount
As you may have read, there was disagreement on the prospects for spring among some of the Northeast’s most prominent groundhogs yesterday. In our early days at Publishers Lunch and PublishersMarketplace.com we used to honor Groundhog Day with an annual subscription drive — and we have decided it is time to resurrect that tradition. For a limited time only, we invite new subscribers to check out a full month’s worth of all of the resources at PublishersMarketplace.com for just $15, a “rollback” to our original price. On the second of our two registration pages, when you are asked to “choose […]
New At PM: Tracking Stock Availability
Since we started PublishersMarketplace.com over 13 years ago, one of our core features has been the Book Tracker. Originally designed follow Amazon and BN sales rank for lists of individual ISBNs (with stored histories), the Tracker has expanded over the years to contain all kinds of ISBN-related information, along with automatic tracking to check sales rank twice a day. User suggestions have helped drive some of the expansion, with Amazon price change tracking added when ebook prices were in regular flux. Now, at the prompt of literary agent Ted Weinstein, we have added another twist, automatically monitoring Amazon in-stock availability […]