Barnes & Noble reported fiscal third quarter earnings on Tuesday morning for the period ending January 31, with sales of $1.96 billion down $35 million from a year ago. EBITDA improved by $24 million to $197 million, and consolidated earnings rose to $72 million (93 cents per share), compared to $63 million (86 cents per share) a year ago. That’s better for the company’s basic health, but it’s much lower than analysts had expected, looking for profits of $1.19 to $1.41 a share according to various estimates. More importantly, the apparent “gain” actually just reflects losing less money on Nook as those sales evaporate; EBITDA at […]
Archives for March 2015
People, Etc.
Curtis Brown UK has acquired the entirety of Conville & Walsh a full year before the agreed deadline of final acquisition (after purchasing a 50 percent share in the agency two years ago). Conville & Walsh will retain its name and identity and continue to operate within Curtis Brown’s Haymarket offices, but its back office functions will be integrated into Curtis Brown. Jonny Geller, joint CEO of Curtis Brown, said in the announcement: “From the first day of working with Clare and Patrick and their fantastic team of agents and assistants, we knew it was going to work. Their flair, sense […]
Image Books to Stop Publishing Frontlist; Freimuth to Leave
The Crown Publishing Group announced that as part of its “long-term growth strategy for its religious publishing program,” they “have made the difficult business decision to no longer acquire additional new titles for the Image Books publishing program, which we will discontinue as a frontlist imprint.” The company pledges to “continue to maintain and nurture the deep…backlist” of the Catholic-interest publishing imprint, and will “publish with full enthusiasm and support all Image books under contract.” As a result of that decision and the recent separation of Convergent books from Waterbrook Multnomah, vp, president, associate publisher, WaterBrook Multnomah, Convergent, and Image Books Carie Freimuth will […]
People, Etc.
David Patterson has joined the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency, where he will continue to represent his clients and expand his list of writers of upmarket narrative non-fiction and literary fiction, historians, journalists and thought leaders. Previously he was an agent at Foundry Literary + Media. Barbara Cho has joined little bee books as production manager. She was previously production supervisor at Random House Children’s Books. Kurestin Armada has joined P.S. Literary Agency as associate agent. She was previously an assistant at The Lotts Agency. Corporate Barnes & Noble Education (the new name for BN College) has made an unspecified investment […]
Briefs: Patterson’s $1.25 Million School Library Donation; Tattered Cover Moves A Location; and More
Following on his recent seven-figure donations to independent bookstores in the US and UK, James Patterson announced a $1.25 million donation to fund grants of $1,000 to $10,000 to school libraries. To be awarded on a rolling basis throughout 2015, the funds can be used for a variety of purposes, including, for example, repairs to a computer system or a school project focused on books and reading.Scholastic Reading Club will administer funding applications to its network of 62,000 schools and 800,000 teachers, and Scholastic will match Patterson’s donation with “bonus points” that teachers can use to acquire books and materials for classroom use. […]
Harper Expands Spanish-Language Publishing, Licenses Lee’s Watchman
In the vein of their new Harper Germany publishing line, HarperCollins has created Harper Iberica to publish in Spain and Portugal, and Harper Espanol to publish Spanish-language books in North and South America. Larry Downs is svp and publisher for Harper Espanol, which will publish approximately 50 books a year, and Luis Pugni is managing director of Harper Iberica, which aims to publish approximately 30 titles. To lead the initiatives, Harper has acquired world Spanish rights in all formats to Harper Lee’s forthcoming Go Set a Watchman, and it has picked up print and audio rights for To Kill a Mockingbird. CEO […]