Former publisher of Egmont USA Andrea Cascardi has joined Little, Brown as executive editor for the Jimmy Patterson imprint, reporting to Reagan Arthur. Prior to her stint at Egmont USA, Cascardi was a literary agent and held editorial positions at Knopf/Crown and Disney.
Archives for July 2015
People, Etc.
Crown’s community development team has hired Abbe Wright as editor of Read It Forward, their online literary community. (She recently completed a year-long editorial project at Glamour and before then, was assistant books editor at O, the Oprah Magazine.) Ariel Norwood has been named community and social media manager for the online food community Tastebook (she ran social media for the furniture distributor Viyet); and Ryan DeShon has joined as front end developer for all of Crown’s community websites (he worked at LitHub.com). DongWon Song has joined Howard Morhaim Literary Agency as an agent. He was formerly an editor at Orbit and oversaw product at Zola Books. Expansion Simon […]
After Education Spinoff, Barnes & Noble Will Reinstate Dividend
Barnes & Noble announced a final date for the BN Education spinoff — distributing the new stock on August 2 (to BN shareholders of record as of July 27). BNED stock is expected to begin trading on a “when-issued” basis starting July 23 and will convert to regular trading on August 3. More importantly to investors and those concerned with the financial health of Barnes & Noble Inc., the company announced that it will resume paying quarterly dividends after the spinoff. They will pay at the annual rate of 60 cents a share, with the first quarterly record date of August 7. The bookseller had […]
Ingram Launches Accelerator
The book publishing-focused start-up world has always been missing an incubator or accelerator to help refine and mentor promising new companies, and now Ingram Content Group is answering that need. Building on investments made through ICG Ventures, the company announced Tuesday their 1440 Accelerator “to find and accelerate startups creating the next breakthrough innovations in the publishing industry.” (It is named for the year Johannes Gutenberg perfected his printing press.) Ingram is working with the Nashville Entrepreneur Center (which John Ingram also chairs) and Jumpstart Foundry. Set to begin in September, the program will put up to 10 startups into […]
People
Kate Garrick has joined The Karpfinger Agency as an agent. Previously she was an agent at DeFiore and Company, and will bring her list of clients to the Karpfinger Agency. In the UK, Profile publishing director Mike Jones is leaving the office just a year after joining it, by “mutual consent” according to the Bookseller. He will work on some manuscripts from home and formally leave the company in September. Target‘s Book Club pick for August is Orphan Number Eight by Kim Van Aklemade.
Andersons Get “Definitive Agreement” to Buyout Books-A-Million For $21 Million
Six months after their latest offer to take Books-A-Million private, the controlling Anderson family has reached a deal to buyout shareholders of the country’s second-largest book retailer for approximately $21 million, an improved offer of $3.25 a share. (Previously, they offered $17 million, or $2.75 a share.) Unanimously approved by a special board committee and the directors, the deal offers a 23 percent premium over Monday’s closing trading price of $2.60 a share. A majority of the shareholders outside of the family still need to approve the deal for it to go through. The Andersons currently own just under 58 percent of shares. They […]