At Doubleday, Michael Goldsmith has been promoted to publicity manager, reporting to Todd Doughty. Journalist and author of 18 books Phil Patton, 63, died last week from complications of emphysema. Nantucket author of DEAR MR. JEFFERSON and several historical novels Laura Simon, 66, died last Friday. Forthcoming The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has commissioned translations into modern English of all of Shakespeare’s plays, and intends to have those new versions ready to perform on stage in three years. John McWhorter makes the case in the WSJ for what Conrad Spoke calls a “revolutionary 10% translation” that enables “every student to make contact with the original text.” […]
Archives for September 2015
People, Etc.
Emily Griffin will join Harper as executive editor on October 19. Previously she was senior editor at Grand Central. Amanda Aleksey has joined Perseus’ international sales team as marketing and publicity manager. Previously she was marketing coordinator at Knopf. Chief executive of the Publishers Association in the UK Richard Mollet is leaving after five years to join Reed Elsevier as head of European government affairs. Heidi Hess Saxton will join Catholic publisher Franciscan Media as editorial director for the Servant imprint on October 12. Most recently she was acquisitions editor at Ave Maria Press. J.K. Rowling announced that the play Harry […]
eBook Sales Trends and Yet Another Surprise (Newspapers Are Far From Dead)
The other day we learned that you can take something that isn’t news, put it on the front page of the printed NYT, and it becomes very important. While people who work in book publishing likely shrugged at the combination of well-established trends and selective interpretation — ebook sales for traditional publishers have been roughly flat for years — then you started hearing from relatives and friends who thought there was something here worthy of, say, congratulations. So “Print books not dead” now officially joins the pantheon of comic tropes, somewhere between the Monty Python sketch and Generalissimo Francisco Franco. But let’s […]
SEC Censures, Fines Glickstein For 2014 “Proposal” To Buy Out Barnes & Noble
Since 2011 the “private investment firm” G Asset Management — by all appearances a one-man shop operated by Michael Glickstein — garnered headlines by writing repeatedly to the Barnes & Noble board, proposing various splits of the company’s assets or theoretical offers to acquire control of parts or all the company itself, culminating in a press release claiming it had “made a proposal to acquire” controlling interest in the bookseller. Apparently Glickstein’s antics registered hard on the radar of the SEC, which announced Thursday afternoon sanctions against G Asset Management for issuing “a misleading news release…that claimed it had offered to purchase a majority interest in Barnes & […]
People, Etc.
At Penguin Random House, Alison Rich has been appointed vp, publishing innovation development, reporting to Nina von Moltke, where she will work cross-company to identify and develop new author platform and business and services opportunities. Previously she was vp, executive director of publicity at Doubleday and associate publisher at Nan A. Talese Books. Springer ceo Ted Nardin is retiring after more than 10 years with the company. Succeeding him is Mary Gatsch, previously vp, global medical reference unit at Elsevier Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg granted Apple’s request for an extra thirty days to file for cert in the […]
“Solid Growth” in Trade Business In Otherwise Lackluster First Quarter for Scholastic
In Scholastic’s fiscal first quarter, ending August 31, adjusted sales were just above flat at $191.2 million, after account for the education unit sold to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, now reported as discontinued operations. Their seasonal net loss of $49.4 million was larger than the $34.1 million adjusted loss of a year ago — typical in that Scholastic generally has a loss in the first quarter, since schools are not in session, but different since it the absence of the EdTech business made the seasonal loss higher. The strong dollar pulled down international sales by $11.7 million. Trade book sales of $47.3 million were […]