Sales at Canongate fell 24 percent in 2014, down to £7.9 million, with a pre-tax loss of £1.3 million in a “difficult and dispiriting” year. The company blamed a bad fall list, with “some very significant advance write-offs we subsequently made.” 3M sold their North American Library Services division to One Equity Partners — which owns Bibliotheca — and they have “entered into agreements” to sell the remaining global Library Systems business as well. Bibliotheca promises that the expanded group “will combine the best of both worlds to help libraries captivate their communities, providing innovative library-focused solutions that connect with people at home, at the library, and […]
Archives for October 2015
Bookselling: Patterson Bonuses, New McNally Jackson Planned
James Patterson’s latest set of rewards for independent booksellers will come in the form of $250,000 in “holiday bonuses” to selected employees of ABA stores, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 per winner. The FAQ explains: “It could be that this bookseller recommended one of your favorite books this year. Maybe they were responsible for an incredible book event or developed a new program at the store. They might stay late every evening to keep the store in top shape or consistently go above and beyond the call of duty. James Patterson wants to reward bookstore employees who are making a difference in […]
HBG and Perseus Promise Faster Deliveries
Hachette Book Group announced a new Rapid Replenishment Program, where all orders (subject to stock availability) received on Mondays by 3pm ET will be entered, picked, packed and guaranteed to arrive at accounts no later than Friday. Orders placed Tuesday through Friday will be entered, picked and packed within 24 hours and shipped standard method. This includes orders received into the Hachette system via electronic ordering platforms like Edelweiss. Perseus is partnering with FedEx on an agreement that will “significantly improve shipments to bookstores and other outlets across the US,” the company announced. Under the new agreement, which goes into […]
People: Meyer “Reimagines” TWILIGHT for 10th Annniversary; and More
Stephenie Meyer announced on Good Morning America a “surprise” new novel in the Twilight series, LIFE AFTER DEATH: TWILIGHT REIMAGINED, released today as bonus content bundled with the original book’s 10th anniversary edition. (The publisher had billed the anniversary edition as offering hundreds of pages of unspecified “bonus content”; this is the bonus.) The new 442-page story is a “reimagining” which flips gender, where Bella is now Beau and Edward is now Edythe. Meyer said in the novel’s foreword that she wrote the story as a response to comments that Bella was a “damsel in distress,” saying: “My answer to that […]
People: Henning Mankell Dies, and More
Henning Mankell, 67, author of Kurt Wallander series of detective novels and over 40 works of fiction and theater, died Monday from complications of neck and lung cancer. Mankell’s crime novels sold more than 40 million copies around the world and were filmed as series for Swedish TV and the BBC (the latter starring Kenneth Branagh.) A spokeperson for his UK publishers Harvill Secker said in a statement: “Beloved by readers across the world, especially for his Kurt Wallander series, it was a privilege to have worked with a man of such talent and passion, and to have been his […]
Board of Directors Approves RCS Media Sale to Mondadori for 127.5 Million Euros
More than seven months after Mondadori first offered to buy RCS Media, the sale, for 127.5 million euros — less than Mondadori’s initial offer of 135 million euros– was approved by RCS’s board of directors over the weekend. The deal will still need approval from Italy’s antitrust body, which will take between 60 and 90 days. Should it go ahead the combined RCS Mondadori will account for roughly 35 percent of the Italian trade book publishing market. While Rizzoli, as well as the Bompiani, Marsilio, Fabbri, Bur, Sonzogno, ETAS imprints, will move to Mondadori ownership, as will the education unit, […]