Parenting Press is being acquired by Chicago Review Press (which already distributes the press through its IPG unit) effective January 1, and will continue as an imprint of its new parent company. Chicago Review Press publisher Cynthia Sherry will oversee the list from the 37-year-old practical parenting and children’s book publisher. Parenting Press president and founder Elizabeth Crary plans to retire from publishing but will continue her work as a parent educator and author, and none of the company’s staff will stay on after the acquisition. “The acquisition of Parenting Press by Chicago Review Press is a dream come true for a […]
Archives for December 2016
CEO Holiday Greetings, from Simon & Schuster
In keeping with tradition, publishing ceos are thanking employees and celebrating the year’s accomplishments through year-end letters. The first publicly released letter is from Simon & Schuster chief executive Carolyn Reidy, noting “a tumultuous year in both the United States and around the world” while still observing that “it feels as if we are in a period of relative stability in the publishing marketplace.” Reidy confirms that their deal to acquire Adams Media closed “shortly before Thanksgiving” as scheduled and notes the new division will be integrated into company infrastructure and systems by January 31. In a review of the house’s top titles she leads with […]
More Than Ever, Trade Looks for Last-Minute Holiday Boost
The print book trade still has not shaken off the post-election drag on sales, even with holiday sales well underway, Nielsen Bookscan statistics show. As we noted a month ago, much of the year’s performance will depend on how the final holiday book sales push fares. Despite Barnes & Noble’s quite public complaints, overall the lead up to the election did not appear to dampen book sales, though quarter by quarter 2016’s gains on 2015 have been ebbing throughout the year. The real “election effect” came the week of the presidential election itself and the following week, and print sales […]
Kindle Unlimited: The Trend Continues, and The House Is On Top
Amazon made their monthly retroactive announcement of how much money they have decided to allocate to authors who participate in Kindle Unlimited, with November’s bounty following the pattern from the prior month. The pool was boosted by $100,000, to $16.3 million, while the total “pages read” declined, to roughly 3.032 billion (down from 3.122 billion in October, and 3.197 billion in September). On online forums, authors continue to complain that Amazon has not fully fixed glitches in their page counting software. Theoretically that’s leading more authors to opt out of publishing exclusively through Kindle and participating in KU. Increasingly, however, the […]
People
PW honors Sourcebooks’ dynamic founder and ceo Dominique Raccah as their person of the year, “In recognition of her determination, creativity, and energy in making Sourcebooks one of the country’s leading independent publishers.” After almost 30 years in business, the publisher recently passed lifetime sales of 100 million units. Scholastic announced a wave of new hires and promotions: Angie Chen has joined the company as production editor for picture books and Cartwheel (coming from the Aperture Foundation); Rachel Gluckstern is production editor for hardcover (she was at DC Comics); Melissa Schirmer is assistant production editor (she was most recently at Books of Wonder); and Teresa Harris is licensing & brand […]
Positive Reviews for January Buzz Books
It’s been a week since we launched our first monthly Buzz Books sampler as an experiment and consumer/blogger reviews have been very encouraging. We couldn’t have hoped for better than this: “How do you make something exceptional better? You make it monthly! Thanks Publishers Lunch! You have made it even easier now to know what’s coming out and when. This is hands down one of the best resources for book lovers of all genres.” As with our regular editions, reviewers report discovering new titles and filling their pre-orders and to-be-read piles, with the monthly size — and full-month overview of […]