Kari Sutherland has joined Bradford Literary Agency as an agent. Previously she was an editor at Harper Children’s. Bestselling Australian children’s book author Mem Fox, 70, is giving a face to the excesses of border control under the Trump administration. Now back in Australia, Fox told the media that she was detained and interrogated for two hours at Los Angeles Airport in early February, while traveling to a literary conference in Milwaukee, accused of having the wrong visa. (US officials were in error; Fox has visited the US more than 100 times in the past without incident.) She told Australia’s […]
Archives for February 2017
HarperCollins Launches Book Recommendation Bots
HarperCollins has announced the launch of BookGenie and Epic Reads, two bot-powered book recommendation engines available through Facebook Messenger. Both provide book recommendations through one-on-one chatting. With Bookgenie, readers request a recommendation based on a book they enjoyed, or select from curated recommendations. Epic Reads, related to the publisher’s YA-focused site, allows readers to specify what kind of mood they’re in, as well as what books and authors they enjoy. HarperCollins vice president of marketing Carrie Bloxson said in the announcement, “We’re always looking for ways to help readers discover new books and authors. The BookGenie bot combines the power of […]
People, Etc.
News Corp. has announced that Bedi Singh will step down as chief financial officer on March 1. Susan Panuccio, currently cfo of News Corp. Australia, will succeed him. Executive chairman Rupert Murdoch said in the release: “Through his astute financial management of key acquisitions and divestitures, and with the prudent institution of cost controls across the businesses, Bedi has helped News Corp. weather the challenges of this era better than its peers, and put it on firm footing for long-term growth and profitability.” Singh, who has served as cfo since 2013, will continue to advise the company on digital property interests […]
Trade Sales Pulled to Even In Third Quarter of 2016
Year-end stats from Bookscan and PubTrack Digital and current earnings season reports from public companies have been giving us a good picture of 2016 trade publishing performance. So it feels a little odd to step back as the AAP — still running a month or two behind their normal schedule — has released monthly StatShot statistics for September 2016. Total digital sales for the month of $116.7 million were down 8.3 percent (or $10.6 million) compared to $127.3 million in September 2015. (Remember that the year-over-year ebook shortfall starts getting smaller in the September comparisons, since September 2015 is when Penguin Random House became the […]
Pearson Takes £2.55 Billion Charge
Pearson reported full 2016 results on Friday morning in London, announcing an impairment charge to North American goodwill against their declining higher education courseware market of £2,548 million. While the company said that in 2017 “early trading is in line with expectations,” they neglected to mention the big charge when they reduced their expectations in mid-January and warned investors about further restructuring on the way. In addition to the planned sale of their 47 percent share in Penguin Random House, the company said they will “explore a potential partnership for our English language learning business Wall Street English and the […]
Family Christian Stores to Liquidate and Close
The largest chain of Christian book and merchandise stores Family Christian announced that it will liquidate its assets and close all of their outlets, comprising over 240 stores in 36 states. The statement did not provide a timetable for the liquidation. President Chuck Bengochea says in the press release, “We had two very difficult years post-bankruptcy. Despite improvements in product assortment and the store experience, sales continued to decline. In addition, we were not able to get the pricing and terms we needed from our vendors to successfully compete in the market.” The chain was bought in bankruptcy reorganization in August 2015, […]