The Los Angeles Times announced book prize finalists in 11 categories — including a new award for autobiographical prose named in honor of Christopher Isherwood — with the winners to be named April 21. Thomas McGuane will receive the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. Among the nominees are: Fiction Garth Greenwell, What Belongs to You (FSG) Adam Haslett, Imagine Me Gone (Little, Brown) Lydia Millet, Sweet Lamb of Heaven (Norton) Zadie Smith, Swing Time (Penguin Press) Dana Spiotta, Innocents and Others (Scribner) First Fiction Sara Baume, Spill Simmer Falter Wither (HMH) Mark Beauregard, The Whale (Viking) Nathan Hill, The Nix (Knopf) Idra Novey, Ways […]
Archives for February 2017
Houghton Takes $139 Million Charge In Another Bad Quarter
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt continued their string of disappointing results on Thursday morning, reporting poor fourth quarter earnings. Net sales of $242 million were down $56 million (or 19 percent) from a year ago. The continuing trouble at their legacy basal and supplemental education business helped lead to an operating loss of $251 million, $174 million more in losses than a year ago. The company took a $139 million non-cash impairment charge, “the result of our strategic decision to emphasize our world-leading HMH brand over legacy brands such as Holt McDougal and various supplemental brands.” With the help of tax benefits, […]
Kobo Plus eBook Subscription Service Launches In Holland and Belgium
Kobo has launched an ebook subscription service, called Kobo Plus, in Holland and Belgium, jointly created with their local partner, the online bookseller bol.com. Priced at €9.99 per month (with a one-month free trial), the services promises unlimited access to 16,000 titles in Dutch and over 40,000 titles in all, “with considerable growth expected in the coming months.” Those titles come from major publishers — ceo of Dutch publisher WPG Patrick Swart is quoted in the press release — as well as Kobo’s self-publishing initiative. Indeed, Kobo says the service “was developed in close collaboration with leading Dutch publishers” and is […]
People, Etc.
Little, Brown vp, associate publisher and executive director of publicity Nicole Dewey is leaving at the end of April, to become managing director at Shreve Williams Public Relations as of May 1. Sabrina Callahan has been promoted to executive director of publicity at Little, Brown, effective immediately. Tiffany Liao has joined Holt Children’s as editor. She was previously editor at Razorbill. In the UK, Trevor Dolby will retire from Penguin Random House UK in the fall, after transitioning to part-time work at beginning of May. Dolby joined Random House UK in 2007 to create Preface. Also in the UK, Ian Stewart has been found guilty of murdering […]
Corporate: Adams Acquisition, Capstone Sells Digital Platform, and More
Simon & Schuster’s parent company CBS filed their annual report with the SEC at the end of last week. While it does not directly state the purchase for Adams Media, acquired in the fourth quarter of 2016, a little arithmetic yields the answer: S&S paid approximately $42 million to purchase the publishing unit from FW Media. CBS spent a total of $92 million on acquisitions during the year, and in the first quarter they paid approximately $50 million to acquire 247Sports, a digital media business. In other M&A news, Capstone formally announced the sale of their digital learning platform myON to tech investment […]
People: Morgan Joins Riverhead, and More
Former editorial director at Harper Perennial and Harper Paperbacks Cal Morgan will join Riverhead as vp, executive editor. Riverhead president and publisher Geoffrey Kloske said in the announcement: “I’ve always admired Cal’s innovative literary vision and passion for books and publishing. After a few decades of competing against him I’m thrilled to have him join the community at Riverhead.” Morgan joins Riverhead after more than 14 months away from trade publishing; he left HarperCollins, where he was also executive editor at Harper, “to take a pause” in November 2015 after more than 16 years with the company. Denise Silvestro will join Kensington […]