At Macmillan Children’s Ebony Lane has been promoted to senior rights manager, rights and permissions. Catherine Kramer has been promoted to subsidiary rights associate. Finalists were announced for the PEN Center USA Awards, in 8 categories, with the winners to be named in September. (The original version of this was a bit mangled and has been corrected/updated.) It’s been a big month for cover reveals, which have included: Turtles All the Way Down, by John Green The Rooster Bar, by John Grisham You Can’t Spell America Without Me, by Alec Baldwin and Kurt Andersen The TB12 Method, by Tom Brady And […]
Archives for August 2017
Soft Quarter Leaves Harper Sales Down for the Year
News Corp. reported fiscal fourth quarter 2017 earnings on Thursday afternoon, with HarperCollins recording sales of $407 million, down $26 million from a year ago (-6%). Of the decline, $19 million was simply because the same quarter a year ago comprised an extra week, and the company said negative foreign exchange cost another $8 million. They also cited “lower sales at the children’s division, which had bigger title releases in the prior year.” EBITDA for the quarter fell as well, at $39 million, compared to $50 million a year ago. In addition to the sales factors, the company said profits […]
People, Etc.
Ryan Doherty will be join Celadon Books, Macmillan’s new trade book division, as executive editor starting September 12. He has been vice president of literary development at Sony Pictures Entertainment (after a number of years as an editor at Ballantine). Celadon Books co-publishers Jamie Raab and Deb Futter say: “Ryan’s ability to identify high quality works of fiction and nonfiction that have strong commercial potential and his deep knowledge of the overall literary market are perfectly aligned with the mission of Celadon Books.” At William Morrow, Shelby Meizlik has been promoted to the new role of vp, special events and creative strategies; Kelly […]
September Library Reads
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is the top pick on September’s Library Reads list. The novel is also featured in our Buzz Books 2017 Fall/Winter sampler, available for download now. (Other picks excerpted in our Fall/Winter collection are noted with asterisks.) The rest of the list includes: *Sourdough, by Robin Sloan Dear Fahrenheit 451, by Annie Spence Jane, Unlimited, by Kristin Cashore Love and Other Consolation Prizes, by Jamie Ford *The Child Finder, by Rene Denfeld The Salt Line, by Holly Goddard Jones *Hanna Who Fell From the Sky, by Christopher Meades *Caroline, by Sarah Miller George and Lizzie, […]
Merchandise Sales Continue to Lift Indigo
Canadian chain Indigo continues to post good results, driven by their transformation to “cultural department stores.” Sales in their fiscal 2018 first quarter rose $13 million to $206 million (CA), with adjusted EBITDA of $100,000, compared to a loss of $6.1 million a year ago. The overall loss was $7.2 million, compared to a loss of $8.8 million a year ago. As in the past quarters, “higher revenue was driven by continued double-digit growth in general merchandise, particularly in the lifestyle, toy, and paper categories.” They say there was also “modest growth” in book sale, though according to the company’s […]
People, Etc.
Brian Ulicky has joined The New Press as director of publicity and marketing. He was director of publicity for Blue Rider. At Melville House, Stephanie DeLuca has joined as director of publicity. Most recently, she was publicity manager for Gallery Books. Alexandra Primiani has joined as senior publicist. Previously he was publicist at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and at Riverhead Books. Amazon has promoted director of consumables for Germany Rocco Braeuniger to country manager for Australia, where the company plans a significant expansion. They have chosen a location about 26 miles from Melbourne for their first warehouse, which will stock “hundreds of thousands of products for delivery […]