Former Barnes & Noble ceo Demos Parneros filed suit against the bookseller in a New York Federal Court on Tuesday, alleging breach of contract and defamation in connection with his dismissal without severance in early July. Parneros seeks the “severance that is due him, which is over $4 million in cash, plus equity,” along with additional damages. His primarily allegation is that the company “falsely stated that Parneros had violated company policy and did so in language and in a manner that defendant knew full well was false but would be read as reporting that Parneros had engaged in serious […]
Archives for August 2018
Initiatives: PRH’s Higher Ed Site, Coben Expands with Netflix, and More
Penguin Random House launched a new higher education website, featuring “a collection of the publisher’s most frequently-adopted titles for hundreds of college courses.” College instructors will be able to access information about frequently adopted Penguin Random House books from an index of more than 1,700 courses taught within business & economics, humanities & social sciences, professional studies, and more. Brent Gordon, PRH’s vice president, education sales and strategy, said, “We are committed to making it easier for educators to discover Penguin Random House’s world-class content for the courses they teach. This site is one of many initiatives underway designed to improve […]
People, Etc.
Jimmy Iacobelli will join the Atria Publishing Group as art director on September 4. He was previously art director at HarperCollins. The Rona Jaffe Foundation announced the winners of their annual writers’ awards: Chelsea Bieker (fiction/nonfiction), Lisa Chen (nonfiction), Lydia Conklin (fiction), Gabriela Garcia (fiction), Karen Outen (fiction/nonfiction), and Alison C. Rollins (poetry). The Frankfurt Book Fair will feature Macmillan ceo John Sargent in their annual ceo interview on Wednesday, October 10 at 2 PM. (If you attend, make sure to go say hello afterwards — he won’t have to journal it. As of August 12, Macmillan became the last […]
New Accounting Rules Will Likely Lift Penguin Random House’s Sales: It’s A Long Story
On Thursday Penguin Random House’s parent company Bertelsmann will be the last of the big companies to report financial results through June 30, and when that happens, there will be something different about PRH’s results. The company will use a different accounting method for their ebook sales, making their overall sales for the past six months unlike previous PRH reports. That will also make their sales report unlike those of all the other publishers that we have reported so far this earnings season. That difference is that for many (but not all) ebook sales, PRH will start counting the full consumer […]
People, Etc.
Natasha Simons has been promoted to senior editor for the “revitalized” Free Press imprint, while continuing to acquire and edit for Simon & Schuster’s general list. Jonathan Karp said in the announcement: “In the search for a new Free Press editor, I met with numerous outside candidates, but after reading Natasha’s ideas for the imprint, I was quickly convinced that she would infuse Free Press with new vision. As she put it, ‘I look forward, as a conservative millennial woman, to bringing a unique perspective to building a fresh, modern, forward-thinking imprint.'” He also notes, “Natasha is committed to helping […]
Agent Mark Gottlieb Resigns from AAR Following Ethics Committee Report
Mark Gottlieb at Trident Media Group resigned his membership in the AAR (Association of Authors’ Representatives) earlier this month, after a report from the organization’s ethics committee was sent to Gottlieb and the organization’s board. His resignation was announced to AAR members in an email from president Gail Hochman, who distributed the committee report on behalf of the board “because we believe [the membership] should be apprised of developments such as these and of our interpretation of this provision of our Canon [of Ethics].” Given Gottlieb’s resignation, Hochman wrote, “the AAR will no longer directly have the ability to discipline […]