The New York Times’ February 14 story about allegations that Dan Mallory’s bestselling The Woman in the Window might have plagiarized Sarah Denzil’s Saving April received a prominent update on Tuesday. The revision, which “include[s] additional relevant information that Mr. Mallory’s lawyer and agent provided to The Times after publication,” contains information about initial outlines Mallory created. The update was acknowledged at the top of Wednesday’s Books Briefing newsletter, in addition to the customary note at the bottom of the piece on the NYT website. A person connected to Mallory told PL that the NYT did not seek out the […]
Archives for February 2019
Quad’s LSC Acquisition Moving Forward on Schedule
Quad held its Q4 2018 earnings call February 20, reporting pro-forma net sales of $4.3 billion for the full year — of which only 6 percent was from its book printing business. While it didn’t break out a dollar value, that would indicate books comprise $258 million in revenue, a figure that will grow dramatically when the company completes its planned acquisition of primary competitor LSC Communications, which reported $1.02 billion in book sales in 2017. The company reports that acquisition remains on track for completion mid-2019. The regulatory process “is as expected…we’ve been doing the work to respond to […]
People, Etc.
Mauro DiPreta will join the William Morrow group on March 4 as svp, executive editor, reporting to Liate Stehlik. He previously worked at HarperCollins for 16 years until 2011, and mostly recently was founder, vp and publisher of Hachette Books. Katya Shannon is stepping down this spring as vice president, special markets, Penguin Random House. She has been with the company since joining Putnam in 1980 as a field sales rep. Amanda Close will oversee special markets starting in May, in addition to her current role leading strategic market development. Hillary Brady has joined DK as digital marketing manager. She was […]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to Launch Audiobooks Line
The largest trade publishing division without its own audiobooks line, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will launch HMH Audio in fall 2019. They plan to publish approximately 75 audiobooks a year including many of HMH’s frontlist adult and children’s titles, as well as select backlist. (Though up until now, agents have some times placed books with HMH while selling audio rights separately to Audible.) Tommy Harron is executive producer leading the new line, reporting to HMH svp and publisher Bruce Nichols. Harron has been at Hachette Audio as an engineer and producer for the past decade and “will initially hire a small team […]
People, Etc.
At Johns Hopkins University Press, Davida Breier has been promoted to director, Hopkins Fulfillment Services and Hopkins Sales Partners, and Terrence Melvin to customer service and operations manager, Hopkins Fulfillment Services. Heidi Vincent has joined as business development and sales manager, Hopkins Sales Partners. Most recently, she was vice president of marketing for books at National Geographic. Ellis Avery, 46, author of works including The Last Nude and The Teahouse Fire, has died. Book Expo Rachel Maddow will host the Book Expo adult author breakfast on Thursday, May 30, and announce her new book. The panel will feature: Malcolm Gladwell (Talking to Strangers), Karin Slaughter […]
Corporate, Etc.: Pearson Sells K-12 Textbook Group and More
Pearson announced the $250 million sale of its K-12 courseware division to private equity group Nexus Capital Management, a sale which the company had been pursuing for at least a year as part of its simplification strategy. Chief executive John Fallon says it “frees us up to focus on the digital first strategy that will drive our future growth.” Nexus will pay just $25 million now, with the remainder due in an unconditional $225 million vendor note “expected to be repaid in three to seven years.” Thereafter, Pearson will continue to receive 20 percent of all future cash flows to […]