Following the departure of Gillian Blake for Crown Trade in early December, new Holt publisher Ben Schrank has filled the editor-in-chief position from within the company. Executive editor Serena Jones is being promoted to editor in chief. Metropolitan Books publisher and co-founder Sara Bershtel moves up to senior vice president (with Maggie Richards being named a vice president). Schrank notes the Elton John autobiography releases this fall, with the publisher confirming a worldwide publication date of October 15. Publishing director at Penguin Press UK Helen Conford will move to Profile Books in May, where she will take over from Andrew […]
Archives for March 2019
Audio: Book Bub Launches Audio Deals for Direct Sale, and More
BookBub has launched a service called Chirp that highlights digital audiobook deals and sells those audiobooks directly, working as a supported retailer through distributor Findaway. The program is still in beta, and only has been rolled out to a “small percentage” of BookBub members, but they “anticipate a broader rollout over the coming year and expect the platform to evolve as we make improvements based on early user feedback.” The currently featured deals, offering about 75 audiobooks across seven categories, come from Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Blackstone, and a few independent authors. The company says they are […]
Wiley Reports Significant Decline in Publishing for Q3
Wiley reported fiscal third quarter earnings Tuesday morning, with overall sales down slightly, to $449 million from $456 million, representing “favorable underlying growth throughout, except in book publishing,” according to president and ceo Brian Napack. Operating income dropped more significantly, however, to $50 million from $65 million a year ago, or 23 percent. The results include $13 million in sales from the recent acquisition of Learning House, and -$6 million in operating income. Just after 11 a.m., the stock was trading down about 15 percent from the prior day’s close. STM and professional publishing sales fell $16.2 million or 20 […]
Barnes & Noble Education Stock Falls on Reduced Guidance
Barnes & Noble Education’s shares were down close to 30 percent in the first two hours of trading on Tuesday, after the company once again released lower-than-expected earnings and reduced guidance. Fiscal third quarter sales of $550 million fell 8.8 percent, down from $603 million a year ago. (Second quarter sales had fallen 8.1 percent; first quarter sales were down 5.1 percent.) Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA was $22 million, down from $34.6 million in the prior year period. The continuing poor results led the company to reduce its 2019 guidance, with consolidated sales now expected to be in the range of […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Tessa Woodward has been promoted to executive editor at William Morrow/Avon. At Little, Brown: Alexandra Hoopes has been promoted to assistant editor; Lucy Kim is now art director and Tim Harrington is senior art director; Katharine Myers moves up to director of publicity, Lena Khidritskaya Little becomes associate director of publicity and Alyssa Persons is publicist; and Ashley Marudas is promoted to senior marketing manager. Kathryn Taussig will be promoted to publishing director at Bookouture as of April 23, reporting to Jenny Geras, responsible for recruiting and leading their recently-announced team that will focus on commercial fiction for the US market. […]
A New Way for Agents and Authors to View Bookscan Sales Data
For a long time we have helped level the playing field and provided transparency by offering agents, scouts and authors unlimited access to the NPD Bookscan database of book sales through annual subscriptions (along with an optional upgrade to view the PubTrack Digital ebook sales database). Now we are taking that further with a new program that provides an affordable monthly subscription to a limited package of sales data, that lets qualified members follow or research up to 5 different ISBNs a month. For each ISBN, you’ll see actual, tracked US print sales for the most recent week, the year […]