Renowned chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and editor-in-chief of Knopf Sonny Mehta died on Monday, December 30 of complications from pneumonia. He was 77. Plans for a memorial service will be announced. The company said in a statement, “Mehta’s contributions to the world of letters and publishing are without precedent. His exacting standards – in editorial, production, design, marketing, and publicity – were a beacon to the book industry and beyond. He was a friend to writers, editors, and booksellers around the world. Mehta was also a gentleman, uniquely so, who cared deeply about his colleagues and the […]
Archives for December 2019
OverDrive Sold to KKR by Rakuten
Rakuten has an agreement to sell OverDrive to private equity firm KKR, under the direction of Richard Sarnoff, with the deal expected to close by the end of January. The digital reading and media platform for libraries and schools should pair well with audiobook publisher and platform RBmedia, which KKR bought in 2018. (RBmedia also has a platform that provides digital content to libraries.) The private equity firm bought both OverDrive and RBmedia through its KKR Americas XII Fund. The purchase price was “determined rationally by mutual agreement of both parties” but not disclosed for now. Rakuten said in their […]
Holiday Sales Look Steady Ahead of Final Shopping Days, As 2018 Titles Lead
NPD Bookscan reported print sales for the week ending December 21 of approximately 32.96 million units, covering all but the final three important days of holiday sales. That followed sales of 26.9 million units the week before. That’s on par with or slightly behind the two full pre-holiday weeks from 2018, when print sales were approximately 33.7 million units in the last full sales week, and 27 million units the week before. The big difference this year is that there are no new books comparable to Michelle Obama’s memoir pulling the market. A year ago in the last full holiday […]
RWA Suspends Courtney Milan for Ethics Violation, Rescinds Suspension
A controversy involving the Romance Writers of America’s code of ethics played out online following an ethics ruling by the organization about romance author Courtney Milan. On December 23, Milan was suspended from RWA for one year and banned from holding positions in the organization in the future. (She has served on the RWA board.) The ruling was based on a series of August Twitter posts by Milan criticizing other RWA writers. But then the next day, RWA rescinded the ruling “pending a legal opinion.” The AP reports that 28 “organization leaders in various regional positions” called for the resignation […]
Company News: LSC Delisted By NYSE, China’s Publishing Chill, More on Dreamspinner
As anticipated, LSC Communications was kicked off the New York Stock Exchange, which is designed for companies of scale. Trading on the NYSE was suspended at the end of last week, since the company failed to maintain a market cap of at least $15 million for over 30 consecutive trading days. They also failed to maintain a share price of $1 or more. LSC now trades on the OTCQX Best Market, falling another 15 percent in the first forty-five minutes on Monday, down to about 31 cents a share, for a market cap of a little over $10 million. China […]
Audible Attorney Says “Only a Few Outstanding Issues Remain” on Captions Settlement
Audible and the publishers who sued the company over the planned Captions feature adding scrolling text to audiobooks may be close to a resolution. According to Audible attorney Emily Reisbaum, in a letter to Judge Valerie Caproni on December 27, “there are only a few outstanding issues requiring further negotiation.” In that update, Reisbaum, saying “we write on behalf of all parties,” asked the court for still more time to continue negotiations. Given that they have been asking for extensions since the beginning of October, Judge Caproni had ordered on December 18 that “any further request for suspension of consideration […]