• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

Briefs: People, A PRH Bonus, Sales News, Status Reports and More

March 25, 2020
By Erin Somers

At Simon & Schuster, Melissa Hurt has been promoted to telemarketing account manager. Tricia Orlando joins as telesales account manager. She was previously with Norton in the trade sales department.

Sharismar Rodriguez has joined Macmillan Children’s as senior art director for Feiwel and Friends, Holt, Roaring Brook Press, and FSG Children’s lists. Previously, she was art director at HMH.

At HarperCollins Children’s, Jane Lee has been promoted to associate director, social media; Tyler Breitfeller to senior marketing associate; and Michael D’Angelo to marketing associate.

Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally, 81, died Tuesday due to complications from the coronavirus.

Wine writer Michael Broadbent, 92, also died Tuesday, in England.

Bonuses
Following Bertelsmann’s reporting of 2019 results, Penguin Random House US ceo Madeline McIntosh wrote to staff announcing a special bonus payment. “Everyone participated in our 2019 achievements, and I’m more grateful than ever to be part of a company that shares the rewards of success when we can.” Every regular employee who is not otherwise eligible for a bonus will receive a one-time payment of $856 (prorated based on 2019 service).

With “many more challenging days ahead” likely, McIntosh writes, “I have never been more proud of us as a company as I am right now. Our core values—creativity, ingenuity, perseverance, mutual care, and respect—have been on full display as we’ve bobbed and weaved together through the hour-by-hour challenges to our business.”

Status
Baker & Taylor Publisher Services‘ facilities in Ashland, OH remain open and operational — but in the UK Baker & Taylor has closed its Bicester warehouse for everything but “urgent and essential matters.”

Sales
NPD Bookscan is helpfully provided detailed weekly briefings on “content trends that are up and down” in the print book market during these uncertain times. For the week ending March 14,

Studying from home/what to do with the kids was the biggest group showing gains during the week, followed by reading for pleasure. Among specific sub-categories of scale, in terms of their overall size, the biggest increases in sales last week were for literary fiction (22%); kids’ activity books (27%); personal memoirs (67%); and self-help (63%), followed by kids’ study aids, and coloring books.

In more granular reporting on some of those kids’ books, Workman tells the NYT they have ordered reprints of about 3 million copies of their Brain Quest and Big Fact Notebook series in the last two weeks, along with a reprint of almost 1 million copies of their Paint By Sticker activity book series.

Four of the six largest categories that declined during the week were various sub-categories of Christian life books, along with personal growth titles and diet books. (As ever, agents and authors and some others can subscribe to full Bookscan access through PublishersMarketplace.com.)

Call for Previews
Once again we are finalizing our latest Buzz Books 2020: Fall/Winter sampler, which will include extensive seasonal preview/overview listings of notable titles on the way. We compile these big roundups by looking at publisher catalogs, our own comprehensive monthly lists of significant forthcoming books; hints from our substantial flow of deal reports; aggregation of “anticipated books” lists from other publications; word-of-mouth within the industry; and more.

If you have notable fall/winter titles you would like to have considered for the preview list — particularly ones you are concerned we might have missed from the regular signals, along with drop-ins and rescheduled releases — now is your chance to let us know. Please email us your suggestions no later than April 3, and make sure to include author, title, imprint, and pub date. Send to Erin Somers (erin@publishersmarketplace.com).

Filed Under: Free, Industry Statistics, Legal, Personnel

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Jefferson, de Kretser Win Folio Prizes March 27, 2023 Prize announcement
  • Harper UK Edits Agatha Christie Novels to Remove "Offensive" Language March 27, 2023 The Guardian
  • NYU Launches Five-Day "Advanced Publishing Institute" Program for January 2024 March 25, 2023 NYU site
  • Hachette UK to Publish "Spare Us!" Parody on April 6 March 23, 2023 Publisher site
  • Netflix to Stream Series Based on Ramit Sethi's Book, "How to Get Rich" March 23, 2023 THR
  • James Patterson Signs First-Look Development Deal with Skydance Television March 22, 2023 Deadline
  • "I find it kind of stunning that the [Internet] Archive would put its entire free service at risk over such an obviously wrong stand" March 21, 2023 Dan Kennedy / Media Nation
  • Douglas Stuart's Young Mungo Is Being Adapated Into a TV Series by A24 March 21, 2023 Deadline
  • Reid Hoffman Posts a Free eBook About His Experiences with ChaptGPT-4 March 16, 2023 Free PDF
  • Siri Hustvedt Reveals that Paul Auster Is Receiving Cancer Treatment at Sloan Kettering March 14, 2023 Instagram post
© 2023 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.