New York State Judge Hal B. Greenwald of Dutchess County ordered Mary Trump and her publisher Simon & Schuster to temporarily refrain from “publishing, printing or distributing” her book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man or “any portions thereof.” The order lasts until a full hearing on July 10 on Robert Trump’s request for an injunction blocking publication. Alas, in papers filed with the court later on Tuesday, S&S ceo Jonathan Karp indicated that, “As of today, approximately 75,000 copies have been printed and bound and are ready for publication, thousands of […]
Archives for June 2020
McGraw Hill Reports Declining Sales for 2020, with Heavier COVID Impact in the Current Quarter
McGraw Hill issued its first annual report under its new fiscal calendar, with the year ending March 31, 2020, along with its fourth quarter results. Fourth quarter billings were flat, at $241 million, and net sales were $279 million with no comparison figure available. COVID-19 had clear negative impact on the quarter: International billings were dragged down $9 million, or 24 percent; higher ed and K-12 were also impacted, due to school closures. Billings were still flat, however, because higher education sales have been shifting from Q3 to Q4. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $(39) million, from $(56) million, […]
People, Etc.
After the recent restructure of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon Pulse senior editors Jen Ung and Nicole Ellul will join Simon & Schuster Children’s, reporting to Kendra Levin; and editor Sarah McCabe will join Margaret K. McElderry Books, reporting to Karen Wojtyla. At Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Shannon Spisak has been promoted to senior director of global marketing & communications and Jenna Marson to manager of global marketing & licensing. Mariana Garavaglia has joined Wiley’s board of directors. Currently chief people and business operations officer at Peloton, she was previously managing director for the Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star stores. […]
People, Etc.
Sandy Lu has founded Book Wyrm Literary Agency, focusing on commercial fiction and nonfiction, bringing over her clients from the L. Perkins Agency, where she has been for almost 12 years. Chelene Knight has joined Transatlantic Agency as associate agent. She was previously managing editor at Room magazine and festival director for the Growing Room Literary Festival in Vancouver. Tara Gavin has joined Alcove Press and Crooked Lane Books as a senior acquisitions editor, working on book club and women’s fiction as well as select mysteries. Previously she was an executive editor at Kensington. President of Oxford University Press USA Niko Pfund took over […]
Barnes & Noble Education Investor Nominates New Directors, While Hoping for An Outright Sale
Outerbridge Capital Management, with a 13.5 percent stake in Barnes & Noble Education that’s deeply underwater, said in an SEC filing it would nominate four alternate directors to the board of the company “to unlock its immense potential.” Outerbridge paid approximately $22.2 million to acquire their shares, now worth less than half that. They say their nominees “have deep operational, financial, and strategic experience within the education, technology and investment industries” and also “possess experience steering companies through periods of rapid growth, reinvention, and times of crisis.” But the filing may really be designed to advertise their belief in the […]
Agent and A Publisher Part Ways with Author Myke Cole
Author Myke Cole’s literary agent Joshua Bilmes at Jabberwocky and one of his publishers, Angry Robot, parted ways with the author after new allegations of abuse were made against him. Cole apologized for his behavior, and reiterated an apology from 2018 — and then said he was “exiting…the public square…for the foreseeable future.” Bilmes posted: “I and Myke Cole have parted ways. I founded JABberwocky with the goal of doing right by the clients — all of the agency’s clients — and of doing right by the staff that have come to be part of the JABberwocky team. No one […]