RBmedia will publish their business audiobooks under the new brand, Ascent Audio. The line is the successor to their Gildan Media brand (which they acquired in 2017). All of their business titles produced in partnership with other publishers will be issued under the Ascent Audio name, with the recently acquired McGraw Hill Professional business titles publishing under a joint McGraw Hill-Ascent brand.
Archives for August 2021
Awards: NBF Receives Grant to Highlight Science and Technology Books By Diverse Authors
The National Book Foundation will launch a new prize for books by diverse authors writing about science and technology, backed by a three-year, $525,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Three books a year will receive $10,000 awards, with the first titles to be selected in winter/spring 2022. The Science + Literature program is charged with “exploring the connection between science and the humanities” in order to “deepen readers’ understanding of science and technology with a focus on work that celebrates, highlights, and contributes to the diversity of voices in scientific writing.” Vice president and program director at the […]
August Book Club Picks
The August Read with Jenna selection is The Turnout by Megan Abbott.
New Books Publishing August 3
Stephen King, Anthony Veasna So, Megan Abbott, and Juan Gabriel Vasquez lead this week’s fiction releases, while nonfiction includes Emily Oster, James Lapine, and Robert Meyer and Dan Koeppel. Also new this week are titles from Mari K. Eder and Julie Murphy, both excerpted and available for download in our Buzz Books 2021: Spring/Summer sampler, and Ash Davidson, excerpted in the Buzz Books 2021: Fall/Winter sampler. 39 new works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-august-3 https://shop.aer.io/publishers_lunch/cl/New_Fiction_Publishing_August_/219653 14 new nonfiction titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-august-3 https://shop.aer.io/publishers_lunch/cl/New_Nonfiction_Publishing_August_/219654 We consult a number of sources in compiling our weekly lists and PM members can see our lists for the coming three […]
Hello Sunshine Announces Big Sale
Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine will be purchased by a new firm financed by private-equity company Blackstone. The terms of the deal weren’t announced, but a source told the WSJ the deal values Hello Sunshine at $900 million, with Blackstone spending over $500 million to buy out Hello Sunshine’s outside investors, including AT&T and Emerson Collective. Witherspoon and some the company’s executives and investors “will roll over the remaining equity into ownership stakes in the new company Blackstone is forming.” Former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs will run the new entertainment company that is purchasing Hello Sunshine, […]
Another Possible Sale or IPO Based On Your Content
It’s been a heady year for M&A among internet platforms that feature written and book-length content, including sales of Wattpad (to Naver, for about $600 million); VitalSource (to Francisco Partners); NetGalley and Quality Solutions/Firebrand (to Media Do International); Glose (to Medium); Radish (to Kakao Entertainment for $440 million); Tapas Media (to Kakao Entertainment for $510 million); and Epic (to Byju for $500 million) — as well as the giant sale of ProQuest to Clarivate for $5.3 billion. Another possible deal looms for document host and subscription service Scribd, as reported by Bloomberg recently. They note: “The company has held talks […]