The US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland approved the sale of Diamond Comics’s assets to bidders Universal and Ad Populum. Subject to final closing, Universal will acquire “the assets of Alliance Game Distributors, and Ad Populum will acquire the assets of Diamond Comic Distributors, Diamond Book Distributors, Diamond Select Toys & Collectibles, Collectible Grading Authority, and other related assets.” Diamond UK “remains separate from this sale process.” The combined price is around $57 million, far lower than the top bid entered by Alliance Entertainment, which was reportedly upwards of $72 million. The approval follows an unusual bankruptcy process […]
Archives for April 2025
Forthcoming: Dick Van Dyle’s ‘Rules For Living’; A New Gruffalo Book
Grand Central will publish 100 RULES FOR LIVING TO 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life by Dick Van Dyke on November 18. Suzanne O’Neill, vp, executive editor at Grand Central, acquired world rights from Ian Kleinert at Paradigm. The publisher writes that the book is an “autobiographical collection of life advice, stories, and reflections on how he’s maintained good health and a zest for life as he enters his tenth decade.” Elsewhere, Dial Children’s will publish a new as yet untitled Gruffalo book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler in September 2026, the first new book in the series […]
Simon & Schuster Partners with Urano World
Primero Sueño Press has entered a joint publishing arrangement with Spanish and Latin American publisher Urano. Urano will publish a “select number” of Primero Sueño’s Spanish language books in Spain and Latin America, and will distribute the titles directly to other Spanish-speaking territories. In addition, Primero Sueño will co-publish twenty Urano World titles in the US, beginning with the Spanish edition of Jaysea Lynn’s FOR WHOM THE BELLE TOLLS on October 21. According to a release, the agreement is part of S&S’s mission to expand internationally and is the first time the company “will have the opportunity to distribute directly into […]
Obituary: Esmond Harmsworth
Literary agent Esmond Harmsworth, 57, died on April 9 of natural causes while on vacation with his family in Mauritius. He founded the literary agency Zachary Shuster Harmsworth in 1997 with Lane Zachary and Todd Shuster. ZSH merged with Kuhn Projects in 2016 to form Aevitas Creative Management. As president at Aevitas, Harmsworth represented authors including Keith McFarland, Amanda Ripley, Hester Young, and Michelle Hoover. “Esmond was a consummate intellectual, a widely beloved representative of scores of authors from across the world, and an absolutely irrepressible bon vivant,” Shuster said. “Through his work as a literary agent, philanthropist, and advocate, […]