One-time PW publisher (in the late 80s and 90s) and now board member at regional and custom-magazine publisher Wainscot Media George Slowik has purchased PW from Reed Elsevier. Slowik is retaining the entire staff and recently-appointed management of publisher Cevin Bryerman and co-editors Jim Milliot and Michael Coffey.
iPad Day One: eBook State of Play
Shoppers created long lines outside of official Apple stores around the country, but in the New York suburbs (and elsewhere, according to Twitter) you could skip the long lines and score an iPad at some Best Buy locations, which had more inventory on hand than was originally promised. Among third-party book apps, the Kindle and Kobo apps are indeed live and working on the iPad, though Barnes & Noble’s app is not yet available. CEO William Lynch tells the WSJ, “We don’t have an exact date, but it will be there within the next two weeks. Apple certifies all apps, […]
As Expected Harper Studio Will Fold
Following the departure of founding executive Bob Miller, Harper’s Michael Morrison announced that “we have decided that in the interest of what’s best for our Harper Studio authors and employees, our last batch of titles to be published under the Harper Studio imprint will be on the Summer 2010 list.” All titles scheduled for beyond that season will be absorbed by one of Harper’s other imprints. Morrison says they “will be contacting agents and authors to discuss the best editors and imprints for each of these titles.” He also indicates that “all our imprints are happy to discuss profit sharing […]
Borders May Try to Raise New Equity, While Paying Steep Interest On New Loan
Borders filed details on their new credit agreements with the SEC along with filing their formal quarterly report. They disclose that the new $90 million term loan carries a minimum interest rate of 14.75 percent. Additionally, Borders needs to raise at least $25 million from the sale of new stock shares by May 15, or else there will be a $10 million reserve against the borrowing base of that term loan. (Even with yesterday’s sharp rise in the stock, Borders still has a current total market cap of about $150 million.) Good old Pershing Square is protected in the case […]
People
Sandy Hodgman will manage foreign rights on a part-time basis for LJK Literary Management and The Jud Laghi Agency starting May 1. She has sold foreign rights for HarperCollins and The Robbins Office. Both agencies will continue to work with co-agents in most territories, and to sell rights directly in the UK and Netherlands. On Demand Books has hired Steve Sutton as vp, director of university and library sales and Susie Stroud as vp, director of content acquisition. Most recently Sutton was vp, library services and director of new business development at YBP Library Services and Stroud was national accounts […]
May Indie Next List
The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John MandelThe Lonely Polygamist by Brady UdallThe Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline WinspearGirl In Translation by Jean KwokDiamond Ruby: A Novel by Joseph WallaceTomorrow River by Lesley KagenThe Invisible Bridge by Julie OrringerChef by Jaspreet SinghMy Name is Mary Sutter by Robin OliveiraThe Ark by Boyd MorrisonThe Map of True Places by Brunonia BarryBeatrice and Virgil by Yann MartelLean on Pete: A Novel by Willy VlautinThe Other Family by Joanna TrollopeThe Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’FarrellWanna Get Lucky? by Deborah CoontsThe Red Thread by Ann HoodThe Hypnotist (The Reincarnationist, […]