Over the weekend the NYT reported on former Vice President Dick Cheney’s campaign for a book deal, represented by Bob Barnett. “A person familiar with discussions Mr. Cheney has had with publishers said he was seeking more than $2 million for his advance.” But “Cheney’s friends say he does not need the money and has made clear in his talks that he is eager to give a full accounting of his life in politics that will debunk his many critics. According to a person familiar with a meeting that Mr. Cheney had with a publisher, the former vice president is […]
People and Announcements
Doubleday executive editor Gerry Howard has been named the winner of the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction’s Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction. Chairman Peter Ginna said, “Over the course of many years Gerald Howard has introduced and championed the work of a host of writers who have helped to push the boundaries of contemporary fiction.” Random House UK launched their social networking site for book clubs, ReadersPlace, a follow-on to last year’s AuthorsPlace site, which lets the publisher’s authors set up, personalize and update their own web pages and manage their own online […]
HMH Parent Aims to Swap Equity for Debt
The Irish Independent cite says Houghton Mifflin Harcourt parent company Education Media & Publishing Group, just like the ailing auto giants, is “on the cusp of finalizing a massive restructuring of its balance sheet, which will see holders of a chunk of its $7 billion debt turn their exposure into equity.” Citing “market sources,” they say that as a result, financial whiz and current ceo Barry O’Callaghan would have his 38 percent stake significantly diluted. Reed Elsevier would also see the 11.8 percent stake they took as part of the sale of Harcourt diluted in such a deal. While “it […]
Books-A-Million Grows Sales, As Does Indigo
Overall sales actually rose at Books-a-Million in the first quarter, up $2.3 million to $118.2 million, while same-store sales slid 1.1 percent. Net income rose to $2.1 million, though much of the gain came from savings on stocks grants and compensation forfeited when ceo Sandra Cochran left the company. CEO Clyde Anderson says in the release, “Given the difficult economic environment, we’re pleased with our results for the quarter. While comparable sales numbers were down slightly, they represented an improvement over recent quarters, and our continued focus on cost control, gross margin and inventory management delivered improved earnings.” Release At […]
The Tricks of Tracking the Content Explosion
I think this is going to turn out to be the month a lot of people realize that industry statistics–long an imperfect set of measures–are struggling mightily in mapping the complex and booming body of content that has some relationship to “books.” Earlier this week Bowker released preliminary statistics on new titles published during 2008, making a distinction between “traditional book publishing” and “on-demand/short-run” books. (The split was actually introduced last year, but drew more attention this year as title growth in the latter category more than doubled to 285,000 titles, making it larger than the “traditional” segment’s 275,000 titles.) […]
Elisabeth Sifton at FGS's Long View: "Wariness Is In Order"
Sifton has a long piece in The Nation with a wide sweep of publishing history to try and make sense of the present: “When I first got a publishing job almost half a century ago, my elders and betters in the trade regularly worried about The Future of Books, even though manuscripts continued to pour onto our desks. They worried, too, when firms changed ownership….” “What now? Publishers are battening down, and chain stores are struggling, having staked so much on nationally merchandised dreck, having committed themselves to imitating the look of the big indies but never quite matching their […]