Melville House senior publicist Gregory Henry, 48, passed away unexpectedly on September 17. Before joining Melville House, Henry had worked at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Reagan Arts, and Harper Collins, as well as at Rare Bird, Apollo Publishers and Center Street. Melville House publisher Dennis Johnson wrote: “We’re still in a state of shock. We’d been trying to get Gregory to come work for us for years, and he finally joined us six months ago. I think the astonishing, industry-wide outpouring of grief and affection for him that we’re seeing on social media gives you some sense of how talented a […]
Scholastic Sales Rise on Trade and Education
Scholastic reported results for their first first quarter, ending August 31, traditionally their smallest reporting period, with sales rising measurably. They had revenues of $260 million, compared to $215 million a year ago. Trade sales rose almost 20 percent to $93 million (compared to $73.3 million a year ago), attributed to backlist and strong series sales, with their education solutions division gaining $26.5 million, at $80 million for the period. “Summer learning product offerings [were] bolstered by federal government funding for K-12 schools,” the company noted. The higher sales help to mitigate the seasonal loss: The pre-tax loss was $(33.3) […]
Follett to Leave the School Book Fair Business
Follett School Solutions, the K-12 division sold by parent Follett Corporation to Francisco Partners at the beginning of September, announced that it will close its school book fair business: “Due to the pandemic, Follett School Solutions has made the difficult decision to exit the Follett Book Fair business, effective November 15, 2021,” the company said in a brief statement. They added, “On this date, we will also pause our eFair business and will reevaluate this offering in the future.” CEO Britten Follett indicated to SLJ they have been getting as many as 50 cancellations a week and “there was no real […]
Gendell Says Continuing Errors Are the Obstacle to Foundry Author Payments
Former Foundry partner Yfat Reiss Gendell answered former partner Peter McGuigan’s request that the court order her to approve outstanding payments due to authors with an extensive account of what she says have been “erroneous payments.” Going further, Gendell calls the motion “a continuation of the smear campaign that gave rise to” her countersuit for defamation, “falsely portraying Ms. Gendell as the cause of delays of payments owed to Foundry’s authors and agents.” She asks the court to sanction McGuigan “for making the frivolous motion.” McGuigan’s recent filing cited almost $80,000 in payments said to be due and awaiting approval. […]
Acquisitions: Netflix Buys Roald Dahl Story Company
Netflix has a deal to acquire outright the literary works of Roald Dahl and the company that manages and exploits them, the Roald Dahl Story Company. After licensing adaptations of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda The Musical, Netflix said, “These projects opened our eyes to a much more ambitious venture – the creation of a unique universe across animated and live action films and TV, publishing, games, immersive experiences, live theatre, consumer products and more.” Based in the UK, the Roald Dahl Story Company has 26 full-time employees, led by managing director Luke Kelly. Separately, ILP said at […]
Dohle Pledges that PRH and S&S Will Bid Separately
In a private Zoom session on Monday, Penguin Random House ceo Markus Dohle announced to literary agents in answer to a frequently posed question that the company will allow competitive bidding between PRH and Simon & Schuster imprints in the US after the acquisition has closed. “We will treat Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster imprints as external parties in auctions for bidding purposes, post closing,” Dohle said. “This means very concretely, the auction will continue, even if the only imprints left are a PRH imprint and an S&S imprint.” He did reserve the right, “for governance reasons,” that […]