Hachette UK has extended their string of modest acquisitions in purchasing Laurence King Publishing (best known for Johanna Basford’s coloring books). King himself, who recently turned 65, will leave after a six-month term as a consultant. Hachette UK has been the distributor for LKP. In 2018, the most recently reported year, LKP had sales of £16 million, with almost no profit. The gift, trade and art books will keep the LKP name as an imprint of Orion, run by Anna Valentine. Their student and professional books will become an imprint of Quercus and the children’s publishing will be part of […]
New Books Publishing September 1
It’s a big start to a busy month, with novels from Emma Cline, Elena Ferrant, Yaa Gyasi, Evie Wyld and more, and headline-making nonfiction on the New England Patriots and Melania Trump along with new work by Eula Biss. This week also marks the release of the first of our virtual “buzz panel” selections, Simon Stephenson’s SET MY HEART TO FIVE. As in previous weeks, our sample Bookshop and Aerbook store carousels provide easy displays of books publishing today in need of attention and support, featuring: 15 new works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-september-1 8 new nonfiction titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-august-18 More new children’s and YA titles […]
More Pub Date Delays
Every week we monitor pub date changes on our lists of notable forthcoming books (following roughly 150 books a month). Further to Friday’s piece on printing issues and a wave of pub date changes from Penguin Random House imprints in particular due to limited capacity, a few additional postponements have appeared in the metadata: Nonfiction by Wesley Morgan (Random House, now March 2021) and Milo Beckman (Dutton, now December 2020) moved, as did Victoria Thompson’s novel (Berkley, now January). We also noted at least eight pub date changes from Simon & Schuster imprints, all moving forward by just two to […]
Out of Print
The NYT explains to readers that the shortages for some in-demand books this summer (and modest adjustments in some release dates) are likely to be more severe this fall. A wave of books rescheduled early in the pandemic plus a publishing schedule that tried to release fall books ahead of the presidential election — along with urgent reprint orders for topical books — is straining the long-tight capacity for book printing. It is a problem of abundance — lots of anticipated releases and strong demand for print books — which is made worse by Covid crewing issues (including at component […]
By Small Margin, Romano Remains on NBCC Board After Special Vote
The vote to remove Carlin Romano from the board of the National Book Critics Circle fell 9 votes short of the two-third of ballots required for removal, and he will continue to serve until his term is up in 2022. Only about 28 percent of members voted, and the 104 votes for removal comprised 62 percent of the vote tally. As the organization notes, “Proxy voting was a major factor in the outcome.” People voting at the meeting itself went 72 percent for removal, but collected proxy votes were only 39 percent for removal. The board declared in its report […]
Barnes & Noble Education Is Finished Considering A Sale
After a lengthy investigation that started last December following “a number of unsolicited inquiries,” the Barnes & Noble Education board has once again found that it is doing a terrific job and has formally ended any consideration of a sale. “An exhaustive strategic review was undertaken and completed,” the release says. Fortunately, “At the same time, the company also made significant progress towards implementing and executing its digital transformation strategy, which further enhanced the company’s importance and relevance to its customers, particularly given the post-COVID-19 shift to remote learning.” Independent director Vice Admiral John R. Ryan says in the announcement, […]