LitHub.com, the literary web site backed by Grove/Atlantic that is scheduled to debut on April 8, pulls back the curtain a little bit ahead of time, with an article in the WSJ and a press release. (The pre-announcement is apparently because of a “sneak peek” session they will convene on Monday at the ABA’s Winter Institute.) Founding editor of L Magazine Jonny Diamond is editor-in-chief, with John Freeman as executive editor. Electric Literature has partnered to design and develop the web site, and Grove/Atlantic’s Morgan Entrekin conceived of the site in conjunction with veteran magazine editor Terry McDonell. The paradigm is […]
Harper Has Flat Quarter Before Harlequin Gain
HarperCollins’ parent company News Corp. reported second quarter fiscal year sales for the period ending December 31 after the close of the market on Thursday. On an adjusted basis, before adding in the recently-acquired Harlequin, Harper’s sales were flat at $392 million, with EBITDA down 4 percent to $65 million — but pretty much a win for the publisher since it compares to the period a year ago when Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy was taking off. The company cites “strong performances in children’s and general books resulting from higher backlist sales during the holiday season, which largely offset the lower revenues […]
Waterstones’ Sales Continuing Falling, But Daunt Expects Operating Profit Soon
Following the results of Waterstones in the UK is confusing, for two reasons. The first is that the privately-held company releases data on a delayed basis; in late January or early February, they file a government document that shows sales for the fiscal year ending the previous April. (So their results for the year ending April 2014 have just been filed.) The other reason is that the UK media is continuously eager to focus on how Waterstones is being saved, and managing director James Daunt is always ready with provocative quotes to fill the stories. Looking just at the numbers, […]
Rowman & Littlefield Grows On Acquisitions
Driven by the purchase of multiple Globe Pequot Press imprints last May and the Alban Institute’s book business in January, Rowman & Littlefield says that book and journal sales rose to $60.3 million in 2014, up from $51 million the year before. Client sales through their distribution businesses NBN and NBN International were almost flat at $78 million, down $1 million. R&L says digital products comprised 11.5 percent of publishing sales.
People: On George Nicholson, and More
Sterling Lord Literistic agent George Nicholson, 77, died on Tuesday. Before joining SLL in 1995, he founded Delacorte Press and Yearling Books, and was publisher of Books for Children at The Viking Press. At Hachette Book Group, recently-appointed svp group sales director Chris Murphy announced a reorganization of the sales group to “better align individuals to make the very most of their skills, and position us as a strong, well-rounded sales team.” Dave Epstein moves up to vp, retail sales, and will hire an executive director of children’s sales to fill his former position. Linda Jamison is promoted to executive director of mass merchant sales, reporting to […]
And Then There Were Three: New Hachette Agency Pricing Trickles In
Hachette Book Group officially implemented their new ebook agency pricing on February 1, feeding new pricing data to retailers in that evening’s ONIX feed — and ever so slowly, you can start to see those changes showing up in the marketplace. On Amazon, the new Kindle pricing is most evident on some pre-orders — such as Jeffery Deaver’s SOLITUDE CREEK, with an ebook price of $14.99 and a print price of $28 — and some high-priced print titles. The ebooks with new pricing carry the telltale signifier, “this price was set by the publisher.” For some reason, retailers have not yet […]