A year after he was arrested and charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to a years-long manuscript phishing scam, Filippo Bernardini pleaded guilty in Federal Court to one count of wire fraud. As part of his plea, he agreed to pay restitution of $88,000. Bernardini will be sentenced by District Judge Colleen McMahon on April 5. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. But his lawyer, public defender Hannah McCrea, said he will likely face a sentence of 15 to 21 months imprisonment under recommended sentencing guidelines and in an agreement with the […]
Unspared: Harry’s Memoir Is Out, and The Sales Watch Begins
The embargo for Prince Harry’s memoir SPARED fell, first in a trickle — the Guardian “obtained” an early copy — and then in a flood, as the edition in Spain accidentally went on sale early, on Thursday. The book will officially launch on Jan. 10 with strong pre-orders, but the guessing game is on over the potential strength of continuing sales. Random House has said it is printing 2 million copies, and Barnes & Noble ceo James Daunt is talking it up (which makes perfect sense): “Customer preorders have been crazy,” he told the WSJ. “It’s going to blow up […]
UTA Acquires Fletcher & Company
UTA announced that it has acquired literary agency Fletcher & Company. Founder and ceo Christy Fletcher will co-lead the UTA Publishing division along with current head Byrd Leavell, with both reporting to UTA President David Kramer. (Fletcher and Leavell had been colleagues at Carlisle and Company many years ago.) The entire team at Fletcher & Company will join UTA, in the agency’s New York office, and the Fletcher name will be retired. The acquisition builds on UTA’s purchase of Curtis Brown UK in 2022, and continues to expand the scope of their publishing division. UTA president David Kramer says in […]
DA Tells Victims Bernardini Will Plead Guilty on Friday
After multiple adjournments as various offers from the defendant were considered by the government, accused manuscript thief Filippo Bernardini is expected to plead guilty on Friday to wire fraud. The NYT got the news from emails sent to victims from the US district attorney in the Southern District of New York. That’s a more serious disposition than the deferred prosecution request (an informal type of probation) that the government was asked to consider during the summer.
2022: The Year In Mergers
2022 was an odd year for publishing mergers, in multiple ways. In line with the larger market and the broader economy, the year started strong with a series of deals of note, following pandemic-driven strength. Then as interest rates rose and the economy cooled, deal activity got quiet quickly. Some of the year’s biggest deals were the ones that didn’t happen. There was Penguin Random House’s planned $2.175 billion acquisition of Simon & Schuster that was blocked by the court, of course. (Which means S&S will be back up for sale in 2023.) But also, it became clear in early […]
Strong Final Holiday Sales Week Surpasses 2021
As anticipated, the inclusion of an extra pre-holiday shopping day helped to lift the final week of holiday sales above the same closing week from last year. Notably, it’s the first and only week in the holiday sales stretch in which 2022 sales outpaced the same week from 2021. (Indeed, the last time a 2022 sale week was ahead of the comparable week from a year ago was in late August.) According to NPD Bookscan, week 51 sales for the period ending December 24 saw print sales of 29.8 million units, versus 27.1 million units a year ago and 23.3 […]