Founder of Australian online bookseller Booktopia Tony Nash has called a shareholder meeting to remove board members who fired him as ceo, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Nash, who owns 14 percent of shares, has proposed to remove two non-executive directors from the board, chair Chris Beare and Su-Ming Wong, as well as anyone else appointed since August 17. He also intends to appoint Abigail Cheadle to the board. “Tony Nash Enterprises Pty Ltd proposes to call, and arrange to hold, an extraordinary general meeting of the company for the purpose of considering, and if thought fit, passing the following […]
Trade Sales Stable in First Half of Year
The AAP released StatShot data for June, and for the first half of the year. In June, trade sales were mostly flat at $605.4 million, compared to $601.9 million last year. Adult sales for the month were $427.9 million, up from $417.3 million. (For comparison, June 2020 showed $454 million in adult sales, and June 2019 delivered $379 million.) Hardcover sales were down (9) percent to $104.5 million, while paperbacks rose 11 percent to $154.8 million. Mass markets were up 17 percent to $21.3 million. Children’s and YA books sold $177.5 million in June, down (4) percent overall. Hardcovers dropped […]
For the Record: S&S Touts Their Audio Capabilities, Worldwide Presence
Following PRH executive Manuel Sansigre’s testimony, an S&S spokesperson has clarified and corrected a couple of points. When Sansigre told the court, “We learned from the management presentation of Simon & Schuster that they have presence in 100 countries” and added that “in our case, we have presence in more than 200 countries,” he was speaking about sales of physical books only. S&S reports that for print books and ebooks combined, their titles are available in over 200 countries. PRH has its own “dedicated sales reps across the globe,” whereas S&S uses wholesalers and distributors in some international markets. Additionally, […]
Duke University Press Workers Win Union
The National Labor Relations Board has denied Duke’s April appeal to overturn the Duke University Press Union election, the union announced on Twitter. The move means that the press is officially unionized, and will now bargain with management on a contract.
Judge Rules PRH’s Efficiencies Estimates Are Inadmissible, After Sansigre Details Expected Staff Overlap, Royalty Raises
As we reported before the trial began, Judge Florence Pan had clearly been “a little skeptical” about admitting Penguin Random House’s internal expectations of significant cost savings and sales increases following the merger. On Wednesday morning, after another testy exchange with PRH’s attorney Andrew Frackman, Judge Pan ruled for the government and found the efficiencies evidence inadmissible: “The efficiencies projected by Penguin Random House are not substantiated and verified. Although many may be verifiable, some are not.” (We’ll share the full ruling tomorrow; it was quite extensive and thorough, and grounded in both the horizontal merger guidelines and case law […]
New Books Publishing August 16
Julian Barnes, Édouard Louis and Danielle Steele lead this week’s fiction releases, while nonfiction includes new work from Chris Mooney and James Patterson. 19 works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-august-16 https://shop.aer.io/publishers_lunch/cl/New_Fiction_Publishing_August_/224054 8 nonfiction titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-august-16 https://shop.aer.io/publishers_lunch/cl/New_Nonfiction_Publishing_August_/224055 We consult a number of sources in compiling our weekly lists and PM members can see our lists for the coming three months through this reference page. But if you want to make sure your key titles are on our radar, now you can use this form to submit brief details as well: publun.ch/submitNotable. Please submit your notable titles at least 3 months prior to pub date.