Hastings Entertainment reported fourth quarter and full year results Monday morning. For the quarter, the company reported net income of $1.2 million, compared to a loss of $8.4 million a year ago, with an overall loss of $9.3 million, nearly cut in half compared to the $17.6 million the company lost in 2011. Overall book comps dropped 4.5 percent for the quarter, compared to a 2.4 percent increase at the same time last year, “primarily due to decreased sales in new and used books and magazines, partially offset by strong holiday sales of Nextbook tablets.” (Without digital sales, book comps […]
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Confirmed via Twitter though not officially announced yet by the ABA, Anthony Marra‘s debut novel A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA from Hogarth will be the No. 1 Indie Next pick for May. Marra was among the authors appearing at Winter Institute 8 and you can read a 20-page excerpt from the beginning of his book right now in the current edition of our packed free ebook BUZZ BOOKS 2013: Spring/Summer. It also includes a sample from No. 1 Indie Next April book Kate Atkinson’s LIFE AFTER LIFE, another April pick (Aleksandr Hemon’s The Book of My Lives), and more highly-touted […]
Judge Sets October Trial Date in Bookseller DRM Lawsuit
New York Southern District Federal Judge Jed Rakoff is sticking to his plan for moving to trial quickly with the lawsuit filed by three booksellers against Amazon and the largest six publishing houses for Kindle DRM lock-in. After initially telling the parties “the court “requires that this case shall be ready for trial on August 12, 2013,” on Thursday Rakoff gave just a little–formalizing a schedule that would move the case towards an October trial. Earlier in the week Rakoff rejected a motion to stay discovery indefinitely. Judge Rakoff is giving the plaintiffs a whole week, until March 21, to […]
Plans Resume for IPO or Sale of Springer Science, But Bertelsmann No Longer Interested
The long, slow process of finding something to do with Springer Science continues, as the company’s private equity owner EQT restarts plans to sell or launch an IPO that they hope would value the academic publisher at as much as 4 billion euros, Bloomberg reports. EQT, according to the ever-reliable “people familiar with the matter” will “send documents to interested groups this month and potential buyers have received non-disclosure agreements.” Bertelsmann, which had expressed some interest in buying Springer last fall, now says in an email statement they won’t pursue the company after all. “For Bertelsmann, the area of business […]
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Sony Pictures longtime New York-based director of development Mark James is leaving the company to start his own book-to-film scouting company, James Literary Consulting, a book-to-film scouting company. Deadline.com says his two initial clients will be Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures and the Michaels-Goldwyn production company (a partnership between Lorne Michaels and John Goldwyn). Patti Pirooz has been promoted to publisher, Penguin Audio. Consortium will handle distribution for And Other Stories, Curbside Splendor Publishing, Gallic Books, GILES, and Stockholm Text effective June 1, as well as Koyama Press and Stockholm Text’s digital titles as of April 1.
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Jeffrey Yamaguchi has joined Abrams in the newly created position of director of digital marketing. Previously he was director of digital marketing for the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. In addition, there have been several recent promotions in the marketing department. Veronica Wasserman has been promoted to associate director, marketing operations, licenses, and brands. Nancy Lambert moves up to senior marketing manager, while Ellie Levine has been promoted to marketing manager and social media specialist. Maya Bradford moves up to associate publicist, while Nico Cassanetti has been promoted to marketing coordinator. Finally, in the children’s marketing and publicity department, Laura Mihalick […]