Margaret Mahy, 76, author of more than 120 books for children and winner of numerous awards, including the Carnegie Medal and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, died Monday in Christchurch, NZ after a brief illness. NZ Herald obit Left-wing journalist, editor of Counterpunch and author Alexander Cockburn, 71, died Saturday in Bad Salzhausen, Germany after a two year battle with cancer. NYT obit At Penguin Children’s UK, Eric Huang has been promoted to new business and IP acquisitions director, reporting to Francesca Dow. Paul Biba has resigned from TeleRead after more than five years as contributor and then editor of […]
People: Wright to Take Over from Hayes at Viking Children’s; Naples, Ballenger Join Zola Books
Longtime president and publisher of Viking Children’s Books Regina Hayes will relinquish that position and serve as editor-at-large, just as she celebrates her thirtieth anniversary at Penguin. Writers House agent Ken Wright will take over as vp and publisher of Viking Children’s on August 27, reporting to Penguin Children’s president Don Weisberg. Weisberg says in the announcement, “Ken Wright is respected among the industry for his literary and commercial sensibility. His fantastic nose for new talent and respect for the classics make him the perfect candidate to helm and grow Viking’s celebrated list.” Wright notes, “Let’s face it, it’s one […]
Three Authors File Class Action Suit Against Harlequin On Deprivation of Digital Royalties
Three romance writers filed suit in New York’s southern district court Thursday morning against Harlequin alleging the publisher deprived them of ebook royalties rightfully owed to them for works published between 1990 and 2004 by funneling contracts through a Switzerland-based subsidiary, from which the ebooks needed to be “licensed.” Agents and authors have long whispered–or even posted on blogs–about Harlequin’s historical practice of ebook accounting, and now this suit seeks class-action status with the potential to become a blockbuster action by authors against the leading romance publisher. The plaintiffs are reaching out to any authors who signed contracts with Harlequin for […]
The Hunger Games Boosted Scholastic Q4 And Full Year Earnings, Though They Temper Expectations For Next Year
The three words repeated often in Scholastic’s earnings report for the successful fourth quarter and fiscal 2012 year — The Hunger Games — should come as no surprise. The trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins now has more than 50 million copies to date in print and digital formats, the company also announced Thursday morning (23 million copies for The Hunger Games, 14 million for Catching Fire, and 13 million for Mockingjay.) That means they added over 13.5 million units since the end of March (after shipping and/or selling 12.5 million units in the first quarter of the year). So much […]
Penguin Acquires Self-Publishing Service Author Solutions For $116 Million
In the first significant investment by a major trade publisher in self-publishing, Pearson announced Thursday morning that it has acquired self-publishing service Author Solutions from Bertram Capital for $116 million in cash (or a little more than one times sales). ASI, formed in 2007 from the merging of iUniverse, AuthorHouse, and other related self-publishing services, was put up for sale earlier this year. Pearson said in a statement the buy “gives Penguin a leading position in this fast-growing segment of the publishing industry and brings significant opportunity for the two companies to collaborate. Penguin will gain access to ASI’s expertise […]
People, Etc.
Former vp, director of marketing innovation at Random House Peter McCarthy has launched McCarthy Digital, a marketing strategy and consultancy designed to help trade book publishers define and realize their business and marketing strategies. Kristin Ostby has joined Simon & Schuster for Young Readers as editor. She was most recently a senior editor for Albert Whitman. Simon Thorogood will join Headline on August 28 as publisher, non-fiction, reporting to Jonathan Taylor. He was most recently editorial director at Transworld imprint Bantam Press.