Carrie Thornton has joined HarperCollins as executive editor, It Books. Previously she was executive editor at Dutton. David Kelly has been promoted to deputy editor at the New York Times Book Review, reports children’s editor Pamela Paul. He replaces Bob Harris, who took a buyout at the end of 2011 after more than 29 years at the paper. In the Hachette Digital group: Anthony Goff has been promoted to vp, audio and large print; and Michele McGonigle has been promoted to director of production; Megan Fitzpatrick has been promoted to associate director of marketing and publicity for Hachette Audio. At […]
Corporate News: Scholastic Buys Learners Publishing; Bertelsmann Sells 50 Percent Stake in Pubbles to Weltbild
Scholastic announced Monday that its Singapore subsidiary acquired Learners Publishing, a Singapore-based publisher of supplemental English-language learning materials which has published more than 400 titles since its founding in 2000. “Through this acquisition, Scholastic’s offering of products in the English Language Learning segment is significantly enhanced,” Scholastic International president, growth markets Shane Armstrong said in the release. “Learners’ talented team and its list of outstanding titles will assist Scholastic in accelerating educational publishing growth in International markets.” Regulators approved Bertelsmann’s deal to sell half of its stake in German e-reading store/platform Pubbles to Weltbild for an undisclosed sum. The deal was […]
Alex George’s A Good American Tops the February 2012 Indie Next List
Here are the ABA’s latest monthly picks: 1. A Good American: A Novel, by Alex George Defending Jacob: A Novel, by William Landay The Snow Child: A Novel, by Eowyn Ivey The Mirage: A Novel, by Matt Ruff A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty: A Novel, by Joshilyn Jackson The Flight of Gemma Hardy: A Novel, by Margot Livesey The Art of Hearing Heartbeats: A Novel, by Jan-Philipp Sendker History of a Pleasure Seeker: A Novel, by Richard Mason The Chalk Girl: A Mallory Novel, by Carol O’Connell The Odds: A Love Story, by Stewart O’Nan Contents May Have Shifted: A […]
BN Finishes 2011 With Store Closings, and More Bookselling News
Barnes & Noble closed a number of stores across the country at the end of the year, nearly all of them apparently due to lease expirations. The bookseller typically has a large number of leases up for renewal in any given year; they indicated in 2011 that 129 leases will expire and/or renew in 2012, and the company has shown a willingness to close locations where they believe the revised rent is unsustainable. Local news reports indicate that at least seven stores have closed in the following cities (we are awaiting confirmation from the company): Prescott, AZ Los Angeles, CA […]
Investor Buys A Million Shares in Books-A-Million For 6.38 Percent Stake
Late last week, a filing with the SEC revealed that Roseland, NJ-based investor Harsha Gowda has acquired a little more than one million shares of Books-A-Million stock through his five-year-old investment firm Blueshore Capital Management. The acquisition gives Gowda a 6.38 percent stake in BAMM, accumulated over the past year with a “big increase during the recent sharp price drop,” he said in an interview with us Thursday morning. (The stock has been as high as $6.10 a share during the year, but it now trades at $2.30 a share.) Gowda’s fund focuses on buying stock in companies “that we […]
eNews: Kindle Has “Best Holiday Ever”; 100K Xmas Downloads for Harper UK; and More
Restating the obvious and continuing its tradition of trumpeting nonspecific success, Amazon announced that 2011 “was the best holiday ever for the Kindle family as customers purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle e-readers,” while Christmas day was the “biggest day ever” for Kindle book downloads. Building on their earlier press release, they say that “throughout December, customers purchased well over 1 million Kindle devices per week.” Despite straining to celebrate and overplay the success of KDP authors, the etailer admits that the top ebooks for the holiday sales period were The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins […]