Gillian Blake has been promoted to editor-in-chief at Henry Holt, effective September 1. She has been with the imprint since 2009, and before then held editorial positions at Bloomsbury and HarperCollins. She replaces former B&N Discover Great New Writers Program chair Jill Lamar, who exits Holt on August 31 after just six months with the imprint. Blake reports to president and publisher Stephen Rubin, and senior editor Aaron Schlechter and editor Sarah Bowlin will report to her. Anne Tate will join Simon & Schuster as a senior publicist on August 29. Previously she was a senior publicist at HarperCollins. At […]
BAMM Earnings and Store Comps Slide Sharply in Second Quarter
Books-A-Million posted its second quarter earnings for the period ending July 30, with net sales dropping 11.4 percent to $106.4 million (from $120 million a year ago) and store comps falling 12.9 percent from the same time last year. The company also suffered a net loss of $2.9 million, or 18 cents a diluted share, in contrast to the $1.8 million in net profit earned 12 months ago, and on top of the $3.5 million lost in the first quarter. BAMM chairman, president and ceo Clyde Anderson said in a statement that the results “reflect a continuation of the trends […]
Martha Grimes Sues Penguin For Deducting Legal Expenses Against Advance
Bestselling mystery writer Martha Grimes has been involved in a series of court appearances related to her termination of representation by the Peter Lampack Agency (PLA) in 2007 after more than 11 years as a client. In the latest development, Grimes filed suit on August 12 in a New York Federal Court against her longtime publisher Penguin, alleging that the company materially breached its publishing contract with Grimes by not paying her $200,000 in advances and by setting-off legal expenses against her earnings in excess of what was provided for in their contract. She also alleges that Penguin “put its own […]
Bookselling: Notting Hill Travel Bookshop Starts Closing Sale; Breathe Books Seeks New Partner; and More
Owner of Breathe Books in Baltimore, MD Susan Weis-Bohlen is looking for an additional business partner in order to keep the store operating but also make time for travel and teach. She will host a Town Hall meeting on August 25 to talk about the future of the store and “find an individual, or a group of people, to partner with me so that we can grow breathe books and its programs.” Breathe Books letter The Travel Bookshop in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood will close in two weeks, and has begun its going-out-of business sale. Anglotopia.net Just two years after […]
Jana Partners Outlines Its Idea of a McGraw-Hill Breakup
Hedge fund Jana Partners, which built a 5.2 percent stake in McGraw-Hill along with the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund, disclosed earlier this month, indicated in an SEC filing on Monday exactly how it would like McGraw-Hill to function going forward. (Their combined holdings in the company also rose to 5.6 percent, according to the new filing.) Specifically, as outlined in a Powerpoint presentation given to McGraw-Hill’s board of directors earlier in the day, Jana wants the company to break itself up into four separate companies: Education, Information & Media, and two entities for S&P and its indices. “While the announcements […]
W. Paul Young Signs With Hachette For Next Book After Settling ‘The Shack’ Lawsuit
Hachette Book Group has signed William Paul Young for an untitled follow up to his multi-million selling novel THE SHACK, for which the publisher’s Faith Words imprint handled marketing, manufacturing, sales and distribution since mid-2008 after the original edition from Windblown Media sold over a million copies. The news comes shortly after Young reached a final settlement agreement with Windblown Media founders Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings on undisclosed terms on August 12, a deal that had been in the works for some time. (Young had alleged accounting improprieties, and Jacobsen and Cummings counter-sued, seeking joint copyright in the book.) […]