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Borders on ANZ Sales Borders CEO George Jones didn’t have a lot to say about the setback in their planned sale of stores in Australia and New Zealand but he did acknowledge the end of negotiations with A&R Whitcoulls, adding in a brief statement only that “we will continue to explore meaningful opportunities with the goal of reaching an agreement that meets our company’s objectives.” Lagardere Formalizes Results Following their preliminary report of fourth quarter and full-year sales a month ago, Lagardere issued their more extensive account of annual results, this time including earnings data. On the previously reported worlwide […]

Bloomsbury USA Promotes Dickerman, Puts Charkin at Top Following the departure of Karen Rinaldi, Bloomsbury USA has announced the promotion of editorial director Colin Dickerman to publisher for adult trade books and he will report to Bloomsbury’s executive director Richard Charkin, who will serve as president for Bloomsbury USA (still based in the company’s London headquarters). Dickerman joined Bloomsbury USA in 2000, and his acquisitions have included books by Alan Hollinghurst, David Leavitt, Ben Schott, Chelsea Handler, Roz Chast, and Sloane Tanen. Additionally, Sabrina Farber adds the title of associate publisher for adult trade and Diana Blough adds the title […]

Blackwell Powers Good Quarter at Wiley Wiley announced third quarter sales of $429 million, up sharply with the addition of Blackwell Publishing and still up 6 percent compared to a year ago even without Blackwell. They reported adjusted net income of $40 million, and adjusted earnings per share rose 7 percent for the quarter “excluding certain one-time tax benefits and Blackwell” and were well ahead of anaylsts’ expectations. Blackwell itself accounted for $115 million in sales and $16 million in operating income. Based on the strong quarter, the company increased its sales guidance for the fourth quarter by about $20 […]

Bankrupt Friday Project May Go to Harper UK UK blog-to-book publisher The Friday Project filed for the UK equivalent of bankruptcy on February 25. The company said when filing “the group now has insufficient funds to continue to trade and the directors have a responsibility not to allow the group to incur further liabilities where there is significant uncertainty about the group’s ability to meet their liabilities as they fall due.” The company indicated that “a delay in raising new funds last year led to a disruption in publishing books in the run-up to Christmas, which in turn led to […]

NBCC Award Winners Fiction Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Autobiography Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I’m Dying Biography Tim Jeal, Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer General Nonfiction Harriet Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present Criticism Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century Poetry Mary Jo Bang, Elegy April Book Sense The new Book Sense recommendations have been posted: 1. GIRLS IN TRUCKS, by Katie Crouch UNACCUSTOMED EARTH, by Jhumpa Lahiri THE OUTCAST, by Sadie Jones BELONG TO ME, by […]

AAP Rekindled Just to finish up our coverage of the remarks by Steve Kessel of Amazon at yesterday’s AAP meeting, he continued to evade providing much in the way of substantive details to Richard Sarnoff’s questions. One implied message was don’t expect any big physical changes in the Kindle any time soon: “We’re pretty focused on the current iteration of Kindle.” Their focus is on “getting back in stock” with the devices and “increasing the selection beyond the 100,000 or so books that are available today.” He had “no comment specifically” on Sarnoff’s queries about things like a better screen, […]