Little, Brown has world English rights to the first novel for adults by JK Rowling, the company announced Thursday morning. Little Brown UK publisher David Shelley will serve as Rowling’s editor and Michael Pietsch will oversee publication in the US. All other details–title, pub date “and further details about the novel will be announced later in the year.” But one important element has been settled: While the world waits for Pottermore and the Harry Potter ebooks, Little, Brown promises they will publish “both in print and ebooks.” Rowling says in the release: “Although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as […]
Deals
People: Chase, Farley, Ditlow, Deen and More
Farley Chase has formed Chase Literary Agency after nearly eight years as a literary agent with the Waxman Literary Agency. He will continue to represent the foreign rights for The Waxman Literary Agency. Former president and publisher of Macmillan Children’s Dan Farley is joining education technology platform startup SwoopThat as a principal and evp, business development. SwoopThat aims to increase textbook affordability for students and enhance college bookstore revenues by helping them adjust to the quickly changing coursebook market. “This is a venture that can, proverbially, make a difference. And, it’s fresh, exciting, and full of opportunity,” Farley said in note to colleagues. He […]
The Year In Deals: 2011
After a positive response to our pre-Frankfurt deal analysis and charts, our webmaster built a sophisticated set of tools to let us analyze all the data locked inside our Deals database, the largest collection of deal data ever compiled. So now we can offer an assessment of the deal trends of 2011, and we can put those results in the context of a five-year pattern as well. The data shows that US book deal volume increased for the second straight year in 2011, at 5,211 transactions in all, up 5.4 percent overall (after a 7.7 percent gain in 2010). Nonfiction […]
Knox Activity
Amanda Knox’s grandmother Elisabeth Huff tells the Telegraph that approaches for book representation and deals began almost immediately: “I had an insane man come to me yesterday to talk to me about book deals. What an insane idea. That is totally crazy, the girl was not even home yet, we didn’t know if she was even going to get out of there. It was after the verdict. He knocked on the door and wanted to discuss book deals and media deals.” For her part, she believes it would be “a good idea” to share some of any potential profit with […]
Deal Volume Grows Ahead of Frankfurt
With the Frankfurt Book Fair looming, we have compiled our semi-annual look at the state of dealmaking, this time bolstered by some very pretty charts. Visualizing our data should make it easier for readers to draw their own conclusions from the statistics, and it allows us to reveal more nuance to the figures as well. The first chart below looks at all US Publishers Marketplace deal reports from September. Deal volume among “comparable categories” continues to grow, up 7.5 percent over last year (when reports jumped almost 17 percent from the recession trough of 2009). But total deal volume is […]
Lonely Planet Founders Buy Canongate’s Stake in Text Publishing
Founders of Lonely Planet Maureen and Tony Wheeler have bought Canongate’s stake in Text Publishing for an undisclosed sum. Michael Heyward and Penny Hueston, who bought Text in tandem with Canongate in 2004 and created a joint venture whereby Text also published Canongate titles in Australia, will retain their share in the company and Heyward will stay on as publisher and managing director. Heyward added that Text and Canongate “will continue to work closely together to acquire books and authors.” “Our decision to sell our stake in Text was a strategic one that will enable us to focus more of our […]