Deal-watchers will take particular note of two reported buys for Amazon’s budding New York-based publishing unit. Liao Yiwu, who escaped from China this summer, is moving to Amazon from Harper One, for his account of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, FOR A SONG AND A HUNDRED SONGS: A Poet’s Journey Through a Chinese Prison. Gregg Housh and Barrett Brown’s ANONYMOUS, covered while on submission by the Observer, has been bought by Julia Cheiffetz for Amazon. The book is pitched as “Barbarians at the Gate” for the digital era, the story of the ordinary people who became hacker-activists and successfully brought […]
Deals
Knopf Announces New Bill Clinton Book for November
Former President Bill Clinton’s BACK TO WORK, a book on “the urgent challenges facing the United States and offering a plan to get America ‘back into the future business,'” will be published by Knopf on November 8. Knopf chairman Sonny Mehta acquired the book again, from attorney Robert Barnett at Williams & Connolly. (The $22.95 book will run 208 pages.) Clinton says in the text, “I wrote this book because I love my country and I’m concerned about our future.” And he defends the current administration’s philosophy: “There is no evidence that we can succeed in the twenty-first century with […]
Bookselling: Nebraska Book Company Gets Bankruptcy Plan OK; Easons Plans Layoffs and Store Closings; and More
A Delaware bankruptcy court granted approval to the Nebraska Book Company to seek votes from creditors on its reorganization plan, which would give control of the company to holders of more than 95 percent of its 8.625 percent senior subordinated notes and more than 75 percent of its 11 percent discount notes, the Lincoln Journal-Star reports. Secured lenders and noteholders would be paid in full with cash, and so long as equity holders don’t object to the plan, “they would get warrants to purchase 3 percent of the reorganized company’s equity at an enterprise value of $500 million, and 5 […]
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.) […]
People, Etc.
Dan Crissman has joined The Overlook Press as editor, focusing on nonfiction. He was most recently an assistant editor at Hill and Wang. At Red Wheel Weiser/Conari Press, Julian Segal has been named sales and marketing manager. He was formerly the sales director at Heyday Books. In addition, Pat Rose has been named publicity director, moving from UC Berkeley Extension, where she was media relations manager. James Salter, 86, is the newest honoree of the Rea Award for the Short Story. Given for lifetime achievement, judges praised him as “the most stylish and grave and exact of writers.” Calvin Crosby has re-joined […]
Liberty Media Invests $204 Million in Barnes and Noble For a 16.6 Percent Stake
A day after rumors swirled that Liberty Media had stepped back from buying a 70 percent stake in Barnes & Noble, the bookseller announced Thursday afternoon that Liberty had invested an aggregate of $204 million, through the purchase of newly issued convertible preferred stock, which can be converted into 12 million shares of common stock. The purchase was for the same $17 a share as the original buyout offer – now abandoned – and Liberty will receive a quarterly dividend at an annual rate of 7.75 percent. Under the deal, which closes today, and subject to the waiting period under anti-trust […]