At Bloomsbury, Rachel Mannheimer has been promoted to editor, and Melanie Sankel has gone from associate director of sales for Fairchild Books to director, adoption sales at Bloomsbury Academic. After Skyhorse and Start Publishing’s intended joint acquisition of Night Shade Books’ assets ignited public controversy over the original terms of sale (and now, after a revision, the sale “is in a holding pattern right now waiting for all the authors’ feedback”, a Skyhorse spokesperson told us) the two publishers have bought a different science fiction & fantasy publisher, Underland Press, for an undisclosed sum. The deal for the six-year-old press, according […]
Finance
Corporate: HMH Buys Tribal Nova; Penguin Partners with Mind Candy; Amazon Defends “Heavy Investments”
Two new acquisitions highlight publishers’ increasing interest in game development. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced they acquired Montreal-based educational technology company Tribal Nova, which develops digital games, products and services for pre-school children. The Tribal Nova team will continue to operate out of Montreal, though they will be absorbed into HMH’s Content and Product Innovation group, dedicated to the incubation and development of next-generation content for both K-12 and consumer markets. “The combination of Tribal Nova’s game development expertise with HMH’s proven educational content and learning design capabilities will enable HMH to bring a more holistic and personalized gaming experience to market,” […]
Skyhorse & Start Publishing Offer New Terms for Night Shade Backlist
After days of public controversy and criticism, Skyhorse and Start Publishing have changed their terms for acquiring the assets of Night Shade Books, according to a statement received from both publishers by i09. Skyhorse publisher Tony Lyons said the new deal “is very favorable to the Night Shade authors and will trade short run profits for long-term relationship.” Under the new proposed agreement, which would still have to be accepted by a majority of affected writers, Night Shade authors would receive a 7.5 percent royalty on the retail price for trade paper editions, and 25 percent of net receipts on all […]
Confirmed: EU OKs Penguin Random House
With any suspense taken away by last week’s Reuters leak, the European Commission officially approved the Penguin Random House merger Friday morning “without conditions,” following in line with approvals from the DOJ, Australia, and New Zealand. EU regulators said in an emailed statement obtained by Bloomberg: “The commission’s investigation revealed no evidence that the transaction would lead to risks of coordination among publishers in relation to the acquisition of authors’ rights and the sale of English language books to dealers.” It adds, “the merged entity will furthermore face a concentrated retail base, such as supermarkets for print books and large […]
Further Shades
A number of agents and authors have been posting more details about–and further dissatisfaction with–the offer to Night Shade authors to modify their contracts and allow them to be transferred to Skyhorse and Start Publishing. As is clear now, Skyhorse seeks to acquire print rights only, and Start Publishing is looking to take over ebook rights. The latter is run by Jarred Weisfeld as a subsidiary of Start Media, “a well-capitalized privately held media company” that he says “is looking to acquire six publishing companies this year.” Weisfeld, who also is an agent at Objective Entertainment, says Start Publishing is “completely separate from […]
Night Shade Books Finds Buyer in Skyhorse–But Only If Authors Renegotiate
San Francisco-based publisher of science fiction & fantasy Night Shade Books, which has been struggling financially for several years, indicated in a letter to authors and agents earlier this week that the company plans to sell its assets to Skyhorse (as well as another entity, Start Publishing LLC.) The catch is that the sale cannot happen unless “a sufficient number of Night Shade authors agree to certain changes to their contracts.” Alternately, Night Shade will file for bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings. In the letter, Night Shade explains their financial difficulties were exacerbated by Borders’ liquidation, so much so that they […]