At William Morrow, Kate Nintzel has been promoted to executive editor. At Candlewick, Mary Lee Donovan has been promoted to editorial director. At becker&mayer!, Dana Youlin has been promoted to editorial manager, Delia Greve has been promoted to senior editor, and Nicole Burns Ascue is now associate editor. In the UK, Anna Valentine will re-join Orion in May as publishing director, non-fiction, reporting to Amanda Harris, newly promoted to deputy publisher. Valentine was most recently publishing director at HarperCollins UK. Mavis Gallant, 91, one of Canada’s most distinguished short story writers and literary figures, died Tuesday morning in Paris, where […]
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The Discussion Over “Author Earnings” (Part 1)
It’s time to start looking at what a lot of people have been talking about this week: bestselling self-published author Hugh Howey’s “Author Earnings” website and “report.” In case you have not read it (or read about it), Howey joined up with a programmer and they crawled some of Amazon’s genre bestseller lists for a brief period. Based on that and Howey’s own experiential deductions about correlations between Amazon “sales rank” and actual unit sales for his own books, they came up with elaborate (and unsupportable) — but provocative — declarations about yearly sales and authors earnings via Kindle sales. […]
Briefs: Penguin India Defends Withdrawal; The Bookseller Drops Author Solutions Ads; and more
Penguin India issued a statement earlier today regarding its decision to pull Wendy Doniger’s THE HINDUS from sale in that country after a settlement that ended a four-year court battle. “Penguin Books India believes, and has always believed, in every individual’s right to freedom of thought and expression, a right explicitly codified in the Indian Constitution. This commitment informs Penguin’s approach to publishing in every territory of the world, and we have never been shy about testing that commitment in court when appropriate.” But, the company said, they have “the same obligation as any other organization to respect the laws […]
People, Etc.
At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Teresa Ronquillo has been promoted to marketing coordinator. Novelist and spoken-word artist Maggie Estep, 50, died Wednesday in Albany two days after suffering a heart attack in her Hudson, NY home. Estep was most recently the author of ALICE FANTASTIC (2009) and earlier, a trio of crime novels set in and around New York City published between 2003 and 2006, as well as two works of fiction based on her spoken-word poems. In the UK, Waterstones announced shortlists for their three children’s book prizes, to be awarded April 3 (honoring picture books; fiction for children 5 […]
Simon & Schuster Finishes with Record Profits
Simon & Schuster reported fourth quarter sales of $225 million, up $10 million from a year ago, helping the publisher to finish the year with sales rising $19 million, at $809 million in all. Parent company CBS said in their announcement that year-end results “reflect growth in print book sales.” Once again, margins rose more than sales, and S&S had record profits for the year. Fourth quarter OIBDA was $37 million for the quarter, compared to $31 million a year ago. For the full year, OIBDA of $113 million was up $24 million, and operating income of $106 million was […]
People
Paula Deen has partnered with private equity firm Najafi Media “to build and grow her business, Paula Deen Ventures.” That new holding company has hired Steven Nanula from Paula Deen Food Company as ceo. The WSJ puts the investment at between $75 million and $100 million. Jahm Najafi says in the announcement, “We know that the enterprise will be successful and valuable, as Paula and her team continue to bring quality products and experiences to her loyal fan base.” A few days ago, Deen was in Clarence, NY outside of Buffalo to celebrate the opening of her retail headquarters, which […]