Bloomsbury reported results for the six months ending August 31, with continuing pre-tax profits falling 40 percent to £0.9 million, even as sales rose 2 percent to £43.5 million. With recent acquisitions the academic and professional division now comprises 28 percent of company sales, though “academic sales peak at the beginning of the academic year, in September and October.” Sales at the adult division were flat (and down 5 percent before acquisitions), while children’s and educational sales fell 23 percent and operating profit in that segment disappeared, blamed on the comparison to last year’s Harry Potter sales tying in to […]
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Ashley Garland has joined Ecco as publicity manager. Previously she was a publicist at the Random House Publishing Group. At Riverhead Books, Claire McGinnis has been promoted to publicity manager; Liz Hohenadel is now senior publicist; and Glory Plata is now publicist. Klaus Wolterstoff was recently promoted to vp, content and technology at Wm. B. Eerdmans, where will continue to supervise the company’s production department and manage information technology while also taking a more active leadership role in Eerdmans’ ongoing transition into the ebook market. Wolterstoff has also joined the Eerdmans executive leadership team and board of directors. Fiction writers […]
Simon & Schuster Reorg Puts Free Press and Touchstone Under Other Groups, with Levin and Anfuso to Leave
Simon & Schuster has announced a reorganization of their adult imprints that puts Free Press alongside the S&S adult trade line in a new Simon & Schuster Publishing Group under Jonathan Karp, and puts Touchstone Books inside a new Scribner Publishing Group, with Stacy Creamer reporting to Susan Moldow. Free Press publisher Martha Levin and editorial Dominick Anfuso are both leaving the company as a result, on November 2. Levin has led Free Press since 2001 and Anfuso has been with the line since 2000 (and has spent 25 years at Simon & Schuster). The Christian imprint Howard Books moves […]
People: Pinsker Named President of Scholastic’s Klutz
Jeff Pinsker has been named president of Scholastic’s “books plus” imprint Klutz, effective December 3 (and vp of Scholastic, Inc.). Pinsker, who will report to Scholastic president of trade publishing Ellie Berger and was most recently ceo of educational toy company Infinitoy, will lead the creative, sales, and marketing direction of the Klutz business and will manage the strategic development of the Klutz brand. Pinsker is also the author of 13 books for children, including the QUIZMO Series and entries in Spinner Books’ Armchair Puzzlers Series. He fills the slot that has been vacant all year, since the departure of […]
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Jane Harris will join Quercus as executive director, sales and marketing, on January 3, 2013. Previously she was sales and trade marketing director at Walker Books. The FT reaffirms previous reports that Bertelsmann is considering buying back into Springer Science as the current private equity owners evaluate options for reducing their stake or selling entirely. Bertelsmann is said to have “said to have signaled firm intent earlier this year.” THE BURGESS BOYS, Elizabeth Strout‘s first novel since winning the Pulitzer Prize for OLIVE KITTERIDGE, has quietly sat on bookselling sites since at least August, and now it has been “announced” […]
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Shire Publications’ recently-hired US sales and marketing director Robert Kempe died on Tuesday from complications arising from cancer (just diagnosed in August). The publisher says, “Though Robert joined the company only months ago, his contribution to and impact upon it were incalculable. Swiftly assuming control of Shire in the North American market, he made it immediately and abundantly clear that we had found someone who would not only fulfil our expectations and requirements for the role but exceed them in every regard.” At Harlequin, Miranda Indrigo has taken on the new role of author liaison, concierge services. She was most recently […]