Karen Ball is joining the Steve Laube Agency. For nearly 30 years she has worked on successful fiction lines at Tyndale, Multnomah, Zondervan, and, most recently, the B&H Publishing Group, where she was an executive editor. She will work from her office in Oregon. Publishing veteran Elizabeth Van Doren joined Highlights for Children and Boyds Mills Press as executive editor, book publishing. At Vintage UK, Victoria Murray-Browne has been named editor and Kate Watson joins as press officer. Previously Murray-Browne was an editor at John Murray and Watson was acting press officer at Dorling Kindersley.
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Announcements and Awards: Fox Chapel Buys Three Publishers, Commonwealth Winners, and More
Fox Chapel Publishing has announced three acquisitions that significantly expand the verticals covered by the company, which had been focused on woodworking. They bought crafts and hobby publisher Design Originals, known for their Zentangle series; The Heliconia Press, a publisher of books and magazines on the outdoors (including kayaking and ice fishing); and parenting publisher Plain White Press. Aminatta Forna from Sierra Leone prevailed over David Mitchell and others to win the overall Commonwealth Prize for her novel THE MEMORY OF LOVE. (The book was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, and was an Indie Next selection.) New Zealander Craig Cliff […]
Liberty Media Offers to Buy Barnes & Noble
After an investigation of strategic options begun by Barnes & Noble’s board last summer, today after the close of the market the company announced an offer from a prospective buyer. The special committee of the board charged with evaluating offers said that John Malone’s Liberty Media has offered $17 per share in cash to acquire control of the company. But “the proposal states that it is contingent on the participation of founding chairman Leonard Riggio, both in terms of his continuing equity ownership and his continuing role in management.” The committee says it “will evaluate this proposal” along with financial […]
People, Etc.
Kate Elton will join HarperCollins UK as publisher of Harper Fiction, replacing Lynne Drew, who is giving up the position for personal reasons (though she will continue to edit select authors.) Elton spent the past 15 years at Random House UK, where she was publisher of Cornerstone’s Arrow and Century imprints. Larry Bennett has joined Bookmasters as president of its international sales division, focusing on growing the company’s foreign-language book development and distribution efforts in the US and abroad. Previously he managed Baker & Taylor’s digital print media program. PEN American Center has announced a new award for picture book […]
As Expected, eBooks Slide to 17 Percent of Sales In March As Trade Rebounds, But E Is Now Amazon’s Top Format
Monthly ebook sales as measured by the AAP from 14 reporting publishers ebbed in March–which we were expecting–more or less on par with the second-biggest ebook sales month on record (January 2011), at $69 million. That puts ebooks behind adult trade hardcover and trade paperbacks for the month, and they comprised less than 17 percent of all trade sales for March. Why was a pullback from February’s $90.3 million expected? For starters, March is when Random House moved to the agency model, which means their ebook receipts should have declined, all things being equal. Just as important, recent quarterly earnings […]
People, Etc.: S&S Opens Division In India
Simon & Schuster has created a New Delhi-based sales, marketing and publishing company, Simon & Schuster India. The company’s exclusive sales agent on the subcontinent Rahul Srivastava will run the new unit locally as director of sales and marketing, reporting to S&S UK executive director Kerr MacRae. HarperCollins India will handle fulfillment and distribution, with “operations expected to commence August 1.” Inventory will come mostly from S&S UK, and they will offer titles from all of S&S’s divisions worldwide and distribution clients. Samantha Dell’Olio has joined book and author publicity firm Nissen Public Relations as publicity manager. She was most […]