Courtney Young has been promoted to editor at Portfolio, Sentinel and Current. The Copyright Clearance Center has named veteran attorney Iris Geik as associate general counsel. She was in-house counsel at WGBH and, since 1994, had served as an outside counsel to Reed Elsevier and other organizations on legal and copyright policy issues. Judges have been named for the 2010 National Book Awards and publishers can (and must) request entry guidelines. “The postmark deadline for the Awards entry form is June 15.” In vague news about forthcoming books, St. Martin’s will publish Andrew Morton‘s embargoed Angelina Jolie Bio on August […]
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In Reorganization, Octopus USA to Close As UK Cuts List and Consults on Job Reductions
“Strategic changes” from the Octopus Publishing Group in London include the closing of Octopus USA, launched within Hachette Book Group USA at the beginning of last year. As a result, USA associate publisher Jonathan Stolper and director of publicity and marketing Andrea Glickson’s jobs are being eliminated, though the company says they “launched and managed the Octopus USA business very successfully, and Octopus’ profile in North America has grown significantly thanks to their hard work.” HBG’s client services group will continue to handle sales and distribution of Octopus titles here. In the broader reorganization of the unit, they will focus […]
Canadian Dollar Hurts Torstar Sales (But Helps Profits)
Sales at Torstar’s Harlequin unit fell in their first quarter, ending March 31, at $113 million down more than 9 percent from $124.5 million a year ago. EBITDA rose over 9 percent, though, to $23.7 million. The company says North American retail and overseas sales fell, as digital revenues had “strong growth.” In a bit of a paradox, the rising Canadian dollar accounts for $10 million of the drop in sales, but foreign exchange also contributed to the rise in profits.Release
People, Etc.
Skira Rizzoli Publications has hired Margaret Rennolds Chace as associate publisher, reporting to Charles Miers, starting next week. Most recently she was managing editor of publications at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the New York Times, Julie Bosman is taking over as the reporter covering book publishing. At Harper Children’s, Mary-Kate Gaudet has been promoted to editor. With the flooding in Nashville, TN, we heard concerns about the potential personal and business impact. Spokesman for the Ingram Book Company Keel Hunt replies to our query: “CEO Skip Prichard reports there has been no flood damage at Ingram facilities, and […]
Amazon Pays Referrals on Kindle Books; As iPad Soars, Two Other Tablets Are Spiked
Amazon told the company’s “associates” by e-mail that as of May 1 they are paying “advertising fees” (their name for referral commissions) on Kindle book sales (and magazine, newspaper and blog subscriptions) for the first time since the launch of the store. Those fees range from 4 percent to 8.5 percent. At the same, they are reducing the fees paid on Kindle device sales to the same range of 4 percent to 8.5 percent. In an interesting but unconfirmed side-effect, it looks as if Amazon has restored Kindle data to their web services program as part of the new sales […]
Awards, People and More
Colman Andrews won the James Beard Foundation’s cookbook of the year award for THE COUNTRY COOKING OF IRELAND as Claudia Roden‘s A BOOK OF MIDDLE EASTERN FOOD entered the cookbook hall of fame. Click through for the 11 category winners, including Thomas Keller‘s AD HOC AT HOME for the general cooking award.Full list Amanda Patten has joined Quirk Packaging as editor. She had been at Touchstone Fireside division for eight years. Jessica Krakoski will join Cave Henricks Communications as a publicity manager in May and will relocate to the company’s Austin headquarters in August. Most recently she was publicist at […]