Meredith’s steady pullback from the book publishing business now appears to be Wiley’s gain: the book publisher has just announced a five-year licensing agreement starting March 1, 2009 that gives Wiley the rights to publish books using all of Meredith’s brand names, including Better Homes and Gardens, as well as marks including Family Circle, American Patchwork and Quilting, and Diabetic Living. Wiley will also take over as the exclusive distributor of Meredith’s backlist of about 200 titles, in all channels worldwide. According to Meredith’s version of the press release, they will “continue to create book content” from their offices in […]
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Vintage Has Government Book on WMDs & Terrorism
Tomorrow the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, chaired by Senator Bob Graham, will report its findings to President Bush and Congress and Vintage will release the authorized version as a trade paperback, WORLD AT RISK: The Report of the Commission of the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism. The report is designed as “a measure for the next Administration’s national security strategy,” analyzing the current threat of WMD’s and our government’s ability to respond to them. Graham says “my own assessment at this point is the more likely form of attack is going to be […]
Award for Tinti; Honors for Galassi
Hannah Tinti won the 2008 John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize for THE GOOD THIEF The Good Thief, presented last night at the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction’s benefit dinner. But the focus of this Bloomberg piece is on Farrar, Straus publisher Jonathan Galassi, honored with the Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction. The Mercantile says, “Galassi was chosen in recognition of his career as both an editor and a publisher who has supported and shaped the work of a dazzling array of writers, carrying on the tradition exemplified so well by Maxwell Perkins.” […]
Woolworths Goes Down; Bertram's Spared
Last week Woolworths officially filed for bankruptcy is here, with distributor EUK going into receivership along with the Woolworths’ stores division. Improbably, book distributor Bertram’s appears to have been spared, even though it was always listed as part of the EUK division. Deloitte, which had been advising Woolworths’ lenders over the past month, was appointed administrator. Bertram’s, along with Woolworth’s 2Entertain joint venture with the BBC, is reportedly operating normally for now, though it will be sold as part of the liquidation of Woolworths assets. Bertram’s says on their web site, “Bertram’s management has been in contact with Deloitte, which […]
Newspaper Picks
The NYT has picked and picked and picked. The Book Review posted its list of 100 Notable Books for 2008, and critics Michiko Kakutani and Janet Maslin selected personal top 10 lists. Only 5 of the critics’ picks are on TBR’s list which, as usual, features a number of books by New York Times’ staffers (and at least one NYT company employee at the Boston Globe), if they do say so themselves. It’s less numerically pretty for children, where the Book Review came up with eight notable books. Here are the critics’ lists, asterisked where they overlap with the Book […]
Philly's Oldest Indie to Close
Robin’s Bookstore, started and “believed to be Philadelphia’s oldest independent book seller, is calling it quits at the end of January.” With sales falling “as much as 15 percent in recent months,” owner Larry Robin says business has gone “from bad bearable to bad unbearable.”Inquirer