A restructuring throughout Macmillan USA eliminates 64 positions from throughout the company’s imprints and divisions (including cuts at their college business, central services for the whole company, and Scientific American magazine), representing about four percent of staff in all. CEO John Sargent writes in the memo, “Going forward we are tightening our belts in response to the current recession, but we are also reorganizing and rethinking our business to position ourselves for the long term.” He tells the NYT, “Book sales are markedly slower this Christmas than they were last Christmas. This is a recognition of the times that we […]
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Also at Macmillan, Talley Retires
Not to be overlooked in the day of news from Macmillan, Truman Talley, 84, is retiring after 11 years at his eponymous SMP imprint, and 60 years in publishing. The announcement says he “looks forward to receiving book projects from both old and new authors, while this retirement will also allow time to go fly-fishing with his wife, Susannah.” In other personnel news, Grand Central has announced promotions in their publicity department: Elly Weisenberg and Tanisha Christie have been promoted to publicity manager; Melissa Bullock and Nick Small have been promoted to associate publicist.
Sourcebooks Takes Over Cumberland House Assets
Sourcebooks announced this morning it has acquired “certain assets” of Nashville-based Cumberland House, best known as the publisher of Gregory Lang’s Why a Daughter Needs a Dad series of gift books, said to have sold more over 3 million copies. Sourcebooks publisher Dominque Raccah says “the addition of Cumberland House provides us with the opportunity to add a remarkably talented publisher to our team as well as significantly expanding our gift and regional titles.” Cumberland will remain as an independent imprint, and founder Ron Pitkin joins Sourcebooks as executive acquisitions editor. Sourcebooks is acquiring approximately 90 backlist and forthcoming titles. […]
Orman to Launch New Book with Another Oprah Giveaway
When Suze Orman promoted what became over a million free downloads in less than two days of her book WOMEN & MONEY on the Oprah Winfrey Show last February, the book had already been on the market for almost a year. Now Orman and publisher Spiegel & Grau are building on that experiment by launching her newly-announced SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN with an appearance on Oprah’s show and a free ebook download for a full week, ending with a live webcast on January 15. As with the previous download program, they are providing both English and Spanish versions. The […]
People: Dawson Back to Penguin
Kathy Dawson will join Penguin Children’s Dial Books in the new position of associate publisher, reporting to Lauri Hornik. She will work help to strategize and develop the list while acquiring and editing both novels and picture books. Dawson was formerly editorial director at Harcourt Children’s.
Sales Down at Waterstone's–And Getting Worse
HMV reported sales for the first six months of their fiscal year (ending October 25), showing revenue of 235.1 million pounds at their Waterstone’s unit declined 3.8 percent overall, and 3.1 percent on a same-store sales basis. The company notes that without the impact of last year’s release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, same-store sales declined just 1.4 percent. The bookseller showed an operating loss of 9.3 million pounds for the period, 4.5 percent more than last year’s loss of 8.9 million pounds. The company says increases in costs included 1.5 million pounds towards their supply chain overhaul. […]