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. […]
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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. […]
Perseus Adds Pay Freeze
Perseus ceo David Steinberger wrote to employees today about “steps we feel we need to take right now” as the company, while “successful, is also being affected by the economic downturn.” He announces “several temporary across the board steps that we feel are the fairest way to go.” The company is “suspending” annual pay increases and matching contributions to pension accounts, and will hold open all positions that are not currently filled. Steinberger adds, “We feel we need to takes these steps now, while making sure that we don’t interfere with our plans to grow the company over the long […]
People, Award News, and More
In the marketing and publicity departments at Tor and Forge; Phyllis Azar has bee promoted to executive director of marketing; Patty Garcia has been promoted to director of publicity; Brian Vaughan moves up to the new position of director of publishing operations; Joseph Bendel takes the new position of manager of publishing operations; and Jennifer Kaufler has been promoted to marketing manager. In the UK, Pan Macmillan non-fiction publisher Richard Milner will leave at the end of next week to explore “new opportunities.” In awards, the American Library Association has announced nominees for their new YA debut award for books […]