Karrie Witkin will join Abrams on October 21 in the newly created role of editorial director, Gift and Paper Products. Previously she was senior editor and publishing manager for Potter Style. In addition, Maya Bradford has been promoted to publicist, adult trade. At Atria, Sarah Cantin has been promoted to editor. Sulay Hernandez has left Other Press. She can be reached at SulayHernandez.Ed@gmail.com. Random House Children’s Books announced that RJ Palacio‘s WONDER has crossed the 1 million copy sales mark in North America. PGW has added seven more clients to its distribution list, including the Los Angeles Review of Books, Patagonia […]
International News
Books Versus Other and the Rise of eBooks, Around the World
By next year (if not by now already) more than half of all books will be purchased online in the US rather than in physical stores, and Amazon executive Russ Grandinetti told the audience at Publishers Launch Frankfurt that the UK is only another year away — and he believes the same trend is “not more than three years” away for most of “the rest of Europe.” (At the same time, however, Bowker US survey data for the first half of 2013 actually shows online sales actually declining by a few percentage points, for the first time — though that […]
S&S and Yilin Press Partner for Broader Availability of Mandarin-Language Titles
Simon & Schuster has entered into a new distribution and publishing agreement with Yilin Press in China that will expand the availability of electronic editions of works in Mandarin for readers worldwide, while also making works by notable Chinese authors available to English-language audiences. The digital distribution project will launch in November with 300 titles, including Mandarin translations of Yann Martel’s THE LIFE OF PI, THE CORRECTIONS by Jonathan Franzen, UNDERWORLD by Don DeLillo and THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK by Doris Lessing. In addition, the S&S trade imprint has acquired world English rights to a number of fiction and nonfiction titles […]
People, Etc.
Counterpoint Press editor-at-large Dan Smetanka has been appointed executive editor. He will continue to acquire fiction and nonfiction for both the Counterpoint and Soft Skull lists and will remain based in Los Angeles. Sarah Younger has been promoted to associate agent at the Nancy Yost Literary Agency, where she has worked for two years. The Cooke Agency International will sell foreign rights outside of North America to the list represented by fellow Canadians Rick Broadhead & Associates. At Dutton, Liza Cassity has been promoted to senior publicist. In the UK, the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency has hired David Newton as […]
Corporate: Luebbe’s IPO; Penguin Random Buys Out Penguin’s Partner In India
Germany’s Bastei Luebbe completed an IPO on the Frankfurt stock exchange — though the company wound up raising only about half of what they hoped to garner in “a challenging market environment.” When the plan was announced in September, they aspired to sell 5.3 million shares at up to 11 euros a share (for proceeds of 58 million euros). In the end, they were able to place 4 million shares, at a lower price of 7.5 euros a share. The proceeds of 30 million euros will be used for digitization and content acquisition. Shares will begin trading on October 8. […]
Faber Rebounds In Record Year
The UK’s Faber and Faber reported strong results for the fiscal year ending March 2013, with sales of £20 million and operating profit of a robust £2.24 million. CEO Stephen Page said in a statement: “This record result for the company is very pleasing, and is the result of the company’s long-term plan to thrive in this new era for the industry. Across the publishing, creative writing, digital and service businesses, we saw development and success.” A year ago, sales had declined from £19.1 million to £17.5 million, and after tax profit had fallen to £537,000. On Canongate’s results noted […]