Rafat Ali’s travel site Skift reported Monday that wealthy Kentuckian Brad Kelley “is in final stages of negotiation” with the BBC to “buy a majority controlling stake in Lonely Planet.” The story says the BBC would retain “a small-but-sizable stake to help maintain editorial control through current management, as well as save on inter-country taxes.” Veering further into speculation, the piece suggests that Kelley–who made his money from cigarettes, and then became a significant land-owner and conservationist–might pay “close to $100 million” for that unspecified share of the publisher. The BBC replied to the story with a statement that is […]
International News
Curtis Brown UK Buys Stake In Conville & Walsh
One of London’s largest literary agencies Curtis Brown UK has purchased a 50 percent share in Conville & Walsh, effective March 1. Conville & Walsh will remain in their current office until November, when they will move into Curtis Brown UK’s current premises. Curtis Brown UK executives Jonny Geller and Ben Hall will join the Conville & Walsh board and “Conville & Walsh will retain its name and operating independence.” The move comes not long after United Agents purchased AP Watt last November. Sophie Lambert is joining the Conville & Walsh team as an agent on April 8. She has been at Tibor Jones […]
Bookselling: WSJ on ResultSource and Paid Bestsellers; UK Indies Decline
The old saw of authors “buying” their way onto bestseller lists through carefully timed bulk orders gets a fresh twist in Friday’s WSJ, which reports on the San Diego-based company ResultSource. The marketing firm, according to the paper, charges authors “thousands of dollars for its services” to buy copies of the authors’ own books–mostly as pre-orders–to boost opening week sales (and many of those copies are then returned). The service is particularly popular for business book authors, who can monetize the “bestseller” credit (even when it’s a single week on the list) for years at speaking engagements and other lucrative […]
Imprints: Little Brown UK Tries Literary Digital Line; Atria Reannounces Rachael Ray Books
Little Brown UK is expanding their digital imprints (which include Crime Vault and Piatkus Entice) with a line focused on literary fiction, Blackfriars. It launches in July and aims to publish nine to 12 titles a year, under the direction of Abacus publishing director Clare Smith and Virago associated publisher Ursula Doyle. One of their first titles is Benjamin Anastas’s memoir TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, which received some good reviews in the US, but suffered under the limitations of Amazon Publishing. (Ironically, in the UK Amazon still has overwhelming market share for ebooks, so they will still be the primary outlet […]
People, Etc.
Amy Tannenbaum has joined the Jane Rotrosen Agency as a literary agent. She was previously an editor at Atria, and will represent new adult, romance, and commercial women’s fiction authors. Adrienne Brodeur has left Houghton Mifflin Harcourt after seven years to become creative director of the Aspen Writers’ Foundation, a program of the Aspen Institute. She can be reached at Adrienne.Brodeur@aspeninstitute.org. An expanding Simon & Schuster UK has promoted executives Suzanne Baboneau and Kerr MacRae, and hired Russell Evans from Penguin UK for the new role of commercial director. Publishing director Baboneau adds responsibility for illustrated and sports titles, and executive […]
As Slowly As Possible, EU Takes Luxembourg and France to Court Over Low eBook VAT
It has been obvious since France and Luxembourg first lowered their VAT on sales on ebooks as of the beginning of 2012 (to 7 percent and 3 percent respectively) that they were doing so in violation–and intentional defiance–of European Union law. After a stern letter, a “reasoned opinion,” and some more waiting, 14 months after the tax changes began the European Commission is finally saying it will take the two nations to the European Court of Justice. No trial date was disclosed, so we expect it will be more months still before any proceedings begin. And even after the two […]