Black Dog & Leventhal has signed with the new Abrams and Chronicle Books London-based distribution service for export sales in the UK, Ireland, European export, Japan, Korea and “several other international markets” starting on January 1, 2011. Separately, they have signed with Murdoch Books for sales and distribution in Australia, also as of January 1. (They have been using Scribo/Bookwise in Australia.) At Bellevue Press, Erika Goldman has been promoted to publisher and editorial director, and Leslie Hodgkins has moved up to associate editor.
International News
People, Awards, Etc.
Managing director of De Fontein/Tirion in Holland Geneviève Waldmann will also runs VBK’s Kosmos as of October 1, though both houses “will maintain their separate identities.” Later this year De Fontein/Tirion will relocate to Utrecht to join with Kosmos physically. Senior publicity manager at William Morrow Jennifer Slattery has left her position to travel to Australia for the next 6 months. Judith Merkle Riley, author of six historical novels (Vision of Light, In Pursuit of the Green Lion, The Water Devil, The Oracle Glass, The Serpent Garden and The Master of All Desires) and a professor of political science at […]
Bringing Lightning to Australia
Australia’s splendid isolation from Amazon and industry-wide print on demand will start to crack when Lightning Source opens a “full-scale” POD facility there in June 2011. Lightning Source already has an operations in the UK and is in a joint venture in France with Hachette.
Hachette UK Underway with Agency Transition
As previously announced, Hachette UK is currently executing its transition to an agency model for selling ebooks. Unlike in the US, however, where the five big houses switched terms on a designated day, Hachette UK is making the change via a “short transition period” according to company spokesperson Clare Harington. The Bookseller reported on an e-mail from wholesaler Gardners to customers communicating about the change and identified today as the switchover day, but the company indicates its an ongoing process. Right now Hachette UK ebooks no longer appear on major sites like Waterstone’s and WH Smith, while Amazon UK continues […]
Debut Novel Breaks Out in Canada, with Help from Costco
Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s debut novel SECRET DAUGHTER has had only modest sales in the US since its release in March despite being an Indie Next selection, but in Canada the book hit No. 1 on the Globe and Mail bestseller list in late spring and it continues to top lists there. The Globe and Mail says the book has “sales of about 6,000 copies a week and still climbing,” calling “its surprise success the juiciest mystery in Canadian publishing.” By their account, the trigger was the book’s selection by an “anonymous buyer” at Costco’s Ottawa office. Harper Canada vp of […]
Only In Europe? 2004 Sale of Parts of Editis to Wendel Is Declared Illegal
This one is a bit of a head scratcher. A European Court has struck down a 2004 European Commission decision that had allowed investment group Wendel to buy part of the Editis publishing assets for 660 million euros as part of Lagardere’s acquisition of Editis. At the same time, the court affirmed that Lagardere’s purchase of Editis was acceptable. They said the trustee who oversaw the report on Wendel’s purchase was not sufficiently independent. “The establishment of this illegality is such as to vitiate the lawfulness of the approval decision.” It’s not exactly clear what happens next. Reuters says “the […]