The National Post reports that Canadian imprint Key Porter Books “is drastically downscaling its operations” dismissing a “reported 15 or so employees” yesterday and transferring others to parent company HB Fenn’s offices in Bolton, Ontario. The line is closing their Toronto office. Now-former head of special and corporate sales Paula Sloss tells the paper, “Business has been very challenging right across the board for all publishers right now. There was concern. But it was a shock that it happened today, and a shock that it was so abrupt.” As they write, Key Porter “has traditionally been strong in Canadian-oriented non-fiction.”Article
International News
People, Etc.
The Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association has hired Deborah Leonard as their new executive director, taking over from Jim Dana, who is retiring (and plans to work for the Peace Corps in Lesotho). Leonard was most recently a sales manager at Cengage Learning, and started her publishing career as a bookseller in Nashville, TN for ZIbart’s. Penguin UK digital publisher Jeremy Ettinghausen is leaving, to become a creative director at the advertising agency BBH. This year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade will include a Diary of a Wimpy Kid balloon. Copyright Clearance Center has expanded its European presence and opened a […]
People, Etc.
Colleen Martin has joined the Johnson Literary Agency as rights manager. Nielsen has launched BookScan in India, estimating that they are covering “over 50 percent of organized book sales” there to start. It’s the tenth territory in which they operate a book sales tracking service, joining the US, UK, Australia, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Italy, Spain and Denmark. Ingram Publisher Services announced that they will distribute for Zondervan, serving their field sales, gift and special market accounts starting November 1.
People, Distribution, Etc.
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.
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.