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.
International News
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 […]
People, Etc.: Holt Hires, Davis Promoted, Highton’s Imprint, Remembering Bookseller Thompson, and Still More
Holt is adding two new editors to their team. Aaron Schlechter will join the house on October 4 as a senior editor. He has been at Overlook Press. The same week, Sarah Bowlin will start there as editor, focused on fiction but also acquiring nonfiction. She has been at Riverhead, assisting two senior editors and acquiring literary fiction. Both will report to president and publisher Steve Rubin. Dawn Davis has been promoted to publisher of Amistad and also join’s HarperCollin’s Ecco imprint as an executive editor, reporting to Daniel Halpern. For Ecco she will acquire general interest fiction, memoir, and […]
People, Etc.
Seth Fishman is joining The Gernert Company as a literary agent. He was most recently at Sterling Lord Literistic, where he worked since 2005. At Profile Books in the UK, Daniel Crewe has been promoted to publisher. The Guardian has an interesting interview with Random UK ceo Gail Rebuck who is careful and measured in her responses–rightfully so, since the paper strains to misconstrue the piece with the headline “How Gail Rebuck turned Tony Blair’s book into a bestseller.” (Rebuck deflects one line of questioning by replying, “We’re not going to go there. You can ask away and I’ll wander […]