* The Frankfurt Book Fair will have 6,930 exhibitors–about five percent fewer than last year–and thus, in the current press mood, like Barnes & Noble and printed books, considered “declining” and barely shy of extinction due to ebooks. The Fair says the drop is mostly due to a smaller group of publishers from this year’s guest Argentina, compared to last year’s big delegation from China. Which is a bit disingenuous, since they also blame the economic slowdown and cite declines from Eastern Europe as well. But if you look at stats from the last decade or so, the exhibitor totals […]
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Senior director of publicity at William Morrow Dee Dee De Bartlo is leaving after 12 years at HarperCollins to join February Partners, co-founded by her former HarperCollins colleague Gretchen Crary. She says in the announcement, “we really feel the future of the industry is dismantling the silos that exist between publicity and marketing in the big publishing houses and coming up with solutions that maximize a book’s exposure.” Additionally, Kimberly Cowser has joined February Partners as online marketing manager. At Harper UK, Jenny Heller has been promoted to publishing director for general nonfiction at Collins, and Lizzy Gray has been […]
Carey and Levy Lead Booker Shortlist
The Booker Prize is down to six shortlisted titles, and the winner will be named October 12. In the meantime, US rights to Howard Jacobson’s book have been picked up Bloomsbury USA, which will publish on September 23. Until then, the UK “export edition” ebook is available here from Amazon only.: Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)Emma Donoghue, Room (Picador)Damon Galgut, In a Strange Room (Atlantic Books)Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)Andrea Levy, The Long Song (Headline Review)Tom McCarthy, C (Jonathan Cape) In other awards, China Miéville’s The City & The City and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The […]
Blair’s Opening Sale Sets Record, Sort Of
Tony Blair’s memoir A JOURNEY sold 92,060 copies in the UK in the first four days on sale, in outlets tracked by Nielsen BookScan UK (which covers nearly the entire market over there). That qualifies as the biggest opening for a memoir since Nielsen started recording book sales in 1998, the Bookseller reports, though Margaret Thatcher’s THE DOWNING STREET YEARS was estimated to have sold 120,000 copies when it was first released in 1993.Bookseller In more Blair news, his “secret” book party is going ahead as planned tomorrow night at the Tate Modern, despite threats of protest from the Stop […]
Quercus Expands to US with Sterling Joint Venture
The UK’s Quercus Publishing is create a new fiction imprint for the US market called Silver Oak, in a joint venture with Sterling Publishing. Quercus will select titles from their list, and Sterling will market and distribute in North America. The initial deal is for three years and the line will launch in January 2011 with Swedish authors Roslund and Hellström’s THREE SECONDS (a bestseller in Sweden, recently named that country’s crime novel of the year.) Quercus ceo Mark Smithsays in the announcement, “This partnership with one of North America’s leading publishing companies will give us access to the world’s […]
More Imprint News: Voyager Expands, Touchstone Drops Fireside
HarperCollins will rebrand its Eos imprint in the US as Voyager–a name the company already uses for similar sci-fi, fantasy and horror publishing in the UK and Australia/New Zealand. The change will take place with their January 2011 releases. CEo Brian Murray says in the announcement, “uniting our sister companies in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia/New Zealand allows readers globally unparalleled access to books and authors. This move enables us to offer authors a strong global publishing platform when signing with HarperCollins — whether the acquiring editor is in New York, Sydney, or London.” Simon & Schuster’s Touchstone […]