Investor David Abrams and Abrams Capital Management took advantage of the opportunity to pare back on their money-losing investments in Barnes & Noble companies. With the rebound in shares of Barnes & Noble Education starting on December 5 as the retailer reported some improvement in profits, Abrams has been a steady seller. According to recent filings, Abrams sold good-sized chunks of BNED shares on December 5, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13, unloading approximately 1.76 million shares in all. Even with the recent increases, BNED’s stock price is still down about 25 percent for the year, and likely all of […]
International News
Briefs: NYT Lists, Pearson’s Deal for Wall Street English, Waterstones Announces New Stores
People Eva Scalzo has joined Speilburg Literary Agency, representing romance and young adult fiction. Best Of Last Wednesday the NYTBR posted their list of 100 notable books for 2017. That means their top 10 list is due later this week. Former NYT book critic Michiko Kakutani doesn’t have a vote this year, but last week she indicated in a Tweet that three of her “favorite novels” from the year are Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, and Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo. Corporate As expected, Pearson has reached a deal to sell their Wall Street English […]
People, Etc.
Maris Kreizman will leave her position as editorial director of Book of the Month club on November 30 after a little over a year with the company, to give her “full attention back to my own writing.” At William Morrow, Heidi Richter has been promoted to senior publicity director, while Anwesha Basu moves up to publicity director. In the UK, Charlie Brotherstone has opened his own literary agency, Brotherstone Creative Management. Brotherstone was at Ed Victor Ltd., representing his own clients and running the film/TV, serial and speakers departments, and a number of years at A.M. Heath. Brotherstone Creative Management will sell rights […]
IPO Launches For One of the World’s Most Valuable eBook Platforms
Benefiting from a red-hot market for IPOs in general in Hong Kong, the shares of Tencent spinoff China Literature nearly doubled in their first day of trading. The offering itself, which raised about $1.1 billion in proceeds for the company, was massively oversubscribed, reportedly with orders for more than 600 times the number of shares on offer. Priced at HK$55 a share, the stock is trading at HK$102.40, up 86 percent. The gives the ebook platform a market capitalization of roughly $11.9 billion — making it, by far, the highest-valued standalone publishing focused company in the world. (Pearson has a […]
People, Etc.: Cynthia Nixon to Host NBA Event
Actor Cynthia Nixon will host the National Book Awards ceremony on November 15. Jeff Tegge has joined Baker & Taylor Publisher Services as vice president of client services, reuniting with longtime colleague Mark Suchomel. Tegge was president of Legato Publishers Group and prior to that, vp of sales at IPG. Rachel Horowitz has joined The Bent Agency as a literary agent, specializing in children’s and commercial adult fiction. Most recently, she was children’s literary scout at Maria Campbell Associates. Jennifer Johnson-Blalock has left Liza Dawson Associates to launch Hyphen, a freelance editorial and coaching company. Jeff Shake has joined Rodale Books as senior designer, […]
People: Lee Boudreaux Leaves Imprint for Doubleday
A little less than two years after books from her eponymous imprint starting coming to market, Lee Boudreaux will leave Little, Brown to join Doubleday as vice president and executive editor, reporting to Bill Thomas, starting November 13. From our deal reports we count at least eight titles signed to Lee Boudreaux Books that have not been published yet, all of which will be assigned to new editors and issued by Little, Brown. Little, Brown publisher Reagan Arthur writes, “Lee has been a really great colleague and we loved having her here. A lot! But she decided she needed to make a change.” […]