Amy Schumer‘s book will be published by Gallery on August 16 — and it has retained the proposal name, THE GIRL WITH THE LOWER BACK TATTOO. Funding Zola Books closed another round of funding last week. The new round adds something under $3.4 million since the company’s last announced funding in 2013. (That last round was extended beyond the original close to add funds for their purchase of Bookish assets.) The new round was led by previous investor Charles Dolan, founder of Cablevision. Zola hopes to expand the recent rollout of their Everywhere Store widget enabling print and ebook sales by other sites. Corporate […]
International News
Mondadori Likely to Sell Three Imprints for Approval of Rizzoli Acquisition
With Italy’s Antitrust Authority due to make a recommendation shortly on Mondadori‘s acquisition of RCS Media’s Rizzoli book publishing group, Italy’s La Repubblica has reported that the government will require the sale of three publishing lines. Mondadori managing director Ernesto Mauri had already indicated in a recent television interview the expectation that the company would have to give up publishers comprising about 3 percent market share in order to get approval for the deal, indicating they would sell Bompiani and Marsilio. But La Repubblica then reported over the weekend that the final report will call for the sale of Sonzogno as well, […]
Briefs: Hachette Book Group Sues Mottola: Lord of the Rings Coloring Book; and More
Hachette Book Group is suing music executive Tommy Mottola, seeking to recover a $150,000 advance for a memoir they say he never completed. The deal was announced in late 2010 and the manuscript had been due in 2012. The filing is not publicly available yet, but Page Six says “the publisher claims Mottola reneged on finishing the manuscript by April 2012 — even though Hachette offered twice to extend the deadline.” Forthcoming Following the death of author Umberto Eco, Italian publisher La Nave di Teseo (The Ship of Theseus) will release a collection of magazine essays he wrote for Italian weekly […]
Briefs: HarperCollins Italia Acquires 20lines; Penguin Random House India Partners With Manjul; and More
HarperCollins Italia has acquired 20lines, a community that allows users to write, read and share short-format stories via a smartphone app. Available in seven languages, the app is said to feature 40,000 authors and 15,000 new pieces of content published every month. Harper’s chief digital officer, evp international Chantal Restivo-Alessi says in the announcement, “20lines has created a tremendous platform with a passionate community of readers and writers in the same markets where HarperCollins maintains a global footprint. We look forward to engaging with its users and exploring short-form content.” Separately, Penguin Random House India announced a co-publishing partnership for local language translation with Manjul Publishing House. […]
Briefs: PubTrack Digital Launches in UK; Kenyon Sues Clare; Denene Miller Books at Agate; and More
Nielsen Book has launched PubTrack Digital UK, an ebook sales tracking service based on the same model that they use in the US. A set of unspecified publishers contribute their own ebook sales data, on a monthly basis, with a three-month delay. Nielsen says “we are not currently releasing the names of participating publishers. However, we can say that we have a significant share of the estimated e-book market.” The top-selling ebook in the UK for 2015 through August was Girl On the Train (566,000 units) and the No. 10 title, How I Lost You by Jenny Blackhurst, moved approximately […]
On Cue: Waterstones’ Annual Retreat From Forecasts of Profit
Waterstones has filed financial results for the fiscal year through April 2015, and managing director James Daunt is engaging in his annual dance of walking back the bold proclamations he made to an always-eager press during the important holiday sales period. Amazingly, our analysis right now is exactly the same as what we said a year ago. Here are the facts: According to the company’s records filed with the UK’s Companies House, sales for the year ending April 2015 were £378 million, as the company lost money again — albeit with losses reduced to £1.9 million after taxes. The Bookseller says that […]