Akhil Sharma has won the Folio Prize for his novel FAMILY LIFE (Norton). In announcing the $60,000 prize, chair of the judging committee William Fiennes commented: “From a shortlist of which we are enormously proud, Akhil Sharma’s lucid, compassionate, quietly funny account of one family’s life across continents and cultures, emerged as our winner. ‘Family Life’ is a masterful novel of distilled complexity: about catastrophe and survival; attachment and independence; the tension between selfishness and responsibility. We loved its deceptive simplicity and rare warmth. More than a decade in the writing, this is a work of art that expands with […]
International News
Rakuten to Buy OverDrive for $410 Million
The two companies announced in press releases that Rakuten will pay “a total consideration of $410 million in cash” to buy OverDrive. They say OverDrive’s EBITDA was $25 million for 2014, which amounts to a very hefty multiple of earnings that Rakuten is paying — but the Japanese-based company says that with the purchase it “expects the EBITDA of its global eBook business will be close to breakeven in 2015.” The deal is scheduled to close in April. OverDrive’s majority shareholder is the private equity firm Insight Venture Partners, which acquired that stake after making an unspecified “major investment” in 2010. (The specific […]
People, Etc.
Eerdmans has hired Lil Copan as senior acquisitions editor, general trade. She was at Abingdon Press most recently. A group of senior management and board members have joined in a management buyout of the Peter Lang Academic Publishing Group from the Peter Lang Children’s Trust. The deal is expected to close by mid-2015. The new management team comprises Claude Béglé as chairman of the board, Kelly Shergill as CEO and deputy chairman, Vanessa Weber as CFO and Abdurahman Kaymaz as head of warehouse and logistics. Stuart Wilkins, who led the process on behalf of the Trust, said in the announcement: “The Trust Board recognized that their […]
Harper Expands Spanish-Language Publishing, Licenses Lee’s Watchman
In the vein of their new Harper Germany publishing line, HarperCollins has created Harper Iberica to publish in Spain and Portugal, and Harper Espanol to publish Spanish-language books in North and South America. Larry Downs is svp and publisher for Harper Espanol, which will publish approximately 50 books a year, and Luis Pugni is managing director of Harper Iberica, which aims to publish approximately 30 titles. To lead the initiatives, Harper has acquired world Spanish rights in all formats to Harper Lee’s forthcoming Go Set a Watchman, and it has picked up print and audio rights for To Kill a Mockingbird. CEO […]
People, Etc.
At Public Affairs, Colleen Lawrie will join the company as a senior editor on March 9. She was most recently an editor at Harper Collins. Tony Forde starts work there as a publicist on March 18. He was most recently an associate publicist at Twelve. Molly Fonseca will start as marketing manager at Flatiron Books on March 23, reporting to associate publisher Liz Keenan. She has been at Penguin Random House in the international sales department. Steven Boriack joins Flatiron as senior publicist on March 30, reporting to publicity director Marlena Bittner. Chelsey Heller has joined Zachary Shuster Harmsworth as subsidiary rights director and will also be handling foreign rights […]
Pearson “Completed Our Intense Two Year Restructuring”; Names PRH’s Williams CFO
Pearson announced preliminary annual results Friday morning, with sales of £4.874 billion down 4 percent (but up 2 percent on a constant-exchange-rate basis) and higher operating profit of £720 million — with lower restructuring charges but a higher tax rate, leaving earnings down to 66.7 pence per share, compared to 70.1 pence per share a year ago. Those results were in line with their “trading update” from earlier this year. Chief executive John Fallon declared, “We’ve completed our intense two year restructuring and reinvestment programme and performed well competitively despite some challenging market conditions.” The company forecast improved adjusted earnings per share of […]