As expected, the UK Publishers Association and Independent Publishers Guild are asking the government to block Amazon’s purchase of The Book Depository, calling for a wider public investigation into the competition between the online and bricks and mortar bookselling market. What’s less expected is that their request is a joint one, which PA ceo Richard Mollet said in a statement “reflects the strength of feeling among publishing companies that the OFT should block this merger.” Bookseller Meanwhile, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will conduct an ‘informal review’ of Pearson’s proposed acquisition of REDGRoup Retail’s online business. The closing […]
New Imprints
Random Revives Loveswept As Digital-Only Romance Imprint
The Random House Publishing Group is bringing back its once-popular romance imprint Loveswept (originated by Bantam Books and closed down a few years ago) as a digital-only imprint this August with eight titles, including Iris Johansen’s new novel THIS FIERCE SPLENDOR and others by Sharon & Tom Curtis, Deborah Smith, Juliana Garnett and Sally Goldenbaum. From then on the imprint, which will publish ebooks simultaneously in North America and the UK through Transworld, will bring out one new e-release every month and reissue select backlist titles. In the US each title will include bonus content, and the classic titles will […]
People: McCullough to Start Imprint at RH Canada, Conville & Walsh Launch Speakers’ Bureau; And More
Publisher of Whitecap Books since 2001, Robert McCullough will join Random House Canada on July 11 as publisher of a new imprint. The line will focus on “the type of lifestyle and food titles for Canada and the North American marketplace that he has published” in the past. The unit will draw on all of RH Canada’s shared services. It’s designed to grow to publish 15 to 20 titles a year. McCullough will remain based in Vancouver, and reports to president Brad Martin. UK literary agents Patrick Walsh and Clare Conville of Conville & Walsh are launching a speakers’ agency […]
eNews: Collins and Child Pass the Million Mark; Penzler Starts Mysterious Press eBooks
Suzanne Collins and Lee Child are the newest authors to sell over a million Kindle editions of their works. Collins is the first children’s author to achieve the milestone. They join Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts and Charlaine Harris. Release Otto Penzler intends to publish 250 ebooks through a new MysteriousPress.com venture, primarily reissues of classic mysteries not yet available electronically. The line will also publish one new title a month, including a novella by James Grady, a follow-up to Six Days of the Condor. MysteriousPress.com will use Open Road for distribution and marketing, Crain’s NY reports. Crains
Glenn Beck and S&S Expand Partnership and Add Imprint
Glenn Beck may be leaving the Fox News Network later this year but his longstanding relationship with Simon & Schuster will continue and expand thanks to a new co-publishing venture with his production company Mercury Radio Arts. Mercury Ink will launch this August as an imprint that aims “to discover, publish and promote books and authors that [Beck] is passionate about across a variety of genres,” co-publishing with Simon & Schuster. Beck says in the announcement, “While I have a million book ideas of my own, there are still countless subjects that I know my audience would love to read […]
People: Dolan Gets New Imprint at HMH, and More
In what has to be considered a case of turnabout being fair play, Eamon Dolan will leave Penguin Press for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to become VP and Editorial Director of his own imprint, Eamon Dolan Books, starting on June 13. Before he’d moved to Penguin Press as editor-in-chief in 2007 – a title removed with Scott Moyers’ return earlier this month as publisher, with Ann Godoff taking on editor-in-chief duties – Dolan held the same title at what was then Houghton Mifflin, editing books by Eric Schlosser, Buzz Bissinger, Jerome Groopman and David Sheff. The new imprint will concentrate on […]