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Schedule Notes This is the part where we’re supposed to explain our holiday schedule, except that we never really know what our publication habits will be like for the next couple of weeks. Some things are certain: we’ll have a weekly deal round-up coming soon as usual, and PublishersMarketplace.com remains live all the time — with news postings as warranted, deal reports, job listings, and all of our other features. Nightly deal e-mails will depend on the flow of reports. There will be not be daily Lunches, but there will surely be at least occasional Lunches, following the news cycle […]

Harry Has A Name J.K . Rowling announced today on her website the title of her still undelivered 7th book: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. More Lists USA Today does “something unusual by choosing a novel that was published last year as our Book of the Year”: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, by Kim Edwards. The rest of their category favorites: Fiction: All Aunt Hagar’s Children, by Edward P. Jones Non-fiction: Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas E. Ricks Biography: Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler Debut novel: The Last Town on […]

No Merriness at Waterstone’s A trading update from HMV on the 12 week period ending December 16 confirms the continuing bad news for chain booksellers in the UK, as same-store sales at Waterstone’s fell yet again by 3.7 percent. The company blames “continuing promotional activity in the book market” (e.g. deep discounts on frontlists aren’t going away, and retail gravity continues to favor Tesco at al. — in other words, the market has changed dramatically, and Waterstone’s has not.) In their September update the company implied that sales erosion was improving, but this number isn’t much better than the 4.1 […]

Good Quarter for Scholastic Better margins and improvement at their school book clubs, book fairs and continuity programs helped Scholastic to 6 percent sales growth in their second quarter, to $735.5 million, with net income up 12 percent to $75 million. In the children’s book publishing and distribution unit, sales were $443 million — up 4 percent, though trade sales declined 4 percent in a non-Harry Potter year. Release Regan, the Cabalists, and the “Unpublishable” Mantle Book So the circus is in town for the holidays, and here’s what we’re left with in the center ring: when Judith Regan accused […]

Ingram Goes Shopping for Coutts Ingram is going into the academic library supply business with the acquisition of UK-based Coutts Information Services (the unit also has offices in the US, Canada and Holland.) The company suppies both physical books and electronic ones through its MyiLibrary affiliate, which lets librarians build collections of e-books. Ingram Industries vice chairman John Ingram says in the announcement “This will accelerate our service in the important academic library field, providing the highest level of wholesale, distribution, information, and print-on-demand services.” Spinning the Termination Two leakers from News Corp. are apparently in charge of planting information […]

Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut David Bajo’s THE 351 BOOKS OF IRMA ARCURI, pitched as reminiscent of […]