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Dubious Judge Sets Da Vinci Appeal Parameters The appeal of the case against Random House UK over the DA VINCI CODE brought by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh will have three days of hearings, determined at a preliminary hearing this week. Those proceedings have not been scheduled yet, but are likely for January, the BBC reports. BBC Private Equity Eyes Penguin, and Others? Reuters runs a splashy story about private equity firms — including UK-based Cinven, Candover and Permira — considering bids for a trade publisher. The focus of this UK-generated story is a possible, potential, theoretical, rumored offer to […]

One Record Stands At Harper, Even As Sales Slide Reporting results for the fiscal fourth quarter and full year, Harper continued its streak of record-setting earnings, earning $167 million for the year (up $3 million from last year), even as sales for the year fell modestly, to $1.312 billion (from $1.327 billion a year ago). A soft quarter — their second in a row — may have dampened results. Sales of $256 million were down over 10 percent ($30 million) from a year ago, and the company posted an operating loss of $6 million for the period, an $18 million […]

Starbucks Brews Albom Deal The book portion of Starbucks’ new plan to promote (and possibly at some point develop) books and other entertainment products will launch this fall with a program highlighting Mitch Albom and his new novel FOR ONE MORE DAY. Books will be offered for sale in approximately 5,400 Starbucks locations nationwide both at point-of-sale and on in-store tables for at least a six to eight-week window starting October 3, one week after Hyperion’s laydown. Mitch Albom will visit a Starbucks store in eight cities, and on October 26 the coffee chain will organize Book Break discussion sessions […]

AMS Ready to Settle Civil Suits Advanced Marketing Services announced this morning that the company has gotten preliminary approval from a District Court for a proposed settlement of the class action suit filed by shareholders in the wake of the two government investigations of illegal advertising practices and the company’s related restatement of earnings in early 2004. The proposed cash settlement of $6.3 million (including attorneys’ fees) will be covered by insurance, and the lawyers will also get 75,000 shares of AMS stock. While the settlement, once approved, will clear all shareholder litigation against the company, it has no effect […]

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Posthumous Book Resurfaces at New Publisher Today’s NY Post looks at the posthumous publication of Jack Holland’s MISOGYNY: the World’s Oldest Prejudice, from Carroll & Graf. (Constable & Robinson just published in the UK, too, having paid a 3,000-pound advance.) Originally signed by Carole Desanti at Viking in late 2002, the book was cancelled by the publisher in 2004, shortly after the author died of cancer. Widow Mary Hudson is angry at Viking, and she isn’t too happy with the original agent, “Lisa Bancroft” (known to the rest of us as Lisa Bankoff) at ICM. An unidentified spokesperson at the […]