Former Sterling publisher Charlie Nurnberg has announced his new company, Imagine Publishing, which will launch in fall 2009. The company aims to publish “books that inspire, educate and ‘edutain'” covering “a multitude of subjects including science and nature, music and art, sports and reference, and the magic of knowledge.” Musician Peter Yarrow is setting up a Peter Yarrow books imprint “bringing music and its magic to children the world over.” Nurnberg had published Yarrow’s book version of Puff the Magic Dragon. The first book in this line will be folk musician Tom Paxton’s THE MARVELOUS TOY. The first adult list […]
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CEOs Address Economy and More
On Wednesday at the Frankfurt Book Fair, I moderated a panel discussion with John Makinson from The Penguin Group, Brian Murray at HarperCollins, and Arnaud Nourry of Lagardere Publishing. FBF has posted a video of the conversation (see the link at the bottom), but here are some notable excerpts. Makinson suggested that once the economic crisis has stabilized, publishers will need to make structural adjustments in the role that some wholesalers play as Britain’s EUK is threatened by the instability of their corporate parent, Woolworth’s. “One concern I do have is whether the merchandising wholesaler model, where a number of […]
By the Numbers
A little less late for dinner, slightly less exhausted, and with luck, somewhat fewer typos than yesterday. There’s enough regular news of all kinds that I’ll save the Frankfurt overview for tomorrow, going out very early before my plane back to New York, but suffice it to say you’re not missing out on anything big. (The headline in the printed fair daily is a repetition of a denial, as Amazon UK reiterates that when they said would not be released in the UK this year, they meant it.) As usual, this fair is not about ebooks even though that’s the […]
Charkin Returns (Online)
Former blogger and current Bloomsbury executive Richard Charkin is blogging again briefly, writing about the Frankfurt Book Fair for FAZ’s online site. A delayed flight from London on Monday “meant missing out on the evening’s main event, the award of the German Book Prize. This would have involved listening to quite long and complicated speeches in German, which I’ve always found to be a hugely relaxing pastime at the end of a stressful day, given that I don’t understand more than about three words of German.” Then, “Tuesday morning kicked off with a highly confidential meeting of the International Advisory […]
The New Reality?
The Observer offers a look at the potential new reality of daily business in the wake of the economic crisis. “The stifling timidity many editors and agents are predicting appears not to have taken hold” yet but, “soon, though, people may find themselves compelled to be more wary. Only the most established agents will be able to convince publishers to take a chance on an unknown novelist or a historian whose chosen topic does not have the backing of a news peg. The swollen advances that have come to represent all that is reckless and sinful about the way the […]
The Publishing Ticker: How Bad Is It?
How are publishing-related entities faring relative the overall market as stock prices continue to fall? Fair warning: this story is not for the faint of heart, so skip down if you need to. Below are some comparative results, looking over the past month, and in particular at the six days of trading ending with yesterday’s market close. In this corner of the world, debt-free Barnes & Noble has been the most resilient so far, and among publishers and their parent companies, Pearson appears to have held up the best (though among somewhat smaller companies Bloomsbury is the star performer). As […]