In the UK, Louisa Joyner will leave Canongate to become editorial director at Faber. At Quercus, Stef Bierwerth is moving to an at-large role as she has “decided to relocate her family to Frankfurt.” Succeeding Biewerth as publisher, fiction is Cassie Browne, currently editorial director at Borough Press. Browne will start her new role on August 1. The NYT style section looked at author Cassandra Clare and her fandom: “The place Ms. Clare occupies in publishing — and the work she does to keep herself there — is emblematic of the burdens and boons fan culture bestows on so many […]
BEA Your Way
For those who are making the journey to Chicago, BEA is early this year — running May 11 through May 13 — and as usual, navigating the schedule of events can be a challenge. Back by popular demand, we have prepared our handy day-by-day, hour-by-hour spreadsheet that puts all of the various BEA events, sessions and key signings in one place. Go to publun.ch/BEA16sched to view our master schedule (which we will continue to update with any last-minute announcement).
Bookselling: Chester County Book Company Closes for Good; Support for Murder by the Book Post-Flooding; and More
Chester County Book Company in West Chester, PA will close for good on July 31, three years after re-opening in a smaller location. Store owner Kathy Simoneaux Fortney said in an email to publishers and customers, “After crunching the numbers, the best option is for me to retire & close the store.” She called it “a difficult decision” and wrote, “We had a good 34-year run!” Murder By the Book, which suffered damage to its carpeting and other parts of the store after significant flooding in Houston, is asking for support through the sale of gift cards, books, and other […]
Judge Grants Preliminary Approval of Settlement for Harlequin Authors Class Action Suit
Earlier this month District Court Judge William H. Pauley III granted preliminary approval to a settlement of the class action suit brought by authors against Harlequin, seeking additional payment for books for which Harlequin licensed ebook rights to its own subsidiaries. A fairness hearing has been scheduled for June 30. (Exclusions and objections must be postmarked by June 6.) The settlement provides for a fund of $4.1 million — minus approximately $1.05 million for attorneys’ fees and related costs — to be divided among qualifying authors with contracts signed between 1990 and 2004. It applies to authors whose books were published […]
People
Brian Haley has joined Open Road as senior director of technology. Previously he was engineering manager at Crain Communications. In addition, Philip Rappaport has been promoted to vp, editorial director, and Austin Walker has joined as senior sales manager, working on developing library and special sales opportunities. Previously he was a national account manager at Oxford University Press. At Sourcebooks, Brittany Vibbert has been promoted to associate art director, while Rachel Gilmer and Heather Hall both move up to senior production editors.
Google Play Gains Again, Even As Earnings Are Below Analysts’ Estimates; Apple China iBooks Shutdown Confirmed
The headline from Thursday afternoon’s earnings release from Alphabet/Google was that earnings came in below analysts’ expectations, with first quarter sales of $20.3 billion up 17 percent. In the segment we follow, the glamorous “Other revenue” that incorporates the Google Play store, sales of $2.1 billion were up 24 percent (though 1 percent below the previous, holiday quarter). In the investor conference call, the company said, “Year-over-year performance was driven by Play as well as continued strong growth in cloud and apps and a nice contribution from hardware.” Apple‘s earnings report was postponed until next week. In the meantime, the […]