Samhain Publishing announced to authors via email on Friday that the digital publisher is “beginning the process of winding down due to our market share’s continuing decline. We’re approaching the point where we cannot sustain our business.” Christina Brashear adds, “We prefer to go out gracefully and not get to the point where our overhead compromises our ability to pay the authors’ royalties. That’s would just be wrong. We want to stay on the high road and keep your respect.” Samhain says their objective is an orderly shrinking of operations, underscoring that, “We are going to continue on with selling our […]
Apple Must Wait for Supreme Court Hearing
The Supreme Court’s consideration of Apple’s petition to have the high court hear an appeal of the verdict against them in the ebook pricing antitrust case is currently in limbo. As we reported previously, the Supreme Court Conference for which the case was originally scheduled, on Friday, February 19, was cancelled while the late Justice Antonin Scalia lay in repose. Some accounts mistakenly assumed and posted that Apple’s case would be considered at today’s Conference instead, but from all indications a new hearing date has not been set yet. The Supreme Court case docket was updated on the 24th to indicate […]
People
Scholastic announced a number of recent promotions and new hires. Monica Palenzuela has joined Scholastic as senior publicist. She was most recently a project manager with Scholastic National Partnerships. Patti Ann Harris has been promoted to creative director for Cartwheel Books, Orchard Books, Readers, Branches and Little Shepherd. Anna Bloom, Becky Shapiro, and Zack Clark have each been promoted to editor, while Kait Feldmann moves up to assistant editor. Cheryl Weisman has been promoted to senior production director, Digital, Print & Audio, while John Pels moves up to associate editor, Digital Publishing and Audio. Finally, Nicholas Thomas has joined as […]
Pearson Closing the Book On Difficult 2015; Strong PRH Results Could Ebb In 2016
Pearson reported full-year results for a rough 2015 that are line with their previously-reduced guidance, and their January announcement of plans to cut 4,000 jobs and take restructuring charges of £320 million in 2016. For 2015, sales of £4.468 billion fell by 2 percent (£72 million), and adjusted operating profit of £723m was down by the same 2 percent (£9 million). Actual operating profit, however, swung to a loss of -£404 million (compared to profits of £348 in 2014). The two big movements of the year are found in their “statutory profit” of £823 million. On the positive side, sales of the FT, The Economist […]
DBW Over Three Days, Available Three Ways
Our big Digital Book World event is about a week and a half away, this year covering three full days of programming — March 7 through March 9 — with more options than ever before. You can choose one, two or three days of sessions, depending on what fits your needs: One Day The opening “Day Zero” line-up lets you choose among the return of our big full-day Launch Kids; the popular new Mostly Marketing Masterclasses, four deep-dive sessions with Pete McCarthy, Kelly Gallagher, Annie Cushing and Tom Thompson; the new Nielsen half-day series on Beyond Data Basics; and the […]
People, Etc.
At the Frances Goldin Agency, Matt McGowan has been promoted to senior agent and rights director. At HarperCollins Children’s Books, Caroline Sun has been promoted to director of publicity, Rosanne Romanello moves up to associate director of publicity, and Stephanie Hoover has been promoted to publicist. Mike Conway has joined Chronicle Books as IT director. Previously he was director, CRM and analytics at Bare Escentuals. In addition, Freesia Blizard has joined as associate production developer. Previously she was senior production coordinator at C&T Publishing. In the UK, former Hot Key Books managing director and Oneworld children’s publisher Sarah Odedina will […]