While Amazon is investing in their in-house publishing program, Barnes & Noble is headed in the opposite direction as part of their repositioning as a technology company, with bankers currently eliciting bids for Sterling Publishing. The WSJ reported the development on Wednesday, citing “people familiar with the situation,” and a BN spokesperson would not comment. But sources with direct knowledge of the offering indicate to us indicate that it has been in circulation for at least two months if not longer. Someone acquainted with the sale’s progress indicates that there is considerable interest in the company. There will be at […]
People
Carrie Thornton has joined HarperCollins as executive editor, It Books. Previously she was executive editor at Dutton. David Kelly has been promoted to deputy editor at the New York Times Book Review, reports children’s editor Pamela Paul. He replaces Bob Harris, who took a buyout at the end of 2011 after more than 29 years at the paper. In the Hachette Digital group: Anthony Goff has been promoted to vp, audio and large print; and Michele McGonigle has been promoted to director of production; Megan Fitzpatrick has been promoted to associate director of marketing and publicity for Hachette Audio. At […]
Corporate News: Scholastic Buys Learners Publishing; Bertelsmann Sells 50 Percent Stake in Pubbles to Weltbild
Scholastic announced Monday that its Singapore subsidiary acquired Learners Publishing, a Singapore-based publisher of supplemental English-language learning materials which has published more than 400 titles since its founding in 2000. “Through this acquisition, Scholastic’s offering of products in the English Language Learning segment is significantly enhanced,” Scholastic International president, growth markets Shane Armstrong said in the release. “Learners’ talented team and its list of outstanding titles will assist Scholastic in accelerating educational publishing growth in International markets.” Regulators approved Bertelsmann’s deal to sell half of its stake in German e-reading store/platform Pubbles to Weltbild for an undisclosed sum. The deal was […]
The Year In Deals: 2011
After a positive response to our pre-Frankfurt deal analysis and charts, our webmaster built a sophisticated set of tools to let us analyze all the data locked inside our Deals database, the largest collection of deal data ever compiled. So now we can offer an assessment of the deal trends of 2011, and we can put those results in the context of a five-year pattern as well. The data shows that US book deal volume increased for the second straight year in 2011, at 5,211 transactions in all, up 5.4 percent overall (after a 7.7 percent gain in 2010). Nonfiction […]
Alex George’s A Good American Tops the February 2012 Indie Next List
Here are the ABA’s latest monthly picks: 1. A Good American: A Novel, by Alex George Defending Jacob: A Novel, by William Landay The Snow Child: A Novel, by Eowyn Ivey The Mirage: A Novel, by Matt Ruff A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty: A Novel, by Joshilyn Jackson The Flight of Gemma Hardy: A Novel, by Margot Livesey The Art of Hearing Heartbeats: A Novel, by Jan-Philipp Sendker History of a Pleasure Seeker: A Novel, by Richard Mason The Chalk Girl: A Mallory Novel, by Carol O’Connell The Odds: A Love Story, by Stewart O’Nan Contents May Have Shifted: A […]
People: Schwartzman Named Executive Editor at Dutton; Agent Hughes Moves to DCL, Costa Awards, and More
Next week Jill Scwhartzman will join Dutton as executive editor, reporting to Ben Sevier. She was most recently a senior editor at Hyperion. Amy Hughes is joining Dunow, Carlson and Lerner as an agent, specializing in non-fiction in the areas of history, wellness and health, cultural studies, and memoir. She was previously an agent at McCormick & Williams. Ethan Bassoff has joined Lippincott Massie McQuilkin as an agent. He was previously at InkWell Management, after beginning his publishing career as an event host and manager at Brookline Booksmith in Boston. He will continue to focus on literary and commercial fiction, narrative […]