Random House Children’s Books is closing the Berkeley-based Tricycle Press imprint, acquired as part of Ten Speed Press, on January 31, 2011. They will continue to “sell and support” the Tricycle backlist and will decide soon what label forthcoming titles will be published under. Publisher Nicole Geiger and the four editorial staff members will leave the company as result. Tricycle marketing and publicity manager Laura Mancuso will remain as part of Random House Children’s.
Hachette Livre and Google Craft Their Own Settlement for French Books
Hachette Livre in France, which filed multiple objections to the still-pending Google Books Settlement, announced today “a memorandum of understanding that defines the terms for Google to scan Hachette Livre’s French language books” that effectively substitutes direct agreement for what the settlement had originally proposed for “commercially unavailable” books from around the world. The parties have six months of “fine tuning” to craft a binding agreement, and they envision the agreement as a template whose “basic terms and conditions will be made available to all French publishers.” Like the settlement, the agreement focuses on in-copyright, “commercially unavailable” works published by […]
Copia Opens, But They Aren’t Ready
Copia has finally “soft-launched,” moving from private beta to public beta yesterday though with no official announcement of the service’s debut yet. Among industry players they have partnered with in various ways are GoodReads, LibraryThing, and FiledBy, integrating content from those services. They also offer seven free books, all from Rosetta Books, to people who register for the service. The initial apps work on personal computers, the iPad and WIndows Phone 7, with Android and a Copia Touch App listed as “coming soon.” As promised way back in early January, the site is as much about social connections and discussion […]
Quotable Views: Agent Emanuel, and Author O’Dell
Tough-talking William Morris Endeavor Entertainment co-CEO Ari Emanuel was interviewed at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, covered by paidContent, where he set himself (and the agency) up as the next Andrew Wylie. After an underwhelming first pass at literary representation when Endeavor as on its own, “Emanuel said one of the motivations behind merging Endeavor with William Morris last year was to get his hands on the book business, where Endeavor had no skin in the game. The reason it’s so appetizing, he said, is because it’s ripe for disintermediation. “‘I definitely don’t think I have to go […]
Bush Sells 775,000 Copies In First Week On Sale
Crown says that they have recorded sales of 775,000 copies for former President George Bush’s DECISION POINTS in its first week on sale in all editions, including ebooks, audio and export editions. As was the case with the opening-day sale, they say it’s the largest first-week sale for any nonfiction title published by Random House, Inc. since former President Bill Clinton’s book in 2004. eBooks comprised “more than 100,000 copies, or approximately 14 percent of all units” sold (and at least 50,000 ebooks were sold the first day by the company’s prior report). Crown says they have reprinted another 350,000 […]
Barnes & Noble Poison Pill Approved; Aletheia Continues to Trim their Position
With no active resistance this time around from Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa, Barnes & Noble shareholders officially and “overwhelmingly” ratified the company’s poison pill plan, with 72 percent of votes cast in favor. Separately, in a periodic SEC filing, Aletheia Research & Management indicated that they have continued to trim their position in Barnes & Noble’s stock, they though still hold a substantial stake comprising just over 14 percent of all shares. In the past two months, they had a net sale of approximately 635,000 shares, now down to roughly 8.4 million shares as of November 10 after holding about 9.05 […]