Renowned agent Pat Kavanagh (and wife of author Julian Barnes) has died. A spokesperson from United Agents, the firm that Kavanagh helped to form after leaving PFD last year, said: “Pat Kavanagh was an exceptional agent and a great friend. We all owe her a tremendous amount. She was an extraordinary presence who was much loved and will be greatly missed by her colleagues and her clients. All our thoughts are with Julian at this difficult time.”
Redstone's Trouble Runs Deep; Margin Call for Scholastic's Robinson
The financial world continues to speculate on just how deep Sumner Redstone’s cash squeeze will strike. On Friday his privately-held National Amusements said it “is engaged in constructive discussions with its bank group and noteholders regarding a covenant issue under National Amusement’s debt, which is unsecured.” They blamed “recent unprecedented market volatility which led to a precipitous drop in the value of the CBS and Viacom shares.” “Sources close to Redstone and Viacom say the executive’s current cash situation is so dire that selling Viacom or CBS – which he also controls – is now a real possibility. Redstone used […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, October 20
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut International Herald Tribune editor Tom Rachman’s THE IMPERFECTIONISTS, about the hapless […]
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 […]
People, Distribution, and More
Dan Weiss has left Barnes & Noble, where he was most recently publisher and managing director of Quamut.com, their “how-to” website and printed guide venture started in late 2007. He can be reached at dweissco@gmail.com. Barnes & Noble spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating confirms for us that the SparkNotes.com and Quamut.com teams have moved to BN.com. (Spark had been under BN Publishing Group president Alan Kahn.) VP of digital media Mike Skagerlind “will take responsibility for directing and managing these strategies in addition to the other content and community features at Barnes & Noble.com.” Jed Donahue is leaving Crown Forum after […]
Wylie Takes Over Bolaño, and "Finds" Another Novel
Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency has taken over representation of Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño’s literary estate from Spanish agent Carmen Balcells and is offering publishers the manuscript of THE THIRD REICH. The unpublished novel was unknown to Balcells and Bolaño’s Spanish publisher, Jorge Herralde. The Guardian says it “is said to have been written in the early 1990s before Bolaño began to work on a computer. The Wylie agency was touting the book at Frankfurt as ‘a type-written, completed novel that is meticulously corrected by hand.'”Guardian