Publishers Lunch

Random On the Waterfront (In a Bikini) Similar to Harper’s agreement announced at the beginning of the year, Random House is also partnering with Waterfront Media in a “multi-year, multi-book strategic agreement” to develop online resources based on health and wellness titles. Random’s Todd Krizelman, who is manager of growth projects, negotiated the relationship for the company. The first collaboration is on a site linked to the March 2007 Doubleday release BIKINI BOOT CAMP by Melissa Pearlman and Erica Gragg, founders of the camp and eco-resort, based in Mexico. Personnel News Alyssa Eisner Henkin will join Trident Media Group in […]

Da Vinci Case Over in the US Lewis Perdue’s appeal to the Supreme Court of the ruling in the case involving his books and Dan Brown’s DA VINCI CODE will not be heard, and the rulings from the District Court and Court of Appeals will stand. Bloomberg Alibris Expands Alibris went live with their UK site a few weeks, made official with an announcement today. As part of the new site, “Alibris customers around the world can now purchase books with their local currency,” including pounds, euros, sterling, and eleven other currencies. The company says it has “reduced prices for […]

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 Camilla Way’s debut novel of teen violence and angst in London in […]

Lagardere’s Q3 Lagardere’s book unit reported revenues of 636 million euros ($818 million) for their fiscal third quarter, and the company is now up 2.6 percent compared to last year for the nine month period (once adjusted for the Time Warner Book Group acquisition and currency fluctuations.) The former TWBG added 115 million euros ($148 million) this quarter. In the UK, as was the case last quarter, Hodder Headline is credited with “robust growth, mainly driven by sales of James Patterson [who is leaving the house] and Stephen King.” Release Random Reduces Sales Group Random House is “completing a restructuring […]

Harper’s Quarter HarperCollins’ first quarter results fell back to earth, with sales dropping almost 6 percent to $368 million, and profits falling more than 21 percent to $55 million — albeit in comparison to the company’s best quarter ever this time a year ago. CEO Jane Friedman says the difference “is all Narnia” and that final results for the quarter “were ahead of our own expectations.” Narnia accounted for a total of $104 million in revenues in the last fiscal year. It is, however, the third consecutive quarterly year-on-year decline in revenues for the company and due to the Narnia […]

Bertelsmann’s Quarter Bertelsmann issued their traditionally scant thrid quarter trading update, reporting a 2.4 increase in sales for the period to 4.4 billion euros. They did not actually break out net income for the past three months, but if you compare the nine-month total of 362 million euros to the 339 million euros reported in September, you see it was a mere 23 million euros. Overall the company attributes the nine-month decline in earnings compared to last year to a variety of taxes and special items. CFO Thomas Rabe indicated he still expects pre-tax profit to rise by 10 percent […]