Mark Twain stipulated that some 5,000 pages of unpublished memoirs should not be published until at least 100 years after his death in 1910. On schedule, the University of California, Berkeley is preparing to release in November the first in a three-volume Autobiography of Mark Twain that will comprise 500,000 words in all.IndependentUC Press page The New York Times looks at the latest book to come from the prolifically posthumous publishing enterprise of the archives of the late Henry Roth. Norton will publish AN AMERICAN TYPE on June 7. The paper credits young New Yorker editor Willing Davidson with “quarr[ying] […]
ABA Actually Gains (9) Members for the Year
One previously-predictable lowpoint of BEA is moment during the American Booksellers Association annual meeting when a board member announces the annual decline in registered member stores. But this year, for the first time since we’ve been following the numbers, the association actually gained members–nine to be exact–with 1,410 registered stores. (That gain does not necessarily reflect a change in the entire store landscape, since not all independent bookstores are members of the national organization.) Here are the reported member-store numbers for the past decade: 2010: 1,4102009: 1,401 2008: 1,5242007: 1,580 2006: 1,6602005: 1,703 2004: 1,804 2003: 1,908 2002: 2,097 2001: […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, May 24
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 Gabrielle Donnelly’s THE SECRET LIVES OF SISTERS, inspired by the story […]
BEA 2010 Party Planner
The party schedule reshapes itself a little as everyone switches gears to the first-ever midweek BEA. As usual, here is our overview of the known celebrants and events so far. Along with our usual disclaimer: This guide is to help survey the landscape of honorees and acknowledge some of the celebrations that companies have worked so hard to organize in concert with the convention. It’s not meant to be a crasher’s guide. (Hence the listing of times but not locations.) If you’re event is not listed, that means you didn’t let us know–send an e-mail and we’ll update as appropriate. […]
More Store (and Device) News As Len Riggio Admits "The store model is under pressure" and iPad Estimates Are Raised
With the rapid expansion of ebook market, the WSJ has a prominent story looking at the corollary of greatest concern in book publishing: to what extent will ebooks push bookstores out of business? (There is a self-reinforcing cycle in which, if rising ebook sales lead to store closings, still fewer print books will sold as result, further propelling ebook market share.) Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio concedes that “the store model is under pressure, whichever way you look at it.” Over the next three or four years, “Riggio says, a different, more diverse Barnes & Noble retail store will […]
Borders Finds Their Extra $25 Million In Financing As LeBow All But Takes Over
When Borders refinanced their revolving credit agreement in March and lined up a new $90 million term loan (at minimum interest of 14.75 percent), they were required to raise at least $25 million in new equity or else that term loan would have its borrowing base reduced by $10 million. This morning the company announced that financier Bennett LeBow, formerly known as as a “corporate raider” and currently chairman of holding company Vector Group, principally a tobacco company with other interests including Douglas Elliman real estate, has purchased $25 million of stock at $2.25 a share through an investment company. […]