According to Nielsen BookScan numbers released yesterday for sales through last Saturday, September 26, in the outlets tracked by the service Dan Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL sold another 401,000 copies. (NB that BookScan does not currently include ebook sales. And in the UK, Symbol sold another 175,040 copies, reported by The Bookseller.) Diana Gabaldon’s AN ECHO IN THE BONE had the best opening sale for a new book last week, moving approximately 94,000 units. Second-week sales for Ted Kennedy’s TRUE COMPASS were approximately 69,000 copies, and the first full week of sales for the Oprah edition of Uwem Akpan’s SAY […]
People and Awards: New Head for RH Mondadori, Harper's Chief Digital Officer, Also on the Gallery Editorial Team, and More
Following the previous announcement of the elevation of Random House Mondadori ceo Riccardo Cavallero to general manager of trade publishing at Mondadori (which is a joint venture partner in RH Mondadori), the owners have jointly named Nuria Cabuti, 42 as the unit’s new ceo, effective January 1, based in Barcelona. She has been publisher and editorial director of the Random House Mondadori Children’s and Paperback divisions. A letter from Random House ceo Markus Dohle and Mondadori Group chief executive Maurizio Costa notes that “as a publishing leader she has significantly improved our children’s books results, and increased our paperback revenues […]
S&S Creates Gallery Books As Pocket Returns to Mass-Market Only
Simon & Schuster is taking their successful Simon Spotlight Entertainment line and merging it with Pocket Books’ hardcovers and trade paperbacks to create a new imprint, Gallery Books. Pocket itself will return to focusing entirely on mass market publishing, as partner for all of the S&S imprints and continuing with paperback originals for “rising authors” such as Kresley Cole and Thomas Greanias. The new line is expected to launch in spring 2010. CEO Carolyn Reidy writes to employees that “as a company we need to insure that each of our imprints has sufficient strength and support, especially in this difficult […]
Stanford Closes Publishing Course, and Studies Possible Successor
The venerable Stanford Publishing Course for Professionals, serving book publishing and magazine professionals since 1978, has closed, a victim of both the economy and larger transitions in the program’s core fields. Longtime director Holly Brady is leaving Stanford–saying she “expects to continue the conversation from another vantage point here in Silicon Valley”–and her staff has been dismissed. This move comes admits broad cost-cutting at Stanford University, with the school recently disclosing a 27 percent drop in their endowment capital over the last fiscal year, with investment losses of approximately $3.5 billion. They reportedly cut over 400 positions earlier in the […]
People: New Head for Direct Brands, and More
Direct Brands, whose properties include the Bookspan book clubs, has named Deborah Fine as president and ceo. Fine had been president of iVillage Properties until late last year, after serving as ceo of Victoria’s Secret PINK. She takes over from Stuart Goldfarb, who resigned earlier this month. As Fine told the WSJ, “This is a business primed to be reinvented. It’s also safe to say we need to evolve online.” Fine explained further to us: “This business possesses five valuable currencies: content, channel, customer, commerce and community, which present significant opportunities to leverage them in new ways, with new tools, […]
Borders to Offer Free Wi-Fi, Too
Matching the recent rollout from AT&T at Barnes & Noble stores, Borders will provide “virtually all of its more than 500 Borders stores” with free wi-fi from Verizon, “expected to be available by mid-October.” Users will start with a promotional Borders splash page.