Aletheia Research and Management continued their heaving buying of Barnes & Noble stock in the final week of 2009, filing with the SEC yesterday to disclose that their share in the bookseller had risen to 13.12 percent of all shares outstanding. The company’s purchases throughout December were all made at prices in excess of Barnes & Noble’s current price, now trading below $18 a share.SEC filing
Books In the News: Game Change Stays at Top of the News Cycle, But No eBook
John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s GAME CHANGE releases today, after a number of continuous days of headline-making tidbits. The AP reports that Harper has gone back to press twice, bringing the initial run of 75,000 copies up to 155,000 copies in print. Both Amazon and BN.com are out of stock for now, promising delivery in one to three weeks, and the book turns out to be one of those titles for which no ebook version is available to fulfill that instand demand. Multiple “reviewers” at both sites have expressed confusion and dismay that no ebook is available. For “quick reads” […]
More Action in Online Textbook Rentals
Following yesterday’s announcement from Barnes & Noble College, Cengage Learning announced that their site CengageBrain.com is renting over 1,200 of the company’s textbooks at “up to 70 percent off the suggested retail price.” And they say they will add another 1,500 titles to the program by July 2010. Just as importantly, Cengage’s site already sells electronic textbooks and echapters, too. Inside Higher Ed suggests that a transition to a Netflix “play instantly” model is not far off in the textbook market: “Just as Netflix has begun making more and more of its inventory available for users to stream instantly on […]
Pfeffer Joins East/West Agency, and More People News
Former svp, group publisher of Simon & Schuster Children’s Trade imprints Rubin Pfeffer has joined the East/West Literary Agency, heading up the East Coast office in Boston as a partner, digital strategist, and content agent, a new position “focused on developing and creating content for the 21st -century incarnations of publishing, both electronic and traditional print.” Pfeffer says, “The value that I hope to offer East/West and the clients that I represent is being nimble and opportunistic about how their intellectual property can be leveraged effectively in this dawn of electronic publishing. There are many more options for writers and […]
Laura Hruska, 74, Dies
Laura Hruska, co-founder of the Soho Press in 1986 (along with her husband, Alan Hruska, and their friend Juris Jurjevics) died Saturday at her home in Manhattan. While at Soho, Hruska helped to launch the careers of many prominent writers, including Edwidge Danticat, whose novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory began as a short story submitted to Laura. Other notable Soho authors have included Dan Fesperman, Robert Hellenga, Susan Richards, Garth Stein, and Jacqueline Winspear. As of January 1 Hruska’s daughter Bronwen Hruska took over as publisher of Soho Press. There will be a memorial service on Friday, January 15, at 11:30 […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, January 11
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 Kenneth Harmon’s BETTER NOT POUT: A Tale of North Pole Noir, […]