Oprah Taps Follett Who needs a National Book Award when you’re an Oprah pick? Yesterday Winfrey selected Ken Follett’s 973-page THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH as her latest selection (as MJ Rose has noted, keeping her long streak of selecting books by men intact). In a statement Oprah said it’s “like nothing I would ever read or had ever read before.” A spokesman for NAL said they had shipped 612,000 copies to stores in advance of the announcement. Spitzer Spares Internet Affiliate Sales New York Governor Eliot Spitzer called a quick halt to the efforts reported earlier this week to […]

Bertelsmann Q3: Sales Slide; Profits Up Bertelsmann issued one of those very brief, very European third quarter trading updates that doesn’t reveal a lot of information (and does not break out performance by divisions). “Adjusted revenues” (which account for both portfolio changes and “exchange rate effects”) were flat for the quarter at 4.3 billion euros, while the company’s preferred profit measure — operating EBIT — rose 11.7 percent to 314 million euros. But that figure is impaired by a one-time cost of 96 million euros “for the settlement of antitrust proceedings against the advertising time marketer IP Deutschland.” CFO Thomas […]

Macmillan Buys Audio Company Macmillan Audio (formerly Audio Renaissance) has acquired Language Dynamics, which creates “fast and easy to learn foreign language courses” and the Behind the Wheel line of instructional foreign language audiobooks. President of Language Dynamics Mark Frobose was represented by attorney Paul Levine and agent Peter Miller of PMA Literary and Film Management in the negotiations with Macmillan publisher Mary Beth Roche. Roche sees the acquisition as “ideal for both the traditional audiobook market as well as the new, exciting channels of distribution available to audiobook listeners.” Frobose will become editorial director of Macmillan Audio’s foreign language […]

First Man Asian Winner Jiang Rong, 62, won the first $10,000 Man Asian Literary Prize for WOLF TOTEM. Penguin China general manager Jo Lusby says, “He was completely unknown, this book came completely left field. Something in your gut… and publisher’s sensibility screams out, this is really unusual and there’s something that people have never seen from China.” Penguin Press will publish in the US on March 27. Reuters Penguin Will Sell at US Prices in Canada As “book rage” increases in Canada with local book prices looking higher and higher against the ever-plunging US dollar (now worth less the […]

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 Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace.com if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form   FICTION Debut Charles McCain’s SEA EAGLE: A Novel of the Kriegsmarine at War, […]

Coming December 1?: James Potter and the Hall of Elder’s Crossing A teaser web site is promoting the arrival of “James Potter and the Hall of Elder’s Crossing” with a countdown clock that says the hall opens December 1. Copy at the site says, “If you are here then you are a friend (or a friend’s friend) so welcome! The Hall will open soon and when it does you will need your password to enter.… I’ll occasionally be releasing a few preview tidbits so check back every now and again to see what’s coming. “Until then, keep the secret and […]