Prize Puzzle Practically every day we’re faced with deciding which of the multitude of prizes and awards to cover. PEN gets lots of coverage today for the latest new prize in their program to create new ways of honoring established writers who have already received lots of honors. This time it’s the inaugural PEN/Borders Literary Service Award — honoring “a truly distinguished American writer whose critically acclaimed work helps us to understand the human condition in original and powerful ways” — going to Gore Vidal. (Last week honored the even more overlooked Philip Roth.) In a similar vein, tomorrow look […]

Bertelsmann Buys the Rest of Bookspan In the purchase everyone’s been waiting for ever since Time Warner sold their trade book group, Bertelsmann has announced their purchase of Time’s 50 percent share in Bookspan. The book clubs will be integrated into BMG Columbia House, run by Stuart Goldfarb, and Bookspan chief executive Markus Wilhelm will leave the company. The purchase price was not disclosed, though the WSJ puts it at approximately $150 million. In exchange for a head’s up on the release, the Journal offers up naive praise of the book club business that would make you think it’s actually […]

Pat Conroy Novel On the Way Pat Conroy’s new novel, set in Charleston and nearly 700 pages, is close to completion. He tells the AP, “It drives me nuts. But long-windedness… there’s nothing you can do about it. I wanted to write a 250-page novel, but I realize I can’t even write a prologue that’s 250 pages.” The wire says the new book will be “a return to the same dysfunctional characters he’s known for.” It will be his first novel in over a decade. AP AMS Asks Court for More Time For reasons that may appear elusive now that […]

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 Billy Mernit’s IMAGINE ME AND YOU, in this ‘be careful what you […]

Three Closings Three prominent bookstore closings were announced, but probably the most significant is Cody’s retreat from its downtown San Francisco location — despite last year’s purchase by Yohan. As president Andy Ross tells the SF Chronicle, “I bet the bank on that store. In spite of the location and the size, it just didn’t work. I can’t interview the customers who didn’t come. The customers who did come liked the store.” As for the Yohan deal, he notes, “It put some money into our business and it gave us some breathing space, but not enough.” The 22,000-square-foot store has […]

BN Finds Improper Options Grants Following an internal investigation, Barnes & Noble concluded that “there were numerous instances of improperly dated stock option grants… and that serious mistakes were made,” but the company says they “did not find any intent to defraud or fraudulent misconduct.” About half of the errors related to using “the benefit of hindsight” in dating options. The price differences comprise $45.5 million over 10 years, plus another $10 million at Barnes & Noble.com. Most of the gap will be accounted for by adjusting balance sheet items (retained earnings, deferred tax assets and additional paid-in-capital) rather than […]