Egen to Step Down Hachette Book Group announced yesterday that deputy chairman and US publisher Maureen Egen, 64, will step down from “active management” at the beginning of next year. She’ll spend approximately 6 months “represent[ing] HBG in the publishing community, bringing in top titles and helping the company as a market leader” and serving as a consultant to David Young before leaving the company in the summer. Egen comments in the announcement: “I have loved this company through all of my 16 years here, and it is a very good feeling to know that, with its new parentage, Hachette […]

Bloomsbury Warns of Bad Second Half Bloomsbury issued a profit warning after the close of markets in London yesterday, warning investors that earnings for the second half of their fiscal year could be as little as 1 million pounds — or about 16.5 million pounds short of what analysts were expecting. Today the market took its revenge, sending Bloomsbury shares down over 31 percent. What was billed in September as “the strongest autumn programme in our 20-year history” has turned into “lower than expected pre-Christmas sales in the retail trade combined with delays in reference rights sales budgeted for 2006.” […]

Pearson Picks Up Some Cash Pearson sold its Government Solutions unit to Veritas Capital for $560 million, plus $40 million in preferred stock and a continuing 10 percent share in the business, the WSJ reports (following an initial report in the FT). Pearson says they will use the proceeds to pay off debt and fund acquisitions. WSJ More on the Bible Business Similar to last week’s report on the bible business in the WSJ, the New Yorker does the story their way this week. The focus is on Thomas Nelson, where “bible sales increased more than fifteen per cent last […]

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 Twenty-seven-year-old writer and former WMA assistant to Jay Mandel, Liza Monroy’s MEXICAN […]

January 2007 Book Sense and More The ABA has announced their January picks, and posted a variety of Book Sense bestseller lists for 2006. January 1. SACRED GAMES: A Novel, by Vikram Chandra RETURNING TO EARTH: A Novel, by Jim Harrison SILENT IN THE GRAVE, by Deanna Raybourn KOCKROACH: A Novel, by Tyler Knox THE SAFFRON KITCHEN: A Novel, by Yasmin Crowther THE BLACK SUN, by James Twining THE TEAHOUSE FIRE: A Novel, by Ellis Avery FIND ME: A Novel, by Carol O’Connell THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE: A Novel, by Emma Darwin THE BLADE ITSELF: A Novel, by Marcus Sakey […]

Iraq Reports and More The Iraq Report garnered the expected news coverage and the AP says Vintage is “already in a second printing” though the house did not provide numbers. But with a strict on-sale window of noon yesterday, physical books were scarce in the city where demand may have been the most intense, Washington, DC, where an initial shipping snafu left most bookstores with few or no copies. Politics & Prose had six national news camera crews standing by to televise the opening of their cartons, but when the books didn’t arrive, the press relocated to Kramerbooks, which got […]