When Reed Elsevier sold Harcourt Education to Barry Cunningham’s debt-driven publishing mashup (now operating as Education Media & Publishing Group) bankers forced them to take a small share in the company, valued at $300 million. But in yesterday’s earnings report, Reed disclosed that they have marked down the value of that stake in EMPG to 15 million euros. As the Independent notes, “Reed Elsevier’s valuation on its stake points to an overall equity valuation of ¬127m for EMPG, which has a debt mountain of over $7bn.” EMPG tells the newspaper that “across our group of shareholders, investors carry their investments […]
The Search for 28 New James Patterson Collaborators
James Patterson’s next novel AIRBORNE is an experimental, mostly electronic work. Instead of working with a single co-author, Patterson wrote the first and list chapters, with the other 28 short chapters each written by someone different. The writers were recruited through a contest held by Random House UK and Borders Australia. “Airborne will be released electronically, one chapter at a time, starting on March 20th. Later, a print edition will be published, but only as a prize of sorts for the participants in the competition – it will not be mass produced.”ReadWriteWeb
eGalleys: Is That How It Will Work?
Whenever I meet with other press and reviewers, as well as in-house publicists (and I got to do both at today’s lovely annual Little, Brown preview luncheon, introducing the touching and inspirational story of Rupert Isaacson’s autistic son Rowan as told in THE HORSE BOY) I ask if they are using electronic galleys yet. Publicists generally say they get few or no requests; some reviewers/editors/journalists would love to receive them, while others still prefer paper. On topic, Soho Press publicity director Sarah Reidy just celebrated via their blog: “I got my FIRST ever review copy request from a reviewer…for their […]
ABA Revamps Awards Program
With the fading out of the Book Sense branding program, the ABA is renaming their annual prizes the Indies Choice Book Awards. The seven categories have been revamped as well, now honoring an Indie Buzz book (fiction), Best Conversation Starter (nonfiction), Best Author Discovery (debut), Best Read-Aloud Book, Best YA Buzz Book, Most Engaging Author, and the Read-Aloud Hall of Fame. Book finalists will be picked by a bookseller jury, but the pool is still limited to monthly Book Sense/Indie Next list selections. Most Engaging Author Award nominees must be “engaging at in-store appearances” and have “a strong sense of […]
People and Awards
Marcy Goot joins Kaplan Publishing as executive director of marketing. Most recently she was vp of marketing for National Lampoon, after working for multiple book publishers. Also at Kaplan, Don Fehr has been promoted to editorial director, trade, and Ron Sharpe has been promoted to executive director of production and manufacturing. At ESPN Books, Richard (R. D.) Rosen has been hired as senior editor. An Edgar Award-winning author of several mysteries starring a major league baseball player-turned-detective, he was most recently a senior editor at Workman Publishing. Thomas Nelson’s Dale Wilstermann will move over to running the nonfiction trade group […]
Simon & Schuster Holds Steady in Fourth Quarter
CBS reported fourth-quarter sales after the close of the market, with sales of Simon & Schuster doing well given the economic climate, rising one percent to $245 million. Earnings suffered, however, as OIBDA declined 4 percent, at $28.3 million, and operating income was off 3 percent, at $26.1 million. The publisher took a $4.2 million “restructuring charge,” primarily due to the layoffs in December, though also including a modest charge due to the bankruptcy of Woolworth’s in the UK. For the full year, S&S had sales of $858 million, down three percent, as OIBDA of $88.2 million reflected a 9 […]