Hachette Partners on Self-Published Hit Hachette Book Group USA’s Faith Words will take over sales, marketing, distribution, licensing, and manufacturing for William P. Young’s self-published hit THE SHACK (covered in USAT on May 1, linked in Lunch) in a co-venture that will include future titles from Windblown Media — formed with Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings to distribute The Shack. Publisher Rolf Zettersten says they have “compelling plans for future books, including He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen and So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman under the pen name Jake Colsen.” […]
Lunch for Wednesday, May 14
Big Changes at Penguin Children’s President of the Penguin Young Readers Group for over a decade Doug Whiteman is taking on a new role at the company as evp of business operations for Penguin Group USA, starting next week. Former Random House evp and coo for North America Don Weisberg is returning to publishing to take over as the new president for Penguin’s children’s division. And he’s being joined by another publishing star as former Scholastic president of children’s book publishing and distribution Barbara Marcus joins the company as a strategic advisor. Weisberg says in the announcement, “I’m looking forward […]
Lunch for Tuesday, May 13
Kiser to Hyperion, and More Personnel News Crown editorial director Kristin Kiser will move to Hyperion as vp and associate publisher, starting May 27, reporting to president Ellen Archer. Kiser will be responsible for the management of the production, art, operations, and sub rights departments, along with managing the strategic planning for the company’s publishing program and coordinating and directing campaign plans for Hyperion and Voice frontlist and backlist titles. At Barnes & Noble, vp of the newsstand business Jaime Carey has been promoted to the newly created position of chief merchandising officer, responsible for the merchandise buying of all […]
Lunch for Monday, May 12
Here Come the e-Catalogs HarperCollins is the first to announce plans for an electronic sales catalog, which they will preview at BEA and launch in beta form over the next six to 12 months. Among the planned features: “Book covers, prices, on-sale dates, reviews, quotes and important media alerts will be updated in real time as soon as they have been entered. Booksellers will be able to create lists and place orders online as they review front list book pages, and an author’s entire backlist will be visible as well.” Catalog pages will link to other content, and “booksellers will […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, May 12
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 Pushcart Prize and Missouri Review Editor’s Prize winner Valerie Laken’s DREAM […]
Lunch for Friday, May 9
Waterstone’s Rises In Europe it’s the season of brief trading updates. From the UK, Waterstone’s parent HMV reported that sales for the past 16 weeks (through to late April) rose an encouraging 6.6 percent on a same-store sales basis. Overall sales rose 3.3 percent. (Breakout figures were not provided.) Waterstone’s managing director Gerry Johnson tells the Bookseller, “We have definitely stopped the decline and we are now growing,” citing a “very strong performance” from books in particular. He added, “I think the whole base of our strategic programme is coming through and we are seeing very good results. We are […]