Margaret Atwood may have promoted previous books remotely via the LongPen, but for her upcoming novel THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD she’ll be a little more ever-present. The Toronto Star reports Atwood will tour the U.S., Europe and Canada “using a live performance with original music, local actors and the author herself as narrator.” Toronto Star Atwood is also starting a tour blog and using Twitter, as is Joseph Finder, who launches a Twitter Book Tour today for his new thriller VANISHED, running for the next three days. Finder website And Simon & Schuster’s worldwide publication of Philippa Gregory’s THE […]
Summer Reading Picks from Michelle Obama, Stephenie Meyer
O Magazine collates a list of books Michelle Obama has mentioned reading: The Life of Pi by Yann MartelAlexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss Olivia by Ian Falconer Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak While Stephenie Meyer shares her summer reading list: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins and Dreamhunter & Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox (a ” really wonderful” two-book series “like nothing else I’ve ever read”)
Lunch Weekly for Monday, August 17
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 Poet and FENCE editor Rebecca Wolff’s THE BEGINNERS, a coming-of-age story […]
Book Comps, Overall Results Fall for Hastings
Second quarter sales at Hastings fell $8.5 million, or 6.7 percent, to $117 million, while net earnings dropped to $396,000, compared to net earnings of $660,000 in last year’s second quarter. Same-store sales for books also fell 1.7 percent for the quarter, primarily as a result of lower sales of new hardcovers, new trade paperbacks, and magazines, partially offset by strong sales of used and value books. Release
Houghton Parent Avoids Bankruptcy Risk By Refinancing $1 Billion–At Big Cost to Equity Holders
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s corporate parent Education Media & Publishing Group has successfully refinanced more than $1 billion of their big debt load of $7.6 billion–but current shareholders face a dilution of about 45 percent as that debt is converted to equity. The financier who built this mountain of debt Barry O’Callaghan will see his own stake of 40 percent cut nearly in half and will lose his voting control. The company will save about $100 million in interest.FT The FT also reports today that HMH will forgo renewed attempts to sell its consumer book arm in the hopes of bolstering […]
Wall Street Sours on BN's Purchase of Barnes & Noble College
On Friday sentiment among traders continued to turn against Barnes & Noble’s intended purchase of Barnes & Noble College from Len Riggio with the retailer’s stock down more than 9 percent for the day. First the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column voiced a number of concerns, including limited disclosure about what kind of results the public company is purchasing: “As for earnings, B&N has provided only numbers for the year to May with no history or projections. Shareholders deserve to know whether the college chain’s earnings are declining. B&N says it will disclose more when the deal […]