The ABA has announced the 2009 Indie Choice Award winners: Best Indie Buzz Book (Fiction)The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (The Dial Press) Best Conversation Starter (Nonfiction)The Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah Vowell (Riverhead) Best Author DiscoveryThe Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski (Ecco) Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book (Fiction)The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins) Best New Picture BookBats at the Library, by Brian Lies (Houghton Mifflin) Most Engaging AuthorSherman Alexie ABA
People, and Announcements
Laura Ford will move over to the Ballantine editorial team as Editor, reporting to publisher Libby McGuire. She has been at Random House since 2001, when she began there as an editorial assistant. Ford will continue to edit the books she has acquired for Random House and they will remain on that list. Former Houghton Mifflin publisher Janet Silver is joining Zachary Shuster Harmsworth as an agent and literary director, in their Boston office. In the UK, Peter Robinson is formally merging his eponymous literary agency with Rogers, Coleridge & White (which has been handling foreign rights and other functions […]
Environmental Coalition Sets Goals for Greener Publishing
The Book Industry Environmental Council said today they hope to reduce the US book publishing industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent as of 2020 (and 80 percent by 2050). They estimate meeting the 2020 goal will save “the equivalent annual emissions of approximately 450,000 cars.” Chair of the climate subcommittee and Hachette Book Group vp Pete Datos says in the statement, “I’m very pleased that our industry has set aggressive but achievable goals that will have tangible benefits and will surely set a precedent for other industries.” Chaired by Random House and coordinated by the nonprofit GreenPress Initiative, the […]
Courier Takes $15.6 Million Charge Against Dover
In reporting second quarter earnings, Courier took a non-cash $15.6 million impairment charge related to performance at their Dover Publications unit, representing 100 percent of Dover’s goodwill. The company cites “the recent reduction in valuation multiples in the publishing industry and the US government’s projection of continued weakness in consumer spending for several quarters to come” in their “assessment of potential impairment in Dover’s business.” Sales at the book publishing division were $12.1 million for the quarter, down 28 percent from a year ago, with an operating loss of $556,000. But CEO James F. Conway III says, “After a long […]
Bloomsbury UK Removes Prices from Backlist, and Retailers Are Surprised
Bloomsbury has been removing printed prices from backlist titles in the UK starting “over a year” ago, Richard Charkin tells the Bookseller. He adds, “When something drops into the backlist, you may wish to increase the price, in which case this enables us to do it [more easily]. It’s a sensible thing to do because I think this government is going to have to introduce high levels of inflation, and we want to make sure we have a way of dealing with it.” But all retailers surveyed by the magazine have been taken by surprise by the move. Borders UK […]
Borders Drops Stock Split for Now; Will Clean Out Board
With its shares trading at over $1 per share for almost two weeks now, Borders has decided not to ask shareholders to approve a reverse stock split at the company’s annual meeting on May 21. (The NY Stock Exchange has also decided to temporarily suspend the dollar-per-share minimum for all companies.) Borders also announced a sweeping change in the composition of its board. Two positions will be eliminated as it shrinks to eight members–and five directors who will still stand for re-election intend to “step down over the coming months as suitable replacements are found.” They have so many openings […]