Full-year sales at The Quarto Group rose 13 percent to 112.7 million pounds, but only because of the full-year integration of their MBI acquisition and the late-year rally in the dollar. Adjusted operating profit rose 23 percent to 6.4 million pounds, but actual operating profit plunged over 45 percent to 5.25 million pounds. As part of the report, the board said it “is discussing whether to change the group’s reporting currency from sterling to the US dollar” which “would give a more nuanced view of performance.” Chairman Laurence Orbach tells shareholders that “November was horrible…. Books commissioned in earlier years […]
Next Niffenegger Novel Draws Wide Interest
While auctions of commercial properties have been the focus of press attention in recent days, the market for the right literary fiction is also showing strength as editors and imprints across town have been engaged in the multi-day auction for the new novel by Audrey Niffenegger. Already announced for October 1 publication in the UK where Jonathan Cape had rights from an earlier deal, HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY is described at Amazon UK as “a delicious and deadly twenty-first-century ghost story about Niffenegger’s familiar themes of love, loss and identity,” promising “echoes of Henry James and Charles Dickens.” Niffenegger’s bestselling debut […]
More Borders Cuts: 742 Store Managers and Supervisors Nationwide
Borders is cutting “less than 3 percent” of their in-store workforce across the country, eliminating 679 jobs at their superstores, mostly by “reducing the number of manager and supervisor positions.” They note that “no changes were made at the general manager level–the top position in each store–but in the majority of Borders locations, one or two other leadership positions, such as sales managers, inventory managers, training supervisors and merchandise supervisors, were eliminated as the company resets its superstore management structure to correspond to sales volume on a store-by-store basis.” Similar changes to manager and supervision positions at Waldenbooks are eliminating […]
The Success of #queryfail
Fast-growing Twitter may have found one of its best uses in publishing yesterday as agents, editors and writers found themselves curiously obsessed with a #queryfail thread started by agent Colleen Lindsay. As she described it on her blog, “a group of online agents, book editors and periodicals acquisition editors are posting about their queries in real time. The idea is to educate people about what exactly it is in a query that made us stop reading and say ‘Not for me.'” Or at least make people laugh. As a taste, we pulled a selection of our favorite lines and stitched […]
April 2009 Indie Next List
A Reliable Wife: A Novel by Robert GoolrickThe Color of Lightning: A Novel by Paulette JilesThrough Black Spruce: A Novel by Joseph BoydenThe Long Fall by Walter MosleyThe Weight of Heaven: A Novel by Thrity UmrigarDarling Jim: A Novel by Christian MoerkA Fortunate Age: A Novel by Joanna Smith RakoffRevenge of the Spellmans: A Novel by Lisa LutzAll the Living: A Novel by C.E. MorganThe Little Sleep: A Novel by Paul TremblayPicking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton, with Erin TorneoDevil’s Garden by Ace AtkinsSeeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the […]
Barnes & Noble Buys Fictionwise
The ereading (and eretailing) landscape continues to get more interesting as BN has bolstered their quiet development efforts in digital content by purchasing Fictionwise for $15.7 million in cash. As part of this morning’s announcement the company acknowledges for the first time “the launch of an e-Bookstore later this year.” They say, “Barnes & Noble said it plans to use Fictionwise as part of its overall digital strategy, which includes the launch of an e-Bookstore later this year.” Barnes & Noble says they will keep Fictionwise as a separate business unit and founders Steve and Scott Pendergrast will continue to […]