AMS Adds UK Children’s Distributor AMS announced its acquisition as of September 1 of the assets of UK children’s book distributor Ragged Bears Limited. Distributed lines (which include Chronicle’s Children’s) will be put under the PGW Worldwide banner, with Ragged Bears become the company’s UK children’s division. AMS International president Mike Kidd comments: “It is our intention to make the necessary investment in Ragged Bears to make it the agency of choice for all small and medium sized publishers. Our first priority however will be looking after the interests and growing the sales of the existing client publishers and customers.” […]

Booker Shortlist Julian Barnes’ ARTHUR AND GEORGE, Zadie Smith’s ON BEAUTY, Sebastian Barry’s A LONG LONG WAY, Ali Smith’s THE ACCIDENTAL, John Banville’s THE SEA and Kazuo Ishiguro’s NEVER LET ME GO comprise the Booker Prize shortlist, announced earlier today. London bookmakers have made Julian Barnes (twice nominated, often praised, never crowned) the 5-4 favorite. Unlike in recent years when lesser-known authors were included in the shortlist, Banville’s is the only book that has not yet been announced for publication in the US (though Vintage International has issued a lot of his backlist). We didn’t hear back from Knopf on […]

Profits Rise at Random Bertelsmann reported results for the first half of the year, with Random House registering sales of 799 million euros ($994 million) and “operating EBIT” of 48 million euros. The company says the decline in sales versus 818 million euros a year ago is due to the weak dollar, though dollar softness has effected euro-denominated results for a long time now. The UK division produced “the largest gains” in both sales and profits, extra helpful to the company because they are recorded in stronger pounds; and the German division “posted notable improvements in sales of its adult […]

Helping Hands John Grisham is donating $5 million to create the Rebuild the Coast Fund Organization to help uninsured people from Mississippi (where he has a home, in Oxford) rebuild homes and businesses. He commented: “We don’t normally publicize gifts. It’s something we keep extremely private. But in these very, very rare circumstances — this tragic time — we hope the gift will get some attention and inspire other people to contribute money and help our fellow Mississippians on the Gulf Coast.” On Friday, Scholastic announced a $100,000 cash donation and indicated: “Scholastic Education and Scholastic Library Publishing divisions will […]

In Katrina’s Wake The ABA has set up a fund to help booksellers and their families following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Checks payable to ABA/Bookseller Relief Fund can be sent to the organization’s office at 200 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, NY 10591. They ask that you write “Bookseller Relief” on the outside of the envelope. ABA’s director of special projects David Walker is collecting offers from stores around the country to house and/or employ displaced booksellers. BTW Writer Vicki Hinze has set up a “Hurricane check-in” page on her web site to help keep track of writers in the […]

Surprise Closing at Kepler’s Menlo Park, CA independent bookstore Kepler’s closed suddenly yesterday after just over 50 years in business, with a sign posted on the door telling customers: “As much as we love what we do and would like to continue another 50 years, we simply cannot.” Palo Alto Online reports, “Employees were left stunned and reeling from the announcement as [owner Clark] Kepler cited financial problems that had built since the dot-com bust of 2001.… Some employees had heard rumors of a financial crisis over several days, but many thought the all-staff meeting was to announce layoffs.” City […]