Best Year-End Release Simon & Schuster finally acknowledged their forthcoming book from Bob Greene, THE BEST LIFE DIET, with a foreword from his best-known follower Oprah Winfrey, which will publish on December 26, at $26. The book “presents an easy-to-follow life-long eating plan that will empower readers to take weight off and keep it off, addressing not only readers’ nutritional needs but also their activity level.” Winfrey’s foreword will credit Greene with helping her control her life-long battle with eating and weight. Nobel Date Set The Nobel Prize for Literature will be announced next Thursday at 1:00 (Swedish time). The […]

So a Reporter Walks Into a Bookstore The NYT has great luck buying embargoed books from bookstores (notice they never indicate if they pay more than retail price). Today’s get is Carly Fiorina though, having beaten everyone to the book, the paper can’t seem to find much in the way of revelations. Fiorina admits that she authorized the initial investigation into leaks from the HP board. Less of a surprise is that she “reveals a good deal of resentment over her firing.” NYT If you’re still wanting to catch up on the Bob Woodward’s STATE ON DENIAL, Slate has prepared […]

Harper to Co-Publish with Planeta Harper formally announced an agreement to co-publish a line of Spanish-language titles in the US under their Rayo imprint along with Spain’s Planeta. Publishing nine titles a year at the outset, the venture reaches the marketplace in late November with the release of two previously published novels by Shadow of the Wind author Carlos Ruiz Zafon, El Principe de la Niebla and El Palacio de la Medianoche. Eventually, Harper will publish “a select number” of Planeta titles in English-language territories and Planeta will have the option to publish a similarly select number of Harper titles […]

IPG Merges with Trafalgar and More Distribution News The distribution landscape continues to be the focus of much attention, as Independent Publishers Group’s parent company Chicago Review Press has acquired Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar is the leading distributor in the US for UK publishers, handling over 50 publishers, including Anova, BBC Books, Egmont, Hesperus, Harper UK, Hodder Headline, Little, Brown UK, Macmillan UK, Orion, Random House UK and Simon & Schuster UK. IPG says they will continue Trafalgar’s unusual model of buying clients’ books outright rather than taking them on consignment, and it will extend that same option to IPG’s existing […]

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 Playwright (and Peabody and an Edgar winner) Theresa Rebeck’s first novel, three […]

State of Early Release The NYT bought a copy of Bob Woodward’s STATE OF DENIAL, set for release next week, in time for a front page story today. The Daily News bought a copy, too, even though the Times gets all the credit. They say Woodward found himself “speechless” by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s repeated refusals to take responsibility or admit to how bad the situation in Iraq has become. “How could he not see his role and responsibility? I could think of nothing more to say.” Woodward’s own paper scrambled to throw up a story earlier today that […]