Gunn Moves, Pack Will Leave, and Other Personnel News and Announcements Another agent has departed from Curtis Brown UK, as Ali Gunn has set up her own agency, Gunn Media Enterprises. Waterstone’s outspoken head buyer Scott Pack made himself into a lightning rod in his short tenure at the bookselling chain though the talk never matched the results at the cash registers, and now he’ll be leaving in six months. He says in a blog posting the departure was his idea: “I simply fancy trying something else so am going to see what is out there. The idea of taking […]

New Head for OUP in America, Corey’s New Imprint, and Other Personnel News At Oxford University Press USA, president Laura Brown is stepping down after six years in that position. (Brown first started with Oxford in 1980, as sales promotion manager.) Oxford chief executive Henry Reece says in an announcement: “In every position that she has held at Oxford Laura has displayed great energy, enthusiasm, and vision, and has been one of the most creative publishing minds in the business. She has been a highly effective ambassador in the wider cultural world of foundations and related institutions, and has done […]

Act One: HMV Turns Down Offer HMV rejected the $1.3 billion/762 million pound takeover offer from Permira out of hand yesterday: “The Board has concluded that the proposal undervalues HMV Group. As such, HMV Group will not be entering into any discussions with Permira.” Of course this is the traditional way the dance goes. Permira’s opening bid was about five percent lower than initially rumored. (On the other hand, HMV traded on the open market for 25 percent more last fall before their bad earnings report.) Shares will fall again, having risen last month on news of the bid; investors […]

TWBG Sale: Some Nuts and Bolts Here are some of the currently-known details about what will happen when the sale of the Time Warner Book Group to Lagardere closes at the end of March. For now, new TWBG chairman and chief executive David Young will remain in his job, based in New York, and will take on the additional title of CEO Hachette Livre USA, which will be the new US holding company for the book publisher. In the UK, the recently promoted head of TWBG’s unit there Ursula Mackenzie will continue in her job, now reporting to Hachette Livre […]

BMW Test-Drives Audio Books, As Harper Pilots a Free Book on the Web BMW has recruited four authors from Random House UK, including Karin Slaughter, James Flint and Simon Kernick, to write 45 minute audio books featuring their cars. The audio files are available for free from BMWAudioBooks.com, starting this week with Don Winslow’s The Beautiful Ride. Separately, Bruce Judson’s 2004 book GO IT ALONE! The Secret to Building a Successful Business of Your Own, can now be read in its entirety from his web site for free. Each page carries a vertical strip of text ads served by either […]

Amazon Media Tops $1 Billion for Quarter Amazon unleashed their quarterly blizzard of multiple ways of measuring earnings, as sales rose 17 percent to $2.98 billion for their fourth quarter. (Full-year sales hit $8.49 billion, up 23 percent.) Media sales — the category in which books are hidden — hit $1 billion in North America for the first time this quarter, reaching $3.046 billion for the year. International media sales aren’t far behind, registering $968 million for the quarter, and $2.885 billion for the year. Which means that Amazon’s $5.93 billion in media sales overall puts it significantly ahead of […]