The Washington Post looks at the “two dozen young writers who serve as waiters for the two-week summer summit [at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference], donning aprons and name tags to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner to the 225 participants…. Most are professors, graduate students in the fine arts or prize-winning writers, chosen from 600 applicants for work-study scholarships that cover the $2,300 tuition. “When they’re not taking in poetry readings, learning about character development or getting other pointers from Pulitzer Prize winners, they can be found in the dining hall of the Victorian-era Bread Loaf Inn, taking orders or […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, August 25
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 Inspirational Kelly Irvin’s DEADLY WILDERNESS, to Rolalind Greenberg at Five Star, by […]
Tough times for Seattle's Bookstores
The Seattle PI looks at the rash of store closings and tough retail environment, even in the highly-literate Seattle. It “has more bookstores per capita than any other city in the country, according to the “America’s Most Literate Cities” survey conducted by Jack Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University — 174 at last count. But running a bookstore has always been an occupation for dreamers, and area independent stores have had to confront the realities of wresting a living from a low-margin business in an increasingly expensive town.” More broadly, Miller notes that “not a single city in our […]
Rushdie Wins Some Concessions from Author
Salman Rushdie’s lawyer Mark Stephens says that author of On Her Majesty’s Service Ron Evans has “accepted that much of the story published in the Mail on Sunday [excerpted from the forthcoming book] was false,” adding that Evans “was a police driver making out he was an armed special protection officer.” Stephens also says that “the authors have admitted that there were falsehoods in the original manuscript and have made amendments accordingly.” Publisher John Blake expects to have a revised version of the book ready for release next week.Guardian
Falling Sales, Outlook at B&N
The lack of a comparable book sales-wise to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – even with the success of Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn, the Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski and Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture – took an expected toll on Barnes & Noble’s second quarter earnings. Total sales for Barnes & Noble declined 2% to $1.22 billion. Store sales were off 1.6%, to $1.1 billion, while sales through Barnes & Noble.com increased 3.6% to $99.8 million. Comparable store sales fell 4.7% at the physical stores in the period. Excluding prior year sales of the Harry Potter […]
US Situation Reflects Quarto's Second Half Losses
For the six months ended June 30, International coedition and publishing group Quarto made a pretax loss of 3.1 million pounds against a 400,000 pound profit last time as revenues rose to 43.8 million pounds from 36.6 million pounds. Revenue increased by 20% to £43.8m on an adjusted basis, with underlying sales growth of 4%. Adjusted operating profit was £2.3m, growth of 33%, or 4% on an underlying basis. The group’s actual operating loss was £1.3m, compared with an operating profit in the same period last year of £1.6m. The loss came after restructuring costs of £2.7m associated with the […]