Penguin Results Dampened by Pounded Dollar; Lagardere Grows; and More Corporate News Pearson reported results for the first six months of their fiscal year, with a one percent gain in “underlying [e.g. currency neutral] sales” at Penguin more than wiped out by the declining value of the dollar (as Pearson takes in two-thirds of sales in the US). Sales were down five percent after being converted into British sterling, at 367 pounds, versus 387 pounds a year ago. Profits, which improved significantly on an underlying basis, up 11 percent, were flat in actual currency at 18 million pounds. The company […]

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 Steven Galloway’s THE CELLIST OF SARAJEVO, about the endurance of the […]

Bennett and Simonoff Rise, and More Personnel News Tina Bennett and Eric Simonoff have been promoted to directors of Janklow & Nesbit Associates. Bennett joined the literary agency in 1994 and Simonoff has been there since 1991. Senior partner Morton Janklow noted in announcing the news, “Tina and Eric have established themselves as leading figures in the publishing industry and we are pleased to have this younger generation of agents integrated into the operations of the agency, assuring seamless continuity in the future.” Lynn Nesbit adds, “Both Tina and Eric have spent substantially all of their careers at Janklow & […]

Personnel News After being shuffled around following the Perseus purchase of Avalon Pubishing Group, former publisher and editorial director of Carroll & Graf and Thunder’s Mouth Press (turned Da Capo executive editor) Will Balliett will go to Hyperion as editorial director, as of August 8. Also at Hyperion, Beth Gebhard will be promoted to executive director of publicity, as of July 30. She will take on the daily management of the department and all publicity staff will report to her. Neal Maillet has returned to Timber Press (where he once was executive editor) as publisher. He takes over from Jane […]

More Potter Stats Nielsen Bookscan has tabulated first-day UK sales for Harry Potter of 2,652,656 copies. (Bookscan has near-total coverage of the UK market, unlike in the US, and added figures from BCA, Wilkinsons and Bloomsbury’s own site to their usual accounts.) For the previous Potter, Bookscan had tracked sales of 2,009,574 copies the first day. Tesco alone says they sold over 500,000 copies over the weekend, and Waterstone’s reports sales of 350,000 copies in the first day. Bloomsbury notes that they also sold 398,271 copies of the UK edition in Germany in the first 24 hours. Back in the […]

Little, Brown UK Buys Piatkus Little, Brown UK signed an agreement on Friday to acquire Piatkus Books, which will continue as an “independent imprint” within the group. Judy Piatkus will remain with the unit until the end of the year, and then will retire. Founded in 1979, Piatkus has annual sales of over $20 million (while Little, Brown has sales of over $100 million.) Piatkus will remain in its current offices until the end of October, when they will move into LB’s new offices by the Thames. With 28 employees at Piatkus, “Little, Brown will be asking the majority of […]