Book and Arts Veterans to Leave Dallas Paper Just as we round-up the semi-annual celebrations of forthcoming fall books from a variety of newspapers comes disturbing news about the fragile status of book coverage as newspaper owners wrestle with what they want to be in the internet era. Longtime Dallas Morning News book critic Jerome Weeks reports that both he and books editor Charles Ealy have accepted the paper’s buyout offer. Management at owners Belo Corp. announced a plan to eliminate “at least 85” editorial jobs in June. Weeks indicates that “there are currently no plans to replace” either book […]

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 Winner of the 2006 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the Best First Book […]

Please Note No Lunch tomorrow. We’ll be back on Monday. Falling for… It’s time for the fall previews. The AP leads with religion in politics (which always makes a good wire service theme), including Senator John Danforth ‘s Faith and Politics, Mel White’s Religion Gone Bad, Dan Gilgoff’s The Jesus Machine, Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and the Revered Barry Lynn’s Piety & Politics. BN fiction ruler Sessalee Hensley declares, “The list looks much stronger than last year. This is the most literary fall I’ve seen in a long time.” (This time last year, during what was supposed to be […]

Borders’ Weakness on Target Borders turned in the poor second quarter performance they warned of in July, but at least the company was at the better end of their lowered expectations. Superstore sales of $600 million were down 5.3 percent on a comparable-store basis, even as remodeled stores are performing better than other outlets. Waldenbooks were down more, as usual, to $126.5 million, a big 12.1 percent drop on a same-store basis. International growth is still sluggish, up 6 percent to $129 million, but down 3.4 percent on a comparable-store basis in local currency, due to continued weakness in the […]

Hastings: New Books Down, Used Books Up With its exposure to the sinking music business, Hastings’ turned in a soft second quarter, as same-store book sales fell 3.2 percent compared to last year. But the worst news is that the absence of $1.7 million in Harry Potter sales was “partially offset by increased sales in all used book categories.” Release Personnel News Jill Schwartzman is moving to Random House Trade Paperbacks as a senior editor later this month, reporting to Jane von Mehren, and acquiring both paperbacks and hardcovers. She will focus on “finding new voices for younger readers.” Schwartzman […]

We Resume In case you didn’t notice (or didn’t see our notice last Monday) Lunch was at rest last week, but the kitchen is open again this week. Should you ever have questions about whether you’ve missed a particular issue, just check the Lunch Archive at PublishersMarketplace.com. Every time Lunch Deluxe is published, we post it there at the same time we send out the e-mails — and there’s a handy searchable archive of almost 5 years worth of Lunches there, too. NYC Threatens Suit Over 9/11 Photo Book John Botte’s forthcoming book AFTERMATCH: Unseen 9/11 Photos by a New […]