Complete Commonwealth Regional Winners
The regional winners of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize were
announced, with the overall winners to be selected on May 18:
Africa
Best Book: Karen King-Aribisala, The Hangman's Game
Best First Book: Sade Adeniran, Imagine This
Canada and
Caribbean
Best Book: Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes
Best First Book: CS Richardson, The End of the Alphabet
Europe and South
Asia
Best Book: Indra Sinha, Animal's People
Best First Book: Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age
South East Asia
and South Pacific
Best Book: Steven Carroll, The Time We Have Taken
Best First Book: Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings
Personnel News
Suzanne O'Neill will join Crown as a senior editor at the end of March,
reporting to editorial director Kris Kiser. She has been at Atria for
eight years.
At Penguin Classics in the UK, Alexis Kirschbaum joins the unit next
week as senior commissioning editor, reporting to Adam Freudenheim,
Penguin Classics and Reference publisher. Kirschbaum was at Peter Lang
Publishers.
Riggio Still Buying
Another week, another nearly $48 million of Barnes & Stock for
chairman Len Riggio, who filed with the SEC to note purchases of
another 420,000 shares on Monday through Wednesday.
Schwartz to Close One of Five Stores
Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops is closing one of their two Milwaukee
stores, based in the Bay View neighborhood. President and
owner Carol Grossmeyer tells the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "It was a
difficult decision. It is sad. We're all sad. But it's the right
decision at the same time. Sales were on a downward trend."
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Under New
"Open
Access" Policy, Iowa Writers Workshop Students Would Have to Post Work
Free on the Web
Google Finally Ads
API to Book Search
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Please Note
We've tried a lot of interesting experiments with content over the last
eight or so years, but one of the least successful areas has been in
learning how to stop for a little while and let someone else have a
turn in the kitchen. So next week a guest chef will prepare the daily
meal. The exact recipes and spices may differ, but we trust you'll
remain well fed.
More New Jobs Every Day
We've added another 6 new job listings since
yesterday morning at our industry-leading Job Board, the latest among
over 120 opportunities still live in all.
For employers, we provide the unbeatable combination of the largest
circulation in the business by far, a total focus on book publishing
only, and the best prices anywhere.
And for job-seekers, we present great new possibilities every day and
conveniences like an RSS ping to keep you posted on every new offering.
Among the latest:
Retail Marketing Manager/Associate Director [Full Time]
Roaring Brook Press (New York, NY)
Publicity Assistant [Full Time]
HarperCollins Publishers (New York, NY)
Acquisitions Editor, History [Full Time]
The Continuum International Publishing Group (New York, NY)
Assistant Promotion Manager [Full Time]
Workman Publishing Co. (New York, NY)
Manager, Subsidiary Rights-Little Brown & Company [Full Time]
Hachette Book Group USA (New York, NY)
Church Programs Project Manager [Full Time]
The United Methodist Publishing House (Nashville, TN)
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Bloomsbury USA Promotes Dickerman, Puts Charkin at Top
Following the departure of Karen Rinaldi, Bloomsbury USA has announced
the promotion of editorial director Colin Dickerman to publisher for
adult trade books and he will report to Bloomsbury's executive director
Richard Charkin, who will serve as president for Bloomsbury USA (still
based in the company's London headquarters).
Dickerman joined Bloomsbury USA in 2000, and his acquisitions have
included books by Alan Hollinghurst, David Leavitt, Ben Schott, Chelsea
Handler, Roz Chast, and Sloane Tanen.
Additionally, Sabrina Farber adds the title of associate publisher for
adult trade and Diana Blough adds the title of associate publisher for
children's books. Both remain sales and marketing director in their
respective divisions as well.
More Personnel News
In Germany, Luebbe Verlag owner Stefan Luebbe surprised some with the
announcement that longtime publishing executive Lothar Menne has been
named as his "personal advisor" in a three-year contract.
At Holt's Children's division, Jennifer Abbots has been promoted to
associate director of publicity. She has been there for two years.
At McGraw-Hill Education, Angelle Haney Gullett has been named an
executive editor in the Woodland Hills, California office. She will
oversee the 6-12 Fine Art books published under the Glencoe imprint and
the K-5 Health books published by the company's Macmillan division. She
was the assistant managing editor for Mazer Corporation, a textbook
developer.
Borders Faces Up to More Face Out
At the recent AAP meeting Borders CEO George Jones reported that in the
first few weeks at their new concept store in Ann Arbor, more face-out
and a smaller title selection than a typical superstore were producing
a "dramatic" increase in sales. Now the chain is quickly spreading
those changes throughout their stores. The WSJ says "customers
throughout the country should be able to see the difference in displays
within six weeks. While books shown face-out will still be in the
overall minority, as many as three times the titles as in the past will
be shelved with covers showing."
SVP Anne Kubek tells the paper, "We always had face-out titles on the
shelves and on tables, but they were used as punctuation and tended to
focus on popular titles. Today we're showing the front of books even
when we only have two or three copies."
The Journal says the standard Borders superstore will now stock about
85,000 to 90,000 titles. Despite the reduced count, "Borders says
customers visiting its prototype store said their impression was that
more books were available."
WSJ
The Most News that the Business Uses
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news, deal transactions, and job offers anywhere. Today's Lunch Deluxe
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New
Indie for New York?
How Sourcebooks
Grows and Succeeds
Connery's Confusing
Deal
Harper Says Post Misquoted Manuscript
A Clue to How Many Kindles?
and our site features the 130 or so deals missing from last night's
free version of the weekly round-up.
PublishersMarketplace.com always features all of the unique data and
tools that drive business every day: Unlimited access to deals, our new
Top Dealmakers (with 180 lists of busy agents, agencies, editors and
imprints) live contacts, our representation database, comprehensive
coverage of reviews and bestseller lists from all over, special tools
ranging from the Book Tracker to Amazoom, our custom publishing search
index, and the new top reviewers tables.
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But Lead Borders
ANZ Bidder Drops Out
Australia and New Zealand's biggest bookselling chain, the Angus
&
Robertson Whitcoulls Group, "confirmed that negotiations with fellow
bookstore chain Borders Group regarding a potential acquisition of the
Borders Australian and New Zealand assets had ceased. As a result, it
is unlikely that a transaction between the two companies will proceed."
Borders had wanted to "take a substantial share in A&R
Whitcoulls"
as part of the sale, but "the parties were unable to agree terms on a
basis that would have been acceptable to A&R Whitcoulls
shareholders." A&R spokesperson Lauren Thompson tells The Age
"the
complexity of reaching a shareholder agreement meant the deal couldn't
go ahead" adding that
"both sides had a similar sentiment."
A&R Whitcoulls says they are "open to considering a 100 percent
acquisition" but acknowledge that "it seems unlikely that such a deal
will occur." Borders theoretically had interest from a number of other
parties, including A&R competitor Paper Plus. The roughly $100
million valuation for the 23 stores is equal to about 20 percent of
battered Borders entire market capitalization.
A&R
statement
In other international retailing news, bankrupt UK discount bookseller
The Works announced that they will close 85 of their 317 stores next
week as part of their reorganization and layoff 450 workers
Bezos Returns to BEA
Amazon
CEO Jeff Bezos will be interviewed by Wired editor-in-chief Chris
Anderson as part of BEA's "Upfront and Unscripted" seminar
conversations, scheduled for 3 PM on Friday afternoon (May 30).
More
New Jobs Every Day
We've added another 4 new job listings since
yesterday morning at our
industry-leading Job Board, the latest among about 130 opportunities
still live in all.
For employers, we provide the unbeatable combination of the largest
circulation in the business by far, a total focus on book publishing
only, and the best prices anywhere.
And for job-seekers, we present great new possibilities every day and
conveniences like an RSS ping to keep you posted on every new offering.
Among the latest:
Editor [Full Time]
Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA)
Editorial Assistant [Full Time]
HarperCollins Publishers (New York, NY)
Director of Sales [Full Time]
Book Distributor (Mid Atlantic)
Editor, Business and Economics [Full Time]
Springer Science & Business Media (New York, NY)
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Blackwell Powers Good Quarter at Wiley
Wiley announced third quarter sales of $429 million,
up sharply with the addition of Blackwell Publishing and still up 6
percent compared to a year ago even without Blackwell. They reported
adjusted net income of $40 million, and adjusted earnings per share
rose 7 percent for the quarter "excluding certain one-time tax benefits
and Blackwell" and were well ahead of anaylsts' expectations. Blackwell
itself accounted for $115 million in sales and $16 million in operating
income. Based on the strong quarter, the company increased its sales
guidance for the fourth quarter by about $20 million, now projecting
revenue of $470 million and earnings of at least 20 cents a share.
Professional/Trade sales in the US rose two percent in the quarter, to
$103 million, "mainly due to growth in the business and consumer
programs, partially offset by softness in technology and higher sales
returns." They also suffered "lower gross margins due to product mix
and the timing of advertising costs." The company adds, "licensing of
rights worldwide and branded web site content continued to have a
positive effect on results." They recovered $2 million in bad debt from
the estate of the bankrupt AMS after having written off $5 million in
bad debt a year ago.
In Europe Wiley cites "strong sales of indigenous P/T books" with sales
rising 8 percent to $81 million, though much of that growth was due to
currency exchange, moderated by "sluggish sales in
Release
In other financial market news, Amazon announced that they have
purchased 87 percent of shares in Audible.com and according to the AP
"has begun another offering period for remaining Audible shares, again
for $11.50 each. The offering period will end Friday but may be
extended."
Two Veterans Plant New House
Former Avon and Berkley publisher Lou Aronica and agent Peter Miller
are creating The Story Plant, a publishing company focused on
"commercial fiction and author development," intending to "develop
writers over multiple books" and "focus on long-term relationships with
commercial novelists." Distributed by Perseus Distribution, the line
launches this fall with Sienna Skyy's AMERICAN QUEST, a contemporary
romantic fantasy, and Jonathan Javitt's medical thriller CAPITOL
REFLECTIONS.
Miller, who serves as marketing and rights director for the company,
says in the announcement, "When we sign a Story Plant title, we're
specifically looking at the book's film and foreign potential. We think
the books on this list are going to be successful on a number of
platforms." Foreign rights are being sold by Baror International.
The Most News that the Business Uses
Every day, we gather, report, recap and interpret the most publishing
news, deal transactions, and job offers anywhere. Today's Lunch Deluxe
includes these additional stories and links:
"Arab Booker" Named
Translation Glass
Tilting to Half Full?
Two More Stores Headed for Closing
Penguin Adds More
"Tastes"
along with our weekly analysis of 14 bestseller lists from around the
country.
PublishersMarketplace.com always features all of the unique data and
tools that drive business every day: Unlimited access to deals, our new
Top Dealmakers (with 180 lists of busy agents, agencies, editors and
imprints) live contacts, our representation database, comprehensive
coverage of reviews and bestseller lists from all over, special tools
ranging from the Book Tracker to Amazoom, our custom publishing search
index, and the new top reviewers tables.
Plus our popular member pages and blogs bring hundreds of thousands of
focused page views from the publishing world to about 1,300 posted
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Personnel News
April Hattori departed Hachette Book Group USA last month after six
months as the company's first vp of communications, and now Little,
Brown associate publisher Sophie Cottrell has been named as the
company's new vp, communications director. Reporting to ceo David
Young, Cottrell will join the company's executive management board,
moving into the new position "as soon as her replacement is in place."
Cottrell's agenda includes managing internal and external
communications, developing clear brand identity and projecting it
internally and externally, overseeing HBG's environmental policy and
philanthropic endeavors, and coordinating with the communications
director at HBG UK and the head of corporate communications of Hachette
Livre in Paris.
At Gotham Books, Patrick Mulligan has been promoted to editor.
Former PW publisher David Nudo is joining book social network
Shelfari.com as director of sales and marketing, still based in New
York.
In the Random House Publishing Group advertising and promotion
department, Elizabeth Fabian has returned to the company as senior
manager, advertising and promotions for the group. She was at Harcourt.
Additionally, Jennie Morel has been promoted to advertising and
promotions coordinator for Ballantine.
The Latest Jobs
We've added another 5 new job listings since yesterday morning at our
industry-leading Job Board, the latest among about 125 opportunities
still live in all.
For employers, we provide the unbeatable combination of the largest
circulation in the business by far, a total focus on book publishing
only, and the best prices anywhere.
And for job-seekers, we present great new possibilities every day and
conveniences like an RSS ping to keep you posted on every new offering.
Among the latest:
Project Manager - Online Sales and Marketing [Full Time]
Random House (New York, NY)
Art
Director/Associate Art Director - Random House Publishing Group [Full Time]
Random House (New York, NY)
Production Editor [Full Time]
Kensington Publishing Corp. (New York, NY)
Designer - Random House Publishing Group [Full Time]
Random House (New York, NY)
Associate Production Manager [Full Time]
Henry Holt & Company (New York, NY)
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