Penguin's Knack with Breakout Paperbacks
The AP celebrates "those paperback sensations" that come every year
from the likes of Sue Monk Kidd, Khaled Hosseini, Kim Edwards,
Elizabeth Gilbert, and Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
(Their five books in paperback have sold a total of 13 million copies
tracked by Bookscan alone.) "They don't appear to have a lot in common
except that none has won major awards or sold brilliantly in hardcover
or was written by anyone famous. It could be explained as coincidence
but for one important connection—the publisher: Penguin
Group."
The article says: "Relying on luck, instinct and determination, Penguin
has mastered the paperback blockbuster, taking a book already out in
hardcover and giving it the kind of promotion once reserved for a new
release: prominent store placement, author tours, online marketing,
appeals to book clubs and community reading organizations."
Paperback sales head Norman Lidofsky says, "There's no magic, no
crystal balls. The books grow organically and then we focus on it and
never stop. We've coined a phrase, 'These books should be brought up
during every sales call, every account, every time.'"
According to the AP, "booksellers say the latest in the Penguin line is
Kate Jacobs' THE FRIDAY KNITTING CLUB."
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:
Another Candidate Via the UK?
Penguin UK's ePlan
Daily First Serial
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
pages every month.
Enjoy the most publishing information and resources available anywhere,
yours for our basic monthly fee.
Join here
Personnel News
Kathy Huck will join St. Martin's as an executive editor, starting
April 21, focusing on lifestyle, health, how-to, and other practical
books, as well as politics, memoir, and narrative nonfiction. She had
been at Collins most recently.
Keith Kahla, who has been at St. Martin's for 20 years, has been
promoted to executive editor. And at SMP parent Macmillan, Christina
Harcar is moving into the new role of vp, digital marketing. Harcar is
charged with "growing the company's digital marketing platform and
developing innovative tools and strategies to reach and interact
directly with book readers through the digital media, reporting to svp
of strategic technology Fritz Foy. Harcar has been vp, director of
subsidiary rights at St. Martin's since 2001.
At Little, Brown Children's, LB Kids editorial director Liza Baker has
been promoted to editor-in-chief of Little, Brown Books for Young
Readers, managing the editorial staff and acquisitions for both the
Little, Brown and LB Kids imprints. Fatimah Khan has been promoted to
associate editor and will take on more responsibility in managing the
LB Kids list.
Distribution News
Other Press will move their distribution from Norton to Random House as
of May 1. Other Press professional titles will also be distributed by
Random House in all territories except the European Union.
If You're in the Neighborhood
Next week Lunch relocates time zones for the London Book Fair. As last
year, we will have a small "news desk" in the International Rights
Center, ceremoniously located right by what you'll remember as the
smoking lounge last year. (Such activity is now outlawed.) Put another
way, it's to the far left as you come up the escalator into the Rights
Center from the back side of Earls Court 1. Last year this was the
secret back entrance though we've been assured that this year it is the
primary way into the center.
You'll know you're in the neighborhood if you detect the delicate-aroma
of true American-style cookies, which will be bringing over and serving
while supplies last, unwilling to reopen last year's biscuit vs. cookie
contretemps. We'll also have a few open American-style electrical
outlets for those in desparate need.
Come by to visit, access PublishersMarketplace, or leave behind news
for instant dissemination back to the fair.
More New Jobs
Our industry-leading Job Board remains busy with more new listings
just since yesterday morning.
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:
Editorial Assistant - Clarkson Potter [Full Time]
Random House (New York, NY)
Editor - Daedalus,
Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences [Full Time]
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Cambridge, MA)
Publishersmarketplace.com/jobs
Employers: Register here to post
Get the widget
Reader Services
Add yourself or your clients to the Who Represents database
Change your information in the Contact database
Change the e-mail address for your Lunch subscription by signing up again
Get Lunch
Use this to subscribe and/or to change your address
Brought to you by Cader Books.
Janson-Smith "Tempted" Back to Publishing
After a short walk on the agenting side, Patrick
Janson-Smith is joining Harper UK to launch a new commercial imprint,
Blue Door, "focusing primarily on fiction." Part of Press Books, he
will report to managing director John Bond.
Janson-Smith remarks, "Being given one's own imprint is not only a
great honor, it's also a challenge; one to which I have every
intention of rising." He was publisher of the UK's Transworld from 1981
to 2005, when he left to join the Christopher Little Agency
Harper UK ceo Victoria Barnsley says, "It's a great coup to have
tempted Patrick to join HarperCollins and I'm sure he will be
publishing some terrific successes. It's good to see Patrick back where
he belongs, at the heart of a major publishing company."
At Harper US, Balzer and Bray to Start Children's Imprint
Alessandra Balzer and Donna Bray are leaving
Hyperion to start the new imprint Balzer & Bray, joining Harper
Children's on May 5. They will report to svp and associate publisher
Kate Morgan Jackson. Bray has been editorial director at Hyperion
Children's and Balzer has been executive editor at the house.
Buying and Selling
Alyson Books is being sold by PlanetOut to here!Networks, along with
PlanetOut's magazines (The Advocate and Out), for $6 million. A final
agreement is expected by the end of April. The new owner controls
television, film and online media properties.
Release
Separately, Abebooks.com announced that they have acquired Chrislands,
which builds, hosts and maintains online bookstores, primarily for used
booksellers. Chrislands will continue to operate as an independent
business, though their customers will soon be able to add their
inventory to Abe's BookFinder.com
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:
Big New Indie to Open in Texas
Oprah Offers Dr. Oz as Her Next Spin-off Show
Washington Attorney General Looks at Amazon
New Yorkers to Pay Online Sales Tax
The Mailer Memorial
Small Presses Seek "Credit"
UK Celebrates the Obvious
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
pages every month.
Enjoy the most publishing information and resources available anywhere,
yours for our basic monthly fee.
Join here
Personnel News
There really was no ceremony, but former books editor of the San Diego
Union-Tribune Arthur Salm writes to say that "After almost 20 years as
books editor, I requested, and got, a transfer to the Metro section,
where I am now a good-(I hope)-old-fashioned reporter."
If You're in the Neighborhood
Next week Lunch relocates time zones for the London Book Fair. As last
year, we will have a small "news desk" in the International Rights
Center, ceremoniously located right by what you'll remember as the
smoking lounge last year. (Such activity is now outlawed.) Put another
way, it's to the far left as you come up the escalator into the Rights
Center from the back side of Earls Court 1. Last year this was the
secret back entrance though we've been assured that this year it is the
primary way into the center.
You'll know you're in the neighborhood if you detect the delicate-aroma
of true American-style cookies, which will be bringing over and serving
while supplies last, unwilling to reopen last year's biscuit vs. cookie
contretemps. We'll also have a few open American-style electrical
outlets for those in desparate need.
Come by to visit, access PublishersMarketplace, or leave behind news
for instant dissemination back to the fair.
Melissa Riggio, 20, DIes
The daughter of Barnes & Noble ceo Steve Riggio and wife Laura,
Melissa Riggio died on Monday following a battle with leukemia. "Born
with Down Syndrome, she lived a full and extraordinary life, She was a
strong and optimistic young woman, and an inspiration to everyone who
had the opportunity to know her." In 2003, she received the Self
Advocate Award from The National Down Syndrome Society.
Other details are available on Melissa's blog and in this
short obituary posted by the family.
Riggio blog post
Obit
More New Jobs
Our industry-leading Job Board remains busy with more new listings
just since yesterday morning.
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:
Production Coordinator [Full Time]
becker&mayer! (Bellevue, WA)
Central Conference of American Rabbis - Press Director [Full Time]
Central Conference of American Rabbis (New York, NY)
Marketing Assistant [Full Time]
Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY)
Publishersmarketplace.com/jobs
Employers: Register here to post
Get the widget
Reader Services
Add yourself or your clients to the Who Represents database
Change your information in the Contact database
Change the e-mail address for your Lunch subscription by signing up again
Get Lunch
Use this to subscribe and/or to change your address
Brought to you by Cader Books.