Lunch for Friday, May 9

Waterstone's Rises
In Europe it's the season of brief trading updates. From the UK, Waterstone's parent HMV reported that sales for the past 16 weeks (through to late April) rose an encouraging 6.6 percent on a same-store sales basis. Overall sales rose 3.3 percent. (Breakout figures were not provided.)
 
Waterstone's managing director Gerry Johnson tells the Bookseller, "We have definitely stopped the decline and we are now growing," citing a "very strong performance" from books in particular. He added, "I think the whole base of our strategic programme is coming through and we are seeing very good results. We are very pleased."
HMV release

Orbit to Expand
Orbit says they will expand their lists in the both the US -- where title count will double over the next three years, to 70 to 80 books a year by 2011, and in the UK, where the list is targeted to grow about 10 percent annually over the next three years. (Orbit is already the biggest sci-fi/fantasy imprint in the UK.) Publisher Tim Holman says, "The support that we've received for our launch season in the US - and the success that we've achieved internationally - has given us great confidence in our publishing strategy. There is a clear and significant opportunity for any SFF publisher looking to expand the core readership, and we intend Orbit to be at the forefront of the effort to attract more readers to SF and Fantasy."
 
In the US, they are hiring an additional editor, and in the UK, Bella Pagan has been promoted to commissioning editor, and marketing executive Samantha Smith has taken on a number of editorial responsibilities. Additionally, Hachette Australia will start to publish SFF titles under the Orbit imprint later this year.

Personnel News
Brett Valley has joined Three Rivers Press as an editor, reporting to Carrie Thornton. Valley was at Gotham Books.
 
At Simon & Schuster Children's, Jennifer Klonsky has been promoted to editorial director of Simon Pulse and Michael del Rosario has been promoted to associate editor. Courtney Bongiolatti has been promoted to associate editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
 
UK agent Clare Alexander was honored with Booktrust's Kim Scott Walwyn Prize, which recognizes outstanding achievements by women in publishing.
 
Robin Seaman has joined Benetech as publisher liaison for its Bookshare.org initiative. She was director of content for the Gemstar eBook Group.
 
Software and services provider Publishing Technology has promoted Randy Petway to the new position of evp, strategy and business development while adding him to the executive management team. His new responsibilities include leading the business in its strategic development. Petway has been with VISTA (and now Publishing Technology) for 9 years.

If You're Looking for a Level-Headed Piece on Memoirs
The Christian Science Monitor has one. There's not a lot new here, but with the Seltzer furor having settled down, a little more perspective prevails. At Powell's Books, marketing manager Michal Drannen says, "There was a certain amount of interest in Margaret Jones [Ms. Seltzer's pseudonym] regionally and locally. But we haven't seen a decline in sales of the genre. From my perspective, I don't think there's a general concern about the veracity of nonfiction memoirs or biographies." It made the booksellers' employees "cynical" though
CSM
 

Lots of New Jobs
We've added 9 more new job listings to our industry-leading Job Board since yesterday morning, the latest among about 100 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:
 
Interactive PR Assistant  [Full Time]
Planned TV Arts (Manhattan, NY)
 
Senior Publicist  [Full Time]
Planned TV Arts (Manhattan, NY)
 
Media Manager  [Full Time]
University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI)
 
Online Media Buyer  [Full Time]
Hachette Book Group USA (New York, NY)
 
Marketing & Publicity Director-Octopus Books  [Full Time]
Hachette Book Group (New York, NY)
 
Managing Editor  [Full Time]
Countryman Press, a div of W.W. Norton & Company (Woodstock, VT)
 
Art Director  [Full Time]
Oxford University Press (New York, NY)
 
Assistant Marketing Manager  [Full Time]
Oxford University Press (New York, NY)
 
Acquisitions Editor - Higher Education Textbooks  [Full Time]
Cengage Learning (Cincinnati, OH)
 
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Lunch for Thursday, May 8

Bertelsmann Updates on Quarter, as Executive Sends New Signals
In a short first quarter trading update, Bertelsmann disclosed that sales fell almost 4 percent to 4.2 billion euros, as net income turned positive again at 35 million euros. Operating EBIT, the company's preferred measure of profits, rose 9.6 percent from the same period a year ago, to 217 million euros.
 
Aside from losses due to currency exchange, the only other negative factor cited in the short report -- which does not provide any breakouts by division -- is that "revenues were also impacted by declines in sales of physical recordings and revenues at Direct Group in North America."
 
For those interested in the fine level of detail on the still-developing leadership situation at Random House, today's Deluxe contains additional reporting on a message from chief executive Hartmut Ostrowski and further indications from other company executives.
Bertelsmann site

Children's Drive Sales Increase at Harper
Sales rose at HarperCollins in their third quarter, registering $302 million (up a little under 4 percent from a year ago) as operating income stayed level at $29 million for the period.
 
The strongest-performing division, according to ceo Jane Friedman, was the US children's division, which was "on fire" with sales up almost 50 percent and operating profit up almost 500 percent. Friedman says that divisions in the UK, Canada and Australia were all up, helped by foreign exchange (Harper wins when the dollar falls, unlike peers that report earnings in euros or pounds.) She adds that their third-party distribution business had a strong quarter and is looking forward to even better results in the next period thanks to client Hyperion's THE LAST LECTURE.
 
"The one soft spot is Zondervan, which is not a new story," Friedman says. "What's going on in the CBA... is pretty scary," she observes, adding that "the CBA is really diminishing and I'm not one who thinks it's going to recover any time soon." With Christian customers buying more product in the general market, Friedman says that Zondervan's books need to "have the content and look for the general market." Friedman believes that "what Nelson is doing is absolutely correct" in trimming and refocusing their list and says "we're also looking at our title count. Zondervan has to publish fewer books and focus on more of the books that have the potential" to work in the general markets. On the brighter side, Friedman notes that "spirituality is going through the roof," with the company benefiting via the Harper One division.
 
In other encouraging signs, Friedman says the statistics indicate their online browsing/sharing initiatives "are working brilliantly." She says, "not only are books being read and passed along to friends in a great number, but we're seeing books for which that has to be the reason why" sales have increased as well.

Marquez Writes Another Novel After All
A friend of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (and head of news at a Colombian radio station) says that the author "is putting the final touches to his new novel," after having said two years ago that he was finished with writing. Dario Arizmendi says, "He wrote a first draft which he didn't like, then another, then another; then, with the fifth draft, it was ready." Running about 250 pages, the book -- described as "a novel of love" -- should be publishable before the end of the year.
Guardian

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:
Saddam Hussein's Memoirs in Preparation
Trouble over Israel at Turin Book Fair
Publishers Backing Bond
Store Movements
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Personnel News and Announcements
Agent Lucienne Diver has joined The Knight Agency after fifteen years at Spectrum Literary Agency, where she specialized in fantasy, science fiction, romance, mystery and suspense.
 
Another change for a longtime Hyperion veteran: Associate publisher and executive director of marketing Jane Comins is joining Yale University Press as publishing and marketing director in late May.
 
Las Comadres, a national Latina organization, is launching a national latino book club, in "cooperation" with Borders and the Association of American Publishers. The club will meet monthly at selected Borders stores in 15 cities, and hopes to expand to all 60 cities where club members reside. Comadres board member Johanna Castillo is the national organizer of the club.
 
Asked about the AAP's participation, Tina Jordan told us that their "Publishing Latino Voices group has been developing a relationship with Las Comadres over the past year in our efforts to heighten awareness of titles written by Latino authors. Of course we were thrilled to hear that Borders was interested in developing this live book club in stores located in communities with Las Comadres chapters. We would certainly welcome the opportunity to explore similar relationships with all retailers."
 

More New Jobs
As usual, we continue to add new jobs to our industry-leading job board every day.
 
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:
 
Managing Editor  [Full Time]
Basic Books (New York, NY)
 
Editor/Manager of Product Development  [Full Time]
Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY)
 
Manager, Editorial Product Development  [Full Time]
Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY)
 
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Lunch for Monday, May 5

Today's Announcements: Stage Set for Prince; Harper Confirms Video Program
Atria has announced publication this fall of pop star Prince's 21 NIGHTS, a multi-media volume promising a glimpse into his life, lyrics, and mystique, constructed as a photographic essay with never-before-published images by Randee St. Nicholas that flows from his 21 concerts in 21 nights in London last year -- also featuring "Indigo Nights," a CD of Prince's "speak-easy, after-hours, raw, live after-show sessions of pure unadulterated jams."
 
HarperCollins officially announced today their new in-house internet broadcast studio, which has been creating author videos from their offices for sales, marketing and promotional opportunities. Marisa Benedetto, formerly of the WSJ, runs the studio as executive producer, reporting to Harper Media publisher Ana Maria Allessi. The company says their goal is to produce 500 videos a year. The studio was "developed with the help of Robert Leverone and Chris Wall of the Dow Jones Video Group."

New NBCC "Good Reads"
The National Book Critics Circle has posted their recommended "good reads" lists for Spring, including:
Fiction
1. Richard Price, LUSH LIFE
2. Jhumpa Lahiri, UNACCUSTOMED EARTH
3. Steven Millhauser, DANGEROUS LAUGHTER
4. Charles Baxter, THE SOUL THIEF
    Peter Carey, HIS ILLEGAL SELF
    J. M. Coetzee, DIARY OF A BAD YEAR
    James Collins, BEGINNNER’S GREEK
    Brian Hall, FALL OF FROST
    Roxana Robinson, COST
    Owen Sheers, RESISTANCE
Nonfiction
1. Nicholson Baker, HUMAN SMOKE: THE BEGINNING OF WORLD WAR II, THE END OF CIVILIZATION
2. Drew Gilpin Faust, THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING: DEATH AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
3. Mark Harris, PICTURES AT THE REVOLUTION: FIVE MOVIES AND THE BIRTH OF THE NEW HOLLYWOOD
4. Honor Moore, THE BISHOP’S DAUGHTER: A MEMOIR
5. Susan Jacoby, THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON
NBCC blog

Press-Shy Frey Will Blog for Amazon
James Frey is "guest blogging" at Amazon's Omnivoracious this month -- and maybe he's doing other media, too. "Two big things for me this month. One is that I am guest-blogging on Amazon all month. The other is that my new novel, Bright Shiny Morning, comes out on May 13th. Will check in now and then with updates, stories, impressions. I'll be doing some press, and will be on tour for a couple weeks."
Omnivoracious

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:
As Expected, Washington AG Won't Touch Amazon
What Kids Are Reading
More from Dmitri Nabokov
Arthur C Clarke Award for Morgan
while PublishersMarketplace.com adds about 150 deals that went out last night in our full round-up, capsule coverage of over 100 reviews from all the top newspapers yesterday, and dozens of news stories and write-ups from last week.
 
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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A Seattle Store to Close
Seattle's Jackson Street Books will close at the end of the month as the owners retire. They note on the store blog: "There are a number of reasons why we made this decision. The most obvious one is that we just haven’t had the sales we need to sustain ourselves and make a living. In fact, we probably should have closed earlier than this, but we kept thinking we would turn the corner and start making a little bit of money.... It is fashionable for independent bookstores to blame business failures on Chain stores and Amazon, or other on-line competition. We won’t do that. Chain stores and on-line affect all of us, some more than others, perhaps, and level the playing field. Those institutions have their place, and are part of a changing world of commerce. But we would ask all of you to continue to support your local independent bookstore."
Store blog
 

More New Jobs
We've added more new jobs to our industry-leading Job Board since Friday if you haven't checked in.
 
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:
 
Designer  [Full Time]
St. Martin's Press (New York, NY)
 
Publicity & Marketing Associate  [Full Time]
Allworth Press (New York, NY)
 
Senior Acquiring Editor  [Full Time]
Ten Speed Press (Berkeley, CA)
 
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