Publishers Lunchtag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2008-06-12:/lunch/free//42008-06-30T15:16:26ZPublishers Lunch is the industry's "daily essential read," now shared with well over 13,000 publishing people every day. Each report gathers together stories from all over the web and print of interest to the professional trade book community, along with original reporting, plus a little perspective and the occasional wisecrack added in.Publishers MarketplaceNational Book Awards: McCann, Stiles, Hoose and Waldroptag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59472009-11-19T16:20:55Z2009-11-20T02:47:58ZThe marketplace made the right predictions on the two highest-profile National Book Awards, as the fiction prize went to the...Publishers Lunch
Conflict issues raised online by Janice Harayda and echoed by the NYT over nominee David Small's relationship having illustrated a book for one YA judge fell away as Phillip Hoose won the award for CLAUDETTE COLVIN: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus).
The poetry award was given to Keith Waldrop for TRANSCENDANT STUDIES (U. of California Press).
The special 60th anniversary "Best of the National Book Awards Fiction" prize, voted on by the public, was given to THE COMPLETE STORIES, by Flannery O'Connor.
For those keeping track, nine of the 20 twenty nominees were women, but all of the honorees were men.
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Peopletag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59502009-11-19T16:14:31Z2009-11-19T16:16:28ZDanielle Perez is joining New American Library as executive editor, where she will acquire commercial fiction and nonfiction, starting January...Publishers LunchDanielle Perez is joining New American Library as executive editor, where she will acquire commercial fiction and nonfiction, starting January 4. Perez has been at Bantam for 11 years.
Michelle Brower is joining Folio Literary Management as an agent, after five years with Wendy Sherman Associates.
Kristin Lang has joined Audible as director of editorial business development. managing the growing fiction publishing program and developing and acquiring new and innovative audio projects. She was editorial director at Macmillan Audio, overseeing the selection and acquisition of over 100 titles annually.
Tangentially, Moby Lives speculates on a number of potential candidates for the open Paris Review editor's job.
The AP covers a report from the NYC comptroller's office that says the metropolitan area has lost about 15,000 communications jobs in the first eight months of this year, adding to a longer-term shedding of 60,000 jobs in the field since 2000. They maintain that nationwide, book publishing employment peaked in 1997. AP]]>
Bookselling: Shirky's Advice to Indie, and Moretag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59492009-11-19T16:11:29Z2009-11-19T16:12:11ZClay Shirky wrote interestingly, if at excessive length about local bookstores and what they might need to do in order...Publishers Lunch But "the store doesn't get paid for this value."
What will stores need to do "if the profits or revenues of the core transaction fall too far: collect revenue for the side-effects. The most famous version of this is bookstore-as-coffeeshop, where the revenues from coffee subsidize the lingering over books and vice-versa, but other ways of generating revenue are possible. Reservable space for book clubs, writers rooms, or study carrels; membership with buy-back options for a second-hand book market run out of the same space; certain shopping hours reserved for members or donors; use of volunteer labor, like a food coop; sponsorships from the people or businesses in the neighborhood most interested in the social value of the store and most interested in being known as local machers." Shirky
Elsewhere, Walmart.com's ceo says "we've been the price leader in books for months before that program [deep-discounted pre-orders] was announced" and their pricing is not an "illegal predatory practice since they are not "intending to use pricing to drive someone out of business." Bloomberg]]>
Graphic Arts Will Liquidatetag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59422009-11-17T15:46:03Z2009-11-17T15:47:10ZGraphic Arts Center Publishing filed for liquidation in a Portland, OR federal bankruptcy court last Friday. The filing says that...Publishers Lunch The two largest creditors listed were Ingram, which give the publisher a .5 million loan, and Silicon Valley Bank. Graphic Arts emerged from a bankruptcy reorganization in April, 2007, and at the time they said Ingram had become a minority shareholder in the company and provided a "significant investment," and Ingram Publishers Services is their distributor. Oregonian
In other news from Ingram Publishers Services, the distribution unit has renewed its relationship with O'Reilly Media and will expand the scope to include O'Reilly's recent partnership with Microsoft Press as of November 30.]]>
Harlequin Adds Self-Publishing Linetag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59412009-11-17T15:43:40Z2009-11-17T15:44:17ZFollowing the same model as Thomas Nelson's recently-announced WestBow Press, Harlequin has started a self-publishing line. Like Nelson, they are...Publishers Lunch As they say on the site: "The intent behind creating Harlequin Horizons is to give more aspiring romance writers and women's fiction writers the opportunity to publish their books and achieve their dreams without going through the submission process with a traditional publishing house.
"However, we understand you may aspire to be published with a traditional house - a noble aspiration. While there is no guarantee that if you publish with Harlequin Horizons you will picked up for traditional publishing, Harlequin will monitor sales of books published through Harlequin Horizons for possible pick-up by its traditional imprints." Harlequin Horizons site]]>
AP Reads Palintag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59332009-11-13T15:27:32Z2009-11-13T15:28:07ZThe embargo on the Sarah Palin book was broken easily as the AP purchased an early copy yesterday. Among her...Publishers Lunch "Palin bitterly details how she was prevented from delivering a concession speech on election night, how she'd been kept "bottled up" from reporters during the campaign and prevented in many ways from just being herself. She also contends she was prepped to give non-answers during her debate with Joe Biden."
She calls Katie Couric "badgering" and "contends the anchor chose 'gotcha' moments while leaving the candidate's more substantive remarks on the cutting room floor."
Also, "Palin comes across as particularly upset about being stuck with ,000 in legal bills that she says were directly related to the legal vetting process for the VP slot. She says nobody ever informed her that she would have to personally take care of expenses related to the selection process, and jokes that if she'd known she was going to get stuck with the bill, she would have given shorter responses."
On that count, general counsel to McCain's campaign Trevor Potter says they were never asked to cover Palin's legal expenses. AP]]>
Tracking the Takeoff of Twilighttag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59322009-11-13T15:25:27Z2009-11-13T15:26:14ZAnother round of Twilight interest is building with the release next Friday of the movie version of New Moon, and...Publishers LunchTime]]>
Awardstag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59262009-11-11T16:02:25Z2009-11-11T16:02:56ZJournalist Linden MacIntyre was the surprise winner of Canada's Giller Prize last night for his novel THE BISHOP'S MAN--the second...Publishers Lunch
Linden MacIntyre was the surprise winner of Canada's Giller Prize last night for his novel THE BISHOP'S MAN--the second in a planned trilogy--about corruption in the Catholic Church. Random House Canada controls world rights, and as best we could determine this morning US rights have not been sold yet (though that will likely change soon). Ron Eckel is still handling rights through Random House Canada (in advance of their announced rights sales outsourcing deal). MacIntyre's primary agents are Don Sedgwick and Shaun Bradley at Transatlantic Literary Agency.
The Asian American Literary Award in fiction has gone to Jhumpa Lahiri for her short story collection, UNACCUSTOMED EARTH, with Leslie Chang taking the nonfiction award for FACTORY GIRLS: From Village to City in a Changing China. ]]>
Peopletag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59242009-11-11T15:56:14Z2009-11-11T15:57:34ZPublishers Lunch
Gene Brissie is re-joining James Peter Associates, a literary agency founded in 1971, as president. Gene was most recently Associate Publisher of The Lyons Press. JPA represents authors in nearly all nonfiction categories, including business, finance, reference, health, sports, self-help, history, biography, current events, public policy, and more.
Sophia Seidner has left Wiley after three years as an international rights manager. She will continue as a satellite literary agent with Judith Ehrlich Literary Management. She is looking for literary fiction and nonfiction including self-help, narrative nonfiction and memoir with special interest in current events, business and health and science-related topics.
Adobe's general manager of their digital publishing business Bill McCoy notes on his blog that he will leave the company shortly for new opportunities "to be determined." His departure comes in the midst of significant job cuts at Adobe. He writes: "While my transition comes as Adobe is restructuring, it's really more about Adobe creating a new, expanded organization focused on digital publishing media monetization. My team is the nucleus of this group, and the additional wood that Adobe is putting behind this arrow should be great news for our customers and business partners. We've got a lot of exciting stuff on our roadmap, and it's been an exceptional honor to have worked with such an incredible group of people. But, it was a logical time for me to move on." Post
At Ingram Content Group, Jeff McCall has been promoted to vp, Ingram International and national accounts. He will continue to oversee Ingram national accounts, and, in his new role, will lead Ingram's international sales efforts.
At HarperCollins, Peter London has been promoted to director of permissions. ]]>
People and Authorstag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59202009-11-10T14:54:45Z2009-11-10T14:55:36ZStephenie Meyer will make a rare promotional appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show this Friday. She blogs on why she...Publishers Lunch
Stephenie Meyer will make a rare promotional appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show this Friday. She blogs on why she is "making an exception" from "doing the hermit thing": "I am so pleased and amazed and thrilled with what Chris Weitz has done with New Moon that I want to talk about it, and to show my support for him." Meyer blog
Gwendolyn Heasley will join Artisans and Artisans as an agent, focusing on young adult. Her own debut YA novel, Confessions of a Teenage Recessionista, was sold to Harper Collins in a two-book deal in July.
Vook has hired Peggy Garry as legal counsel and Tenesha Gleason as senior director of business development. Garry has been in private practice, counseling literary agents, book designers and authors, and previously worked at Disney (including Hyperion), Golden Books and Wiley. Gleason was a senior business development manager at Amazon, leading the Mechanical Turk team.
David Leach has joined Greenleaf Book Group in the new position of director of book sales, reporting to ceo Clint Greenleaf. Leach was at Thomas Nelson for 12 years, most recently as national key account manager, special sales.]]>
Peopletag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59152009-11-09T15:12:17Z2009-11-09T15:12:53ZThomas P. Burke has joined Scholastic as svp, e-commerce, responsible for the operation's strategic direction and growth, reporting to evp...Publishers Lunch
Thomas P. Burke has joined Scholastic as svp, e-commerce, responsible for the operation's strategic direction and growth, reporting to evp and president of Scholastic Book Clubs and E-Commerce Judy Newman. Burke has been at BN.com for the past five years, overseeing merchandising, online marketing, customer experience, design and editorial content.
Philip Gourevitch is leaving the Paris Review--where he has been editor for the past five years--in April, to focus full-time on writing. He says "It has been a great honor -- and great fun -- to have relaunched this wonderful magazine."
The Sydney Morning Herald has a long profile on Lonely Planet ceo Matt Goldberg. SMH]]>
Bookselling: Two Schwartz Successors Concerned About Thirdtag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59142009-11-09T15:10:30Z2009-11-09T15:11:37ZAnother Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop alum is opening a new store, Open Book run by Lisa Zupke--this time billed as...Publishers Lunch "They're definitely targeting my customers," Goldin tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Hurley adds, "I'm just concerned that splitting the pie three ways will take all three of us out."
Open Book is selling memberships ranging from to , and soliciting loans from wealthy individuals. MJS]]>
Borders to Slash Another 200 Walden Outlets in Januarytag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59112009-11-06T14:19:36Z2009-11-06T15:05:25ZPublishers Lunch CEO Ron Marshall says, "We believe there remains an opportunity to profitably operate a much smaller Waldenbooks segment that complements our core Borders superstore business and continues to serve readers in their communities. Through this right-sizing, we will reduce the number of stores with operating losses, reduce our overall rent expense and lease-adjusted leverage and generate cash flow through sales and working capital reductions." The company notes that the remaining Waldenbooks stores will finally be integrated into the Borders superstore computer system.
The multiple rounds of Borders management have been back-and-forth on the "right-sizing" of the obviously outmoded, sprawling string of mall stores for years now. At first the conversion to Borders Express was going to save them. Then the George Jones crew meant to eliminate 250 Walden stores starting in spring 2007, but they reigned in those closure plans.
The company has closed approximately 45 Waldens already just since late August, after shuttering 112 stores in fiscal 2008. For the last full fiscal year, reported April 1, the mall stores generated sales of million. When making that report, the company had indicated 240 of those store leases were up for renewal over the next year and many were likely to be closed. Saying "it's not a particularly attractive business," the company indicated the segment could ultimately shrink to between 50 and 100 stores.
Yesterday afternoon a Borders employee forum posted internal talking points about the store closures prior to the public disclosure, now removed from that site. Among the anonymous comments posted, one employee reiterated allegations posted recently the superstore closings in January will also be announced by the end of this month. (One post asserted that up to 25 percent or more superstores could be set for elimination.) Spokesperson Mary Davis tells us, "We have no plans to make an announcement of any large-scale superstore closings. As always, we assess our stores on an ongoing basis and make decisions on a store by store basis." (According to the company's most recent annual report, the substantial majority of their superstore leases do not expire until 2015 or later. Only 11 store leases are up by early next year, and 26 in 2011.)
In the first half of fiscal 2009, Waldenbooks generated .4 million in sales, down from million for the previous year. In very rough terms, publishers can expect to have lost something like million in sales to BGI across the full fiscal year from the Walden downsizing. Barnes & Noble's virtual elimination of B. Dalton's hurts less, though the 52 remaining stores have generated .4 million in sales over six months, for approximately million in lost annual revenues for publishers.
The press release says Walden will "become smaller, more profitable chain," though the parent company has not been profitable for years now. Of the company's reported operating loss for the first half of 2009 of .9 million, Waldenbooks comrised .9 million of that loss.]]>
Sourcebooks Hopes to Make Poetry Speak More Broadly Onlinetag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.59032009-11-04T15:42:59Z2009-11-04T15:44:29ZFollowing the success of their line of Poetry Speaks books, Sourcebooks is moving to dominate--and more importantly grow--the poetry "vertical"...Publishers Lunch While the beta version of the site has just launched, it represents over five years of development work and an estimated ,000 of investment from Sourcebooks. As ceo Dominique Raccah says, "When I did Poetry Speaks [the book] I honestly didn't know if I was going to sell 2,000, 20,000 or 200,000 copies. What I see as an entrepreneur is that engagement drives sales. And if we get people excited and participating, we'll find a way to monetize. I know other people have said that, but I've actually done it with poetry. The response we're getting to the site is bigger than anything I've ever gotten in my career. We ought to be smart enough to take that excitement and create a set of viable revenue streams for poets and poetry publishers."
Those initial revenue paths are built around the idea of "iTunes for poetry," with brief samples to entice sales of individual poetry readings, at 99 cents for audio and text poems, and .99 for video versions. They are lining up a retail partner to sell books and CDs (and eventually ebooks and DVDs), which Raccah expects to announce soon, and they will also promote and sell tickets to poetry slams, readings and online performances.
Sourcebooks has plans for a number of other revenue-generating layers to the site, and sees ways for it to become "a tool that will revolutionize poetry education" and curricula as well. Poets and publishers will receive approximately 40 percent of sales revenue. For the moment everything on the site is available for sale throughout the world, and Raccah underscores "we believe in rights and are working to ensure that we have the correct rights info and will sell accordingly." But she admits that this landscape has been "really challenging."
Given the desire and need among all poetry organizations and publishers to grow interest and market opportunities, Sourcebooks has found an enthusiastic reception in all corners of the poetry world. (Which demonstrates, interestlingly to us, that in today's world to develop an innovative and aggressive online approach to a particular community or vertical, you don't have to start out as one of the dominant players.) Their PoetrySpeaks.com advisory board already includes everyone from Anne Halsey of the Poetry Foundation, poet and Co-Founder of Def Poetry Jam Bruce George, and former Poet Laureate of the US Robert Pinsky.
As Sourcebooks notes in their release, they hope the site can "solve some of the challenges the poets themselves face in getting their work, their message, and themselves in front of readers. Poets will be able to manage their own information, blog if they wish, explain and display their body of work to their own choosing, and even post their speaking or performance schedules. In essence, it's a social network for poets and poetry lovers." Poetry Speaks]]>
Dyssegaard New Hyperion EIC and More People Newstag:www.publishersmarketplace.com,2009:/lunch//2.58912009-11-02T15:27:15Z2009-11-02T15:28:23ZExecutive Editor of Smithsonian Books Elisabeth Dyssegaard will join Hyperion as editor-in-chief on November 16, reporting to Ellen Archer. Archer...Publishers Lunch
Elisabeth Dyssegaard will join Hyperion as editor-in-chief on November 16, reporting to Ellen Archer. Archer says in the announcement, "Given Elisabeth's history of acquiring terrific fiction and narrative nonfiction, and her ability to collaborate with offsite partners, she's a perfect fit for Hyperion and our multi-platform publishing program."
Dyssegaard adds, "I love the wide-ranging nature of the list and own food-spattered copies of most of the cookbooks. I have long admired the company's ability to make bestsellers, and I look forward to working with such a dynamic and enormously talented team."
TechCrunch reports that an executive headhunter is recruiting a "head of international business" for Barnes & Noble.com--which is interesting since they don't have one yet. They are told by a candidate it entails "building the international business for BN.com from scratch, hiring the team and 'building the infrastructure outside the US.'" TC
CBA ceo Bill Anderson resigned on Friday, after serving as president of the organization since 1985, and board chairman Jim Whittaker of New Life Christian Stores stepped down at the same time, "citing increased time demands that would come along with managing the transition process." George Thomsen is serving as chair-elect, with a successor for Anderson to be named "at a later time." Announcement
Executive director of the Book Rights Registry-in-formation Michael Healy will also serve as the inaugural David J. Pecker Visiting Professor for Pace University's Masters in Science in Publishing Program. Healy has long been at the forefront of publishing technology. He will give two annual lectures, mentor students and participate in some corporate training sessions.
Elaboration of Andre Agassi's involvement with crystal meth has now moved on to admissions of wearing a hairpiece while playing competitive tennis, as People excerpts the forthcoming book. AP]]>
