News Briefs

Courier Corp. has acquired Creative Homeowner for $37 million. Creative had sales of $24 million in 2005. Courier entered the publishing market in 2000 with the purchase of Dover Publications and had publishing sales of $40 million last year.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series, and Donald Trump are teaming up to write More Important Than Money, a book about investing that the duo will self-publish under Kiyosaki's Rich Press imprint. The new book is set for October.

Avalon Publishing Group has acquired the rights to the companion book to the hit Broadway musical The Color Purple. With a foreword by Oprah Winfrey, The Color Purple: A Memory Book will be released in October with a 65,000-copy printing.

Revenue rose 14% at Simon & Schuster in this year's first quarter, to an estimated $185 million. Sales in the adult division increased 17%, while a rebound in the U.K. contributed to a 21% increase in international sales. Children's group sales rose slightly.

In order to turn around the fortunes of its struggling Books Are Fun division, Reader's Digest is looking for a new president and marketing v-p and will exit noncore areas. The goal, RD executives said, is to return the display marketing unit's margins to the high-single digits, although sales growth is not expected for several years.

Jean Feiwel is calling her new children's imprint at Holtzbrinck Feiwel & Friends and will launch the unit this fall, a year ahead of schedule. The early launch is the result of Feiwel's acquisition of the self-published On the Night You Were Born by author and artist Nancy Tillman. "This book can't wait," Feiwel said about plans to publish the title in October.

Sales in Amazon. com's North America media segment rose 17% in the first quarter, to $815 million. Company CFO Tom Szkutak said Amazon is "pleased" with the performance of all categories in its North America media group, which includes books, music, DVD/video, software, video games and magazines. For the entire company, revenue increased 20%, to $2.28 billion, slightly higher than expected, while earnings fell 34%, to $51 million.

Perseus's Basic Books Group has realigned some of its staff following the death of Liz Maguire. Jo Ann Miller, v-p and editorial director, will now share publisher duties with John Sherer, who's been promoted to associate publisher and marketing director. Jamie Brickhouse, currently v-p and executive director of publicity, will be leaving the company; Basic is looking to hire a publicity director.