TODAY'S NEWS

B&N Open to Possible Borders Purchase
By Jim Milliot
Asked during its year end conference call if Barnes & Noble has any interest in buying Borders, chief operating officer Mitchell Klipper said that while the company has not been approached by Borders’s investment bankers, B&N would look at the possibility of acquiring its chief rival.

B&N is coming off of a soft year in which net income fell 9.8% for the fiscal year ended February 2, 2008, to $135.8 million, while earnings in the fourth quarter declined 9.2%, to $115 million. Earlier this year, B&N reported that total revenue rose 2.8%, to $5.41 billion in the year, and fell 1.7%, to $1.88 billion in the quarter. Results in 2006 reflect 53 weeks, compared to 52 weeks last year. Read on »

Borders Explains Financing Moves
by Jim Milliot
Slowing sales late in the fourth quarter, the collapse of talks to sell its Australian/New Zealand operation and the disarray in the capital markets were the main factors prompting Borders to seek a quick infusion of capital from Pershing Square, executives told analysts in this morning’s conference call. The refinancing appeared to catch many analysts by surprise and some expressed concern about the cost of the deal with Pershing which carries a 12.5% interest rate.|

CEO George Jones, who noted the company has carried a high debt level for some time, said Borders felt it needed financial stability in the current year, both to move ahead with its strategic plan as well as to ease any concerns vendors may have about Borders’s financial health, although he added that Borders is not aware of any vendors who are planning to stop shipping books. Read on »

Doubleday On Top of Bear Stearns 'Meltdown'
Doubleday has signed former investment banker and The Last Tycoons author William D. Cohan to deliver a 2009 book about the recent collapse of Bear Stearns. The book, which will also detail the country's current financial straits, is tentatively titled Meltdown.

Doubleday editor-in-chief William Thomas acquired world English, serial, audio, and electronic rights from Joy Harris of The Joy Harris Literary Agency. Cohan won the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award for Tycoons.

Avery to Publish Monica Seles's Memoir
By Lynn Andriani
Penguin imprint Avery has just bought retired tennis star Monica Seles’s memoir. The nine-time Grand Slam winner—and current Dancing with the Stars contestant—will pen a story of her “self discovery and triumph,” for publication in March ‘09.

Dana Beck at Bill Adler Books repped Seles, and Avery publisher Megan Newman will edit. The “inspiring and revealing memoir” will detail Seles’s transition from tennis stardom and fame to tragedy, loss and self-discovery. The 34-year-old athlete won her last Grand Slam in 1996 at the Australian Open, and officially retired from professional tennis earlier this year.

In a statement, Newman said, “Avery is delighted to be publishing Monica Seles’ book. Her remarkable, uplifting story is one that will resonate with readers—those who were fans during her illustrious tennis career and those who will meet her for the first time. It is an honor to be working with such a talented athlete and promising author.” Read on »

Job Moves
Rachel Klayman has been promoted from senior editor to executive editor at Crown. Klayman, who joined Crown in 2003, has, among other things, edited the 2003 NBA winner Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire and brought Barack Obama on as a Crown author. In 2004 she pursued the then-Illinois congressman, before his national attention-getting speech at the DNC, for a book deal; Crown then re-published Obama's Dreams from My Father and released the new title, The Audacity of Hope.

At Simon & Schuster Mary Marotta has been named v-p, director of children's sales. Marotta steps into the newly created post from Scholastic where, since 2004, she served as director of national accounts. In her new role at S&S Marotta will handle sales for all S&S children's titles and report directly to Micahel Sellek, executive v-p of sales and marketing.

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AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Mark Doty; Ceridwen Dovey; Robin Wright
Bestselling poet Mark Doty visits the Leonard Lopate Show with his collection Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems (Harper, $22.95). In a PW Signature Review, Reginald Shepherd said it “should solidify his position as a star of contemporary American poetry. The poems combine close attention to the fragile, contingent things of the world with the constant, almost unavoidable chance of transcendence.” Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Lucas & Friends
Screenwriter Craig Lucas was joined by some celebrity friends at a recent reading at Manhattan's Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble to celebrate the release of his new book, The Dying Gaul and Other Screenplays (Alyson Books). Lucas (center, left) was joined by his editor Steve Drukman (far left) and actors Mary Louise Parker (center, right) and Campbell Scott (far right). Parker and Scott, who have worked with Lucas frequently, wrote the book’s foreword. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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