TODAY'S NEWS

Results Off at McGraw-Hill Education; Slashes Forecast
by Jim Milliot
McGraw-Hill Companies was the first of the major, publicly-held publishers to report third quarter results this morning and the news was not encouraging. Total revenue at McGraw-Hill Education fell 3.8% in the quarter ended September 30, to $1.13 billion, while operating profit dropped 14.5%, to $351.5 million. The profit decline included $5.4 million in a one-time charge associated with the elimination of 90 jobs in the group. With the decline in third quarter sales--by far the company’s most important period--MHC said it expected revenue at MHE to fall 1% to 2% for the full year. At the beginning of 2008 revenue at MHE was expected to increase by 6% to 8%, a forecast that was cut to 4% to 6% in July when revenue in the higher education/professional/international group was off of budget. The new forecast includes a shortfall in sales in the school group as well. Read on »

‘King & King’ Dragged into California’s Prop 8 Vote
By Wendy Werris
Eight years after its original Dutch publication, controversy continues to swirl around King & King, a children’s picture book by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland about gay marriage that has become embroiled in the outcome of California’s Proposition 8. Backers of the proposition are fighting to reverse the constitutional amendment that made gay marriage legal this year in the state, partly by running commentary about the “immoral” message in the book in television and radio ads in California.

Nicole Geiger, founder of Tricycle Press, bought the book at the Bologna Book Fair in 2001 and published the American edition the next year. Geiger said she was “devastated” when she found out that King & King is now being cited by backers of Proposition 8 as an example of the type of books that will be used to negatively influence the lifestyle of children. “I immediately sent a personal donation to the ‘No on 8’ campaign in the hope that people will delve a little deeper into this civil rights issue than a TV or radio commercial,” she said. Sales of the book, which has sold 8,000 copies since it was published, have been above average during October. “I’m terribly proud of King & King,” Geiger said, “and saddened by any association with this innocent children’s book by politically motivated attacks on the civil rights of fellow Americans.” Read on »

Skyhorse to Publish Letters to President Obama
By Dermot McEvoy
Skyhorse Publishing announced today that it plans to publish Letters to President Obama: Americans Share Our Hopes and Dreams with the First African-American President in April 2009. The initial printing will be 50,000 copies in hardcover.

Skyhorse is encouraging Americans to submit letters for consideration by visiting www.letterstopresidentobama.com. Asked if they were afraid of a "wingnut reaction," associate publisher Bill Wolfsthal replied that "The highly qualified editors of the book—all professors at University of Michigan and Cornell—will edit the collection to create a thought-provoking and poignant collection." Read on »

Fairgoers Raise $12,500 for Agent’s Memorial Fund  
by Edward Nawotka
At a charity raffle at the Frankfurt Book Fair, dozens of friends and colleagues of the late Gernert Company literary agent Tracy Walker Howell raised $12,500 to benefit the Tracy Walker Howell Memorial Fund. The money raised will go toward endowing a scholarship at Howell's alma mater, Middlebury College, for a student to study for a year at the C.V. Starr-Middlebury School in Italy.

Howell, who served as a literary agent and director of foreign rights for The Gernert Company, died suddenly on February 8, 2006, age 42. She was widely known, in part, because of her role as manager of world publishing rights for John Grisham. Organizers of the raffle included Cecile Barendsma and Cullen Stanley, both of Janklow & Nesbit, and Hal Fessenden, v-p of subsidiary rights, Penguin USA. Nancy Wiese, v-p director of subsidiary rights at Grand Central, served as MC of the event. Among the prizes were several weeks in vacation homes spread across the globe, as well as jewelry, and a custom drawing by Matteo Pericolli. Among the winners were scout Virginia Marx, who won a week in the Liguria vacation house donated by Ullstein Heyne publisher Ulrich Genzler, and Maria B. Campbell, who took home a new Sony e-reader. A full list of prizes and winners, as well as further information about the Tracy Walker Howell Memorial Fund is online (link "online" to tracywalkerhowellfund.org/events.html). Read on »

Job Moves

Jennifer Hunt has been promoted to editorial director at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers where she will oversee all middle grade and YA fiction acquisitions. Hunt has been la LBBYR for over six years and, among other books, worked on the National Book Award winner The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. She also recently acquired four YA novels by the international bestseller Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

Michael Schluter has been named senior director of sales at Palgrave Macmillan US. Schluter, who will start on November 3, was most recently director of library sales at Sage. Schluter will manage sales for all print and online products in North America and the sales team. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

On Sale Next Week: Rachel Ray
Rachel Ray's new cookbook releases next week with an announced first printing of 1 million copies. As retailers cut book orders and publishers hold their breath, it remains to be seen how much market share major authors like Ray can hold. Read on »

Cuts at Doubleday
Sixteen positions at Random House's Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group have been cut across imprints and departments. According to a rep at the division editorial, marketing and publicity positions were eliminated at Doubleday, Broadway, Nan Talese, Spiegel and Grau and Multnomah. The rep also confirmed that the cuts were an internal decision which came down from division heads, and not as a result of a directive from the corporate office. Read on »

The PW Morning Report
Mayor Bloomberg’s Book Postponed; Court: Trump Author Doesn’t Have to Reveal Sources; A Joe-the-Plumber Book Deal?; Tony Hillerman Dead; Mireille Marokvia Dead; Lifetime to Film Four Nora Roberts Novels; and Amazon.com Listed Obama Halloween Mask Under "Terrorist" Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: More Extreme Pumpkins; David Macaulay; John Updike
Today, Live with Regis and Kelly get into the Halloween spirit with bestseller and pumpkin carving king Tom Nardone, whose latest is Extreme Pumpkins II: Take Back Halloween and Freak Out a Few More Neighbors (HP Trade, 978-1557885333, $13.95). After the jump: Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, Maureen McCormick, James Patterson, Steve Martin and more.   Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Dog Days
Author Karen Ngo was at the Annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade in Manhattan’s Tompkins Square Park on Sunday signing copies of her book Indognito (Little, Brown). Read on »

JOB OF THE DAY

PW VIRTUAL EDITION