TODAY'S NEWS

Bookstore Sales Down 1.3% in March; Off 4.2% for Quarter
Bookstore sales fell 1.2% in March, declining to $999 million, according to preliminary estimates released this morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. For the first quarter of 2009, bookstore sales were down 4.2%, to $4.24 billion. The Census Bureau revised bookstore estimates for January and February, with new figures showing a 1.7% drop in January sales and a 11.3% plunge in February, making February the worst month for bookstore sales since the downturn began last fall. For all of retail, March sales were down 10.7% and first quarter sales were off 10.2%.

Donnelley Makes Offer for Quebecor
By Jim Milliot
The industry’s largest printer, R.R. Donnelley, has sent a letter to Quebecor World saying it would like to buy its bankrupt competitor for about $1.3 billion. Quebecor has been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy since last January, although it has filed a plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection. Quebecor said it is studying the proposal. Read on »

Romance, DRM and the Future of Reading at Digital Book 2009
By Calvin Reid
The book publishing industry may be suffering through a tough economy—not to mention being in the throes of reinventing itself—but the International Digital Publishing Forum’s annual Digital Book conference in New York offered an oasis of growth and an optimistic focus on the future of digital publishing and reading. Indeed, Tuesday's afternoon sessions at Digital Book 2009 surveyed an e-book sector that is growing steadily, experimenting and diversifying its products and practices and working to identify consumers and their e-book reading and buying habits. Read on »

Meyer Leads Hachette Again
By Jim Milliot
Lagardere’s publishing subsidiary, Hachette Book Group, reported worldwide sales of 462.8 million euros ($627 million at current exchange rates) in the first quarter, a 11.9% increase over 2008; excluding currency fluctuations sales were up 14.1%. The gains were led by sales of Stephenie Meyer titles not only in the U.S., but in the U.K. and France as well. Since the start of 2009, Meyer’s books have sold more than 18 million copies worldwide. In the U.S., The Shack and Outliers have also continued to sell well into the new year. Lagardere was however, a bit guarded about prospects for the remainder of 2009 for Hachette, noting that while the publishing group is ahead of budget for the first quarter, “comparatives will be much less favorable in the second half.”

Red Wheel/Weiser and Hampton Roads Sign Joint Operating Agreement
By Judith Rosen
In what could become a model for other small presses struggling to overcome the challenges of the current economic climate, 20-year-old Hampton Roads Publishing in Charlottesville, Va., has signed a three-year distribution and joint operating agreement with Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari Press effective June 1.

Under the arrangement, Red Wheel, which already handles distribution for eight small presses, will take on sales and distribution for Hampton Roads. But in a twist, Hampton Roads will operate much like a privately owned imprint of Red Wheel, with complementary but separate lists. Hampton Roads is closing its Charlottesville office and sales and marketing director Greg Brandenburgh will work out of Conari Press’s San Francisco office. The other four full-time Hampton Roads staffers, who remain after the company cut 11 positions earlier this year, will telecommute. Read on »

Steven Tyler, Cornell West and Others Set for BEA Author Stages
BookExpo America has announced the full slate of authors set to appear on its Author Stages, two new performance spaces on the convention floor, appearing for the first time at this year's show, where authors will be interviewed and perform readings. A total of more than 700 authors are slated to appear at BEA, and between 35 and 40 will be participating in events on one of the two Author Stages. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

Riverhead Acquires Hamid's New Novel
Flexing her editorial muscle in her new job at Riverhead, Becky Saletan has brought one of her big authors, Mohsin Hamid, into the fold at Penguin. Saletan acquired North American (along with audio, first serial, e-book and paperback) rights to Hamid's forthcoming novel, tentatively titled Pureland. Saletan, who edited Hamid's 2007 bestselling and Booker shortlisted The Reluctant Fundamentalist while at Harcourt and his 2001 novel Moth Smoke while at FSG, acquired Pureland from Jay Mandel at William Morris.

Pureland, set in Pakistan and the West, is, according to Penguin, about "the unmaking of identity...at a moment of global seismic shift." Penguin UK has also acquired UK rights. No pub date has been set.

Eden Ross Lipson Dies
Eden Ross Lipson, former children’s books editor of the New York Times, and a tireless champion of children's books and literacy, died of pancreatic cancer on Tuesday, at the age of 66. She had been an editor at the New York Times Book Review for 31 years, and had served as its children’s editor from 1984 until her retirement in 2005. Read on »

The PW Morning Report
Palin Signs with HC; Walcott Withdraws; Cat in the Hat on TV; NYT 2.0; White House Poetry Slam Jam Read on »

Clarification: HMH and Moody’s
A spokesperson for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt notes that Moody’s is no longer rating the company’s debt because the publisher asked Moody’s to withdraw their rating. A story by the Irish Times, picked up by The Bookseller and run in yesterday’s Morning Report in PW Daily said the rating agency decided on its own to stop rating the debt. “Moody’s didn’t proactively withdraw its rating of HMH, we asked them to do so,” the spokesperson said. Earlier this year, Moody’s had downgraded some of HMH’s debt, a move that the company disagreed with. The company has more than $6 billion in debt, but did get creditors to relax terms on some of the loans.

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Newt and Jackie Gingrich; E. Ethelbert Miller; I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti
Today on Good Morning America: Newt Gingrich and Jackie Gingrich Cushman, whose 5 Principles for a Successful Life: From Our Family to Yours (Crown Forum, 978-0307462329, $22) is just out this week. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Snapping The City of Angels
Last Friday Angel City Press threw a publication party for Harry Chandler's photography book, Dreamers in Dream City, at the new Annenberg Space for Photography. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (r.) is pictured here with Chandler. Photo credit: Peter Chandler
Submit your pictures here

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