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Investor Group to Acquire Alloy for $126 Million
Alloy Inc., whose products aimed at young adults and older include Gossip Girl and the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, has agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by ZelnickMedia in a deal valued at $126.5 million. According to a statement, the new owners, which include members of Alloy’s senior management team, “aim to build Alloy into a leading entertainment and media brand for the millennial generation (ages 10-29).” The company had sales of $205 million in the fiscal year ended January 31 and an operating loss of $2.4 million.
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BookPeople Launches New Literary Camp
BookPeople, which in 2006 organized the first literary day camp for children, Camp Half-Blood, is branching out. The Austin, Tex., independent bookstore hosted its first Ranger's Apprentice Corps Training Camp, inspired by John Flanagan's medieval fantasy series.
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Lerner Goes Digital
This weekend at the American Library Association conference in Washington, D.C., Lerner Publishing Group will unveil Lerner Digital, its new digital content brand for the school and library markets, by launching the company’s new line of fiction and nonfiction digital books for struggling readers, Lerner Interactive Books. Lerner will release 33 titles for the Lerner Interactive Books inaugural list this fall.
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June 24: People
Cecily Kaiser will join Abrams on July 6 in the new role of publishing director for children's books, and Krista Marino has been promoted to executive editor at Delacorte Books for Young Readers.
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Open Letter to Children's Publishers
A children's book author challenges the book publishing industry to print fewer picture books.
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An Impassioned Plea for Picture Books
The symbolism was not lost at this past Tuesday's meeting of the New England Children's Booksellers Advisory Council, held at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., that Ken Geist, v-p and editorial director of Orchard Books and Cartwheel Books and author of the picture book The Three Little Fish, should choose this setting to ask independent booksellers to get behind picture books.
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Exhibitors, Attendees Upbeat at Las Vegas Licensing Show
Exhibitors and attendees at last week's Licensing International Expo in Las Vegas—including publishers, licensing agencies representing book-based properties, and retail book buyers—were cautiously optimistic that the licensing business may be about to turn a corner after a rough 2008 and 2009. As has been the case in recent years, much of the focus was on the tried-and-true, including classic properties, entertainment franchises, and retro licenses.
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People: June 17
Alison Morris has been named senior editor of acquisitions and merchandising at Scholastic Book Clubs, Catherine Onder has joined Disney-Hyperion as senior editor, and Deane Norton will join Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing as associate director in the subsidiary rights department.
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Conescu Joins Dutton Children's as Executive Editor
Nancy Conescu will return to the company where she first began her children's publishing career, when she joins Dutton Children's Books as executive editor on July 6. Conescu has been a senior editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for the past six years, but began working in children's books as an assistant to the publishers of the Puffin and Grosset & Dunlap imprints.
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Mitchell to Leave Tundra After 21 Years
Catherine Mitchell, director of foreign and special markets at Toronto-based Tundra Books, has resigned effective July 2. Mitchell has been with Tundra for 21 years since its beginnings in Montreal, during its move to Toronto and its acquisition by McClelland & Stewart in 1995. "I've done what I can do at Tundra, and it’s time for me to do my next thing," Mitchell said.
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Licensing Hotline: June 2010
In licensing news, Scholastic acquires rights to the Chuggington and Alpha and Omega properties; ABDO does a deal for book based on such properties as Star Wars, Scooby Doo, Transformers, and Indiana Jones; and Simon & Schuster brings Where's Smiley? to the U.S. market.
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Getting Tweens to Read and Review ARCs
In Drive, Daniel Pink writes about what motivates people. (Hint: It’s not the carrot and the stick.) Smart children's booksellers have long known that the best way to turn a child into a reader is not based on bribes. At "Serving the Tween Reader," a panel presented by the Association of Booksellers for Children at BEA last month, booksellers shared tips for getting the intended audience, i.e., tweens, to read through the pile of ARCs that keep coming, and helping them sell the best ones to other tweens.
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People: June 10
Penguin Young Readers Group has two appointments. Camilla Sanderson has been appointed to the newly created position of v-p, digital business development. In her new role, she will be the main contact for all digital business and initiatives. Helen Boomer will be returning to the division as v-p, director of subsidiary rights. Boomer was rights director for Viking and Puffin for 11 years, and most recently was executive director of rights at HarperCollins Children’s Books.
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Regardless of Screen, Story Still Matters
Authenticity and trust were big buzz words at this year’s 2010 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup, held in San Francisco May 24 and 25. So were words like user-generated and social networking strategy. But there was an old-school word that kept floating around from keynotes to panel discussions: storyteller. “The only thing that hasn’t changed is that you still need a good story,” said Ariel Aberg-Riger, creative development and marketing director for Fourth Story Media.
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BEA 2010: Bare Truths About Hot YA Titles for Fall
Six editors touted their favorite fall teen reads at the YA Editors Buzz panel during BEA with what can best be described as naked passion – the tone set by a story from Jennifer Weis from St. Martin’s about how she came to acquire Infinite Days by debut author Rebecca Maizel. Weis read the book, about a 500-year-old vampire who chooses to become human again, the day the manuscript arrived from agent Matt Hudson of the William Morris Agency. “There was a lyricism to this author’s voice that elevated the storytelling and showed a real command of language,” Weis said.
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People: June 4
Shana Corey has been promoted to executive editor at Random House Children’s Books, and Becky Hemperly has been promoted to v-p of contracts, rights, and royalties at Candlewick Press.
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Suzanne Murphy Tapped to Head Disney Book Group
Suzanne Murphy has been named v-p and publisher of books at Disney Publishing Worldwide. Murphy is arriving from Scholastic, where she was v-p and group publisher of Scholastic Trade; at DPW she will be overseeing all content strategies for books, as well as handling the group's imprints, Disney-Hyperion, Disney-Jump at the Sun, Disney Editions, and Disney Press. Murphy will also handle content for the company's extensive licensing program, as well as digital content strategies. Murphy is replacing Jonathan Yaged, who left DPW in late February.
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Barnes & Noble Launches Online Storytime
Parents of picture-book readers needn’t leave home to enjoy story time with their children. This week, Barnes & Noble.com debuted its Online Storytime program dedicated Web site, videos featuring pan-and-scan filming of picture books accompanied by readings by authors or celebrities. A new Online Storytime entry will be added to the site on the first Tuesday of each month.
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BookExpo America 2010: Big Children's Books of the Show
The BEA convention may have been shorter than in years past, but there was no shortage of major titles at the show last week. “It’s been a good show, bigger than I thought it would be,” said Mary Albi of Egmont USA, while Robert Kempe of Seven Footer Press called it “BEA on steroids,” due to the compressed two-day schedule.
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BookExpo America 2010: A Children's Books Photo-Essay
As booksellers, librarians, publishers, and book-lovers gathered in New York City last week for BEA, photographers were there too, documenting the show's events, activity, and mood. Here, we gather a selection of images from the children's book side of the show. Click through to catch up on the conference's activity—and maybe a few things you missed!
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