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Random Creates Hogarth, a U.S.-U.K. Imprint
Two divisions of Random House that exist across the pond from each other are launching a fiction imprint that will share a close but non-exclusive editorial relationship. The Crown Publishing Group in the U.S. and Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Vintage Publishing, which is a division of The Random House Group in the U.K., announced the creation of Hogarth today. The imprint will focus on "contemporary, voice-driven, character-rich stories that entertain, inform, and move readers."
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Andrews McMeel Adds New Transmedia Position
Kansas City media company Andrews McMeel announced Monday two changes in their book publishing division. Christine Schillig, book division vp, will assume the role of executive editor, so that she can devote more time to editing and managing her list of authors.
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News Briefs: Week of 4/4/2011
Buoyant Bologna 2011 and more.
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A Profitable Transition, So Far
With Random House reporting its results for 2010 last week, all five of the country's largest trade houses have now turned in their operating performances for last year. And those performances are encouraging, especially for an industry in the midst of a historic transition from print to digital. For all of the Sturm und Drang accompanying the change, publishing in 2010 was as profitable as it has ever been.
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Self-pubbed Title Resurrects Racist Murders
The cover of Stokes McMillan's self-published book, One Night of Madness, represents a familial connection and a link to excellence bridging two generations. It includes both a photo taken by his father that won the 1950 National Press Photographers Association prize, and a gold sticker signifying that the book received a 2010 Independent Publishers Book Award.
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Innovation in the Adirondacks
Peru, N.Y., a small town on Lake Champlain with a population of 6,400, might seem like an unlikely spot for a publisher to set up shop. But it didn't deter Lawrence Gooley and his partner, Jill McKee. Seven years ago they founded Bloated Toe Enterprises there, which includes Bloated Toe Publishing and North Country Store (www.bloatedtoe.com/store), an online outlet for Bloated Toe titles and 400 products by North Country and Adirondack authors, artists, and artisans.
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Penguin Launches Online Bookclub on BlogHer
Penguin has partnered with female-centeric social media site Blogher to create a forum for readers to discuss books. Through the partnership BlogHer, which features news and entertainment content as well as an outlet for women to network online, has created a section of its site called Book Club that will feature Penguin titles (usually two) on a monthly basis.
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Disney Book Group Moves Distribution to Hachette
Hachette Book Group is now handling Canadian sales and distribution for Disney Book Group. HBG also provides sales and physical distribution into the trade book market to Marvel, also owned by The Walt Disney Company.
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Haymarket Author's Tour Moves Forward
Chicago publisher Haymarket Books announced Thursday that human rights activist Omar Barghouti’s book tour is going to happen: after four months of unexplained delays, the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem finally has given him a visa to enter the U.S. Barghouti, the founding member of the Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment, Sanction Campaign, is a critic of Israel and the author of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights.
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Taschen's First 3D Books Are Big
Always adventurous publisher Taschen is launching its first line of 3D books, and, as you’d expect from a house known for its outsize books--and subjects--the first Taschen books getting the 3D treatment are Taschen’s Big Body Parts series: The Big Penis Book and The Big Book of Breasts.
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Hal Leonard Expands Distribution Deal with Jawbone Press
Beginning May 2, Hal Leonard Corporation’s rights to distribute the catalogue of London- and San Francisco-based independent music book publisher Jawbone Press will be expanded. Hal Leonard has been distributing the line to music stores around the world since Jawbone’s launch in 2007, but will now be able to also sell Jawbone’s publications to the book trade in North America, Australia, and Asia.
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More Publishers, Authors, and Illustrators Help Japan
Following yesterday’s report on what publishers are doing to help recovery efforts in Japan, there’s an update on Melville House’s campaign to raise money for the cause. The house donated all profits from any purchase on its website the week of March 17 to Save the Children, GlobalGiving Project, Hands on Tokyo, and the American Red Cross--and raised more than $5,000.
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Events in the Middle East Boost Sales at Interlink
Since its founding in 1987, Interlink Books in Northampton, Mass., has been publishing literature in translation from the Middle East. "I've always believed that literature is a mirror to the soul. It tells you what history books hide," says Michel Moushabeck, publisher and editor of Interlink in Northampton, Mass., which also publishes nonfiction primers, cookbooks, and travel books. Because of the perspective its books provide, Interlink saw a big jump in sales after 9/11. Now in the wake of the current uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, the 24-year-old press is once again seeing sizeable increases at Amazon and on its own InterlinkBooks.com Web site, as well as strong orders from libraries and independents.
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Dorchester Promises to Do Right by Authors
The remaking of Dorchester Publishing from a primarily mass market paperback publisher to one that publishes both e-books and trade paperbacks that began last fall had been going fairly well until earlier this month when author Brian Keene accused the company of selling e-books for which they no longer had the rights. To protest what he charged was Dorchester's lack of responsiveness to his concerns, Keene began urging consumers to boycott the publisher, a movement which gained support online. In an interview Monday, Dorchester CEO Bob Anthony and senior editor Chris Keeslar said they understood Keene’s frustration, but said they are also frustrated by the situation.
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Publishers Help Japanese Quake Victims
Publishers have come up with a range of ways to aid victims of the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, from bake sales to book sales.
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Correction
Rhonda Byrne’s latest bestseller, The Magic (Atria), was inadvertently omitted from PW’s March 26 Trade Paperback list.
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Fodor's Makes Itself at Home in Digital Group
When Maya Mavjee was appointed president and publisher of Random House's Crown Publishing Group in December 2009, Crown's nontrade units, including Random House Audio Publishing and Fodor's Travel Group, were separated from the group.
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Chain Sales Slipped 3% In 2010
Total sales at the nation's three largest bookstore chains fell 3.5% in the year ended January 31, dropping to just under $8 billion. Borders had the worst year, by far, with sales falling 17.6%, to approximately $2.3 billion.
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News Briefs: Week of 3/28/11
Weak Quarter For Scholastic and More.
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Politics Reaches Into Wisconsin's Book World
Even though the national media has moved on from its daily front-page coverage of events unfolding in Wisconsin, the impact of the political battles between Governor Scott Walker and public employees continues to reverberate in many ways for the regional book industry.
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