E-books Jump At Amazon

E-book sales rose 70% at Amazon in 2012, while print book sales rose 5% in December, the slowest December growth rate ever, the company said in announcing its year-end results. For the full year, net sales increased 27% to $61 billion, and Amazon reported a net loss of $39 million compared with net income of $631 million in 2011.

S&S, B&N in Terms Dispute

Simon & Schuster and Barnes & Noble are locked in a dispute over terms. Although the exact nature of the disagreement is not clear, B&N has reduced its orders from S&S. B&N said it “supports publishers who support our bookstores,” while S&S said, “We are working diligently, as we always do, to secure the widest possible distribution for our books.”

Applegate Wins Newbery, Klassen Takes Caldecott

Katherine Applegate has won the 2013 Newbery Medal for the One and Only Ivan (Harper), a novel narrated by a silverback gorilla that lives in an ill-run roadside attraction with other performing animals. Jon Klassen has won the 2013 Caldecott Medal for This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick), in which a small fish gleefully steals a hat belonging to a larger fish and tries to get away with it.

Heritage House Acquires Greystone

Heritage House Publishing has acquired all assets of the Greystone Books imprint from D&M, which filed for bankruptcy last year. Greystone founding publisher Rob Sanders will head the imprint, and Perseus’s PGW unit will continue to distribute Greystone titles in the U.S. and will extend its distribution to include all territories around the world except Canada, where HarperCollins Canada will remain Greystone’s distributor.

Former ICM Chief Starts New Agency

Jeffrey Berg, who ran ICM for over 20 years, has started a new full-service agency called Resolution, which will have offices in Los Angeles and New York and will include a literary arm. HC Moving HQ HarperCollins will be pulling up stakes in midtown Manhattan and moving its headquarters to the financial district in spring 2014. The publisher, currently located on 53rd Street, has signed a lease for office space at 195 Broadway.

Harrison Up at Scribner

Colin Harrison has been promoted to v-p and editor-in-chief at Scribner where he was senior editor.