-
S&S to Open India Division
As part of a global expansion, Simon & Schuster is opening a new division in New Delhi. Simon & Schuster India will be overseen by Ian Chapman, who is managing director and chief executive of Simon & Schuster UK.
-
Amazon Starts Mystery Imprint Thomas & Mercer
After announcing it would publish romance novels through a new imprint called Montlake, Amazon has unveiled its next genre imprint, Thomas & Mercer, which is focused on mysteries and thrillers. Thomas & Mercer will release its first four titles in Fall 2011.
-
Ancient Mysteries Hot for Inner Traditions
Inner Traditions has enjoyed solid sales increases in its ancient mystery titles for a few years and it thinks it has another hit in the genre with its just-released Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt. With a first printing of 10,000, Black Genesis sold 1,200 copies through Amazon in its first three weeks on sale.
-
Arcadia Books to Open in Wisconsin
James Bohnen, the director of Wisconsin’s American Players Theatre, one of the country’s largest outdoor theaters, is opening an independent bookstore in downtown Spring Green, near Madison, on May 20. Arcadia Books will be a full-service general bookstore, carrying 8,000-10,000 titles, with an emphasis on literature, drama, poetry, history, cookbooks, and children’s books.
-
PoliPoint Sells Seven Titles to Berrett-Koehler
PoliPoint Press is selling seven backlist titles to Berrett-Koehler Publishers of San Francisco for an undisclosed sum in a deal to be completed May 28. According to PoliPoint publisher Scott Jordan, BK has “the right kinds of marketing muscle and vertically integrated distribution to reach new audiences for these fantastic titles.” Although the seven titles will be changing hands they will continue to be distributed through Ingram Publisher Services, the distributor for both PoliPoint and BK.
-
AARP Teams with Wiley
After a search to find a new home for their book publishing arm, nationwide nonprofit organization AARP announced today that they are teaming up with John Wiley & Sons to create AARP-branded titles targeted at Americans age 50 and older. Wiley will be releasing the first of AARP Books’ new titles in early 2012, which will be available in both print and e-book formats. Cathy Ventura-Merkel, senior v-p of AARP Publications, says they are “thrilled to team up with Wiley and eager to relaunch the AARP Books Program.”
-
Dinotopia's Gurney Draws on Blog for Newest Hit
James Gurney's series of illustrated fantasy adventure stories, beginning with 1992's Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time, produced a generation raised on Gurney's highly realistic paintings of an entirely unreal subject: namely, a world in which intelligent dinosaurs and humans coexist discovered by a Victorian scientist and his son.
-
News Briefs: Week of 5/16/11
HC, Donnelley In Deal and More.
-
Sticking with Books
As publishers worry about the shrinking number of physical bookstores, Levy Home Entertainment is making the case that mass merchants will be a viable alternative not only to showcase books but to sell them as well. In a presentation at the Book Industry Study Group's May 5 "Making Information Pay" conference as well as at its own meetings with publishers, Levy argues that by 2015 mass merchants' share of a shrinking print retail book pie will slightly increase from 2010 while the share of units sold through bookstores loses half its market share to online bookstores.
-
From China to Chicago
River North Editions may have just launched in March, but IPG's rebranded distribution program for scholarly titles published by approximately a dozen international presses is already making a big splash, as is one of its clients, a four-year-old company located far from River North's offices in Chicago.
-
Scholastic Releases Statement on Coal Foundation Curriculum
Children's advocacy groups sharply reprimanded Scholastic last week for distributing to schools a poster on energy sources sponsored by the American Coal Foundation. An editorial in the New York Times criticized the poster for "giving a one-sided view of coal usage." Friday, Scholastic released a statement acknowledging "that the mere fact of sponsorship may call into question the authenticity of the information, and therefore conclude that we were not vigilant enough as to the effect of sponsorship in this instance." The statement also says Scholastic will not distribute the poster any more and plans to reevaluate its editorial procedures concerning sponsored content.
-
Audible Creates Audio Rights Exchange, ACX
Audible, Inc. has launched ACX (ACX.com), an online audiobook rights marketplace, production platform and online sales system.
-
IPG Rebrands Itself with New Logo
Independent Publishers Group [IPG], which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this spring, is officially rolling out a new logo today, to better reflect the company’s more complex dynamic in an evolving industry.
-
Deals: Week of 5/9/2011
Penguin Nabs O’Hara Debut
-
News Briefs: Week of 5/9/11
RH Buys Smashing Ideas and more.
-
MacAdam Cage Fighting To Stay in Business
Financially troubled San Francisco independent publisher MacAdam Cage continues to struggle to stay in business. But in a recent phone interview with MacAdam Cage publisher David Poindexter, he said that after years of layoffs, a distribution change, the departure of editor-in-chief Pat Walsh and mounting complaints of nonpayment from its authors, the cash strapped house is now generating revenue and he claims to be making delayed royalty payments to MacAdam Cage authors.
-
Zondervan Launches 'Story' Campaign with Lucado
Building on what it calls a "movement" in churches started by the 2005 edition of The Story, a chronological retelling of the Bible, Zondervan this month launches a campaign to promote the new edition and the line it has given birth to--more than 30 different products aimed at all ages.
-
S&S, Penguin, Hachette Back Bookish, Online Book Site
Three major publishers are backing a new online effort that its creators said is aimed at engaging and informing readers about authors and books. With the financial backing of Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin Group, Bookish (www.bookish.com) is being headed by Paulo Lemgruber who previously had run digital businesses at Comcast and Reed Elsevier and who told PW he was recruited about one year ago by publishers to start Bookish. Other members of the team include Charlie Rogers, who has worked at The Paris Review, NBC Universal and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, who is Bookish editor-in-chief.
-
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Opens D.C. Office for Social Responsibility, HMH Foundation
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will open a Washington, D.C., office devoted to its global corporate social responsibility efforts and the HMH Foundation. The company has appointed education leader Samuel Casey as senior v-p of global CSR for HMH, as well as executive director of the HMH Foundation.
-
RedBone Press: Black and Gay Together
Originally launched as a self-publishing project for a single book, RedBone Press, a black gay/lesbian-focused independent publisher, is celebrating its 15th year in the book business. And RedBone is an independent publisher in the literal sense: since day one, the founder and publisher Lisa C. Moore has been the house’s sole staff member.
Browse archive by date:
