-
Key Porter Operations 'Suspended'
Responding to media reports that the company had shut down, Key Porter Books issued a brief statement Friday afternoon announcing that it was “temporarily suspending” its publishing operations. "Key Porter Books is considering a number of restructuring options, including the sale of certain titles in its valuable catalogue of Canadian works, all with a view to continuing as a leader in the Canadian publishing industry," the statement said. "In the meantime, Key Porter Books is supporting its authors through the continued marketing and sale of previously published works and distribution through [parent company] H.B. Fenn and Company Ltd."
-
NewSouth Moves Ahead with Controversial 'Huck Finn'
It's been a busy week at NewSouth Books, where publishers Suzanne La Rosa and Randall Williams have fielded hundreds of calls, and many more e-mails, from news outlets and readers concerning their publication of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Since Monday, when PW first reported the publisher's plans to release Twain’s most celebrated and challenged works without the 'hurtful epithets' that have caused it to be dropped from school curricula, the story has generated enormous interest in both new and old media outlets. The outcry following PW’s story, much of it negative and all of it highly charged, has surprised but not discouraged La Rosa and NewSouth, who anticipated the controversy, if not the volume. La Rosa said that, in the wake of all the attention, NewSouth plans to increase their print run from the initial 7,500 to 10,000.
-
BISG Survey Finds Students Prefer Print
The Book Industry Study Group has released the results of a new survey it conducted, called Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education. Among the findings are that 75% of college students say they prefer textbooks in printed rather than e-text form, citing print's look and feel, as well as its permanence and ability to be resold.
-
BDS and Atlas Add Clients
The BookMasters Group in Ashland, Ohio, continues to grow with the addition of two new publishers to BookMasters Distribution Services--Design Media Publishing, a newly established publishing House in Hong Kong, which is a subsidiary of Liaoning Science and Technology Publishing House in Northeast China; and Islandport Press in Yarmouth, Maine, known for books with a regional New England focus.
-
Scholastic Teaching Moves Order Processing
Effective January 29, Scholastic will move its order processing from HarperCollins. On that date Scholastic Jefferson City will begin distributing all titles from Scholastic Teaching Resources/Teacher's Friend. This change is only for Scholastic Teaching Resources/Teacher's Friend; Scholastic Trade will continue to be distributed by HarperCollins.
-
Ferriss, Random House Suit Dismissed
Author Timothy Ferriss and his publisher, Random House, enter the new year with a dismissal in court. The Illinois Supreme Court, on December 21, dismissed the class action lawsuit Mario Aliano v. Timothy Ferriss and Random House, Inc.
-
New Indigo Co-op Plan Upsets Publishers
Indigo Books & Music's decision to abruptly change its co-op terms has surprised and dismayed Canadian publishers. Indigo won't publicly disclose the details of agreements with vendors and wouldn't comment on the new co-op plan, but an e-mail from Bahram Olfati, v-p of adult trade, informed publishers of three major changes effective January 1, 2011.
-
New Generation Takes Over at Shambhala
Last month's appointment of Nikko Odiseos as president of Shambhala Publications completed the Boston press's transition to a family-owned business run by a new generation.
-
News Briefs: Week of 1/3/11
Aletheia Cuts B&N Stake; Crown to Pub WikiLeaks Tell-all; and More
-
Upcoming NewSouth 'Huck Finn' Eliminates the 'N' Word
Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic by most any measure—T.S. Eliot called it a masterpiece, and Ernest Hemingway pronounced it the source of "all modern American literature."
-
What's Ahead In 2011
In creating not one but rather several new business models, all members of the publishing industry are aware that they are establishing precedents that are likely to last well into the future.
-
Skyhorse Acquires Sports Publishing Assets; Launches Children's Imprint
Following two other acquisitions this year, Skyhorse Publishing has just closed a third deal, buying Sports Publishing. Sports Publishing went bankrupt in 2008 and Skyhorse's acquisition, which does not include any of Sports Publishing's liabilities, will add books by, among others, Michael Phelps and Dick Vitale to its backlist. The company also announced that it will launch a children's book imprint next fall. The new imprint, set for fall 2011, is called Sky Pony Press.
-
New Hampshire Publisher Returns
After her father's death in 2006, Sarah Bauhan wasn't sure that she wanted to take over the New Hampshire publishing business that he had built up over nearly half a century, William L. Bauhan, Inc. This fall, however, Bauhan, who handled book design and managed the company for her father, relaunched the press in Peterborough as Bauhan Publishing, LLC. "I decided it was too deep in my blood," says Bauhan, who remembers packing books as a child.
-
Random on Track for Good 2010; Digital Sales Up 250%
Random House will have a good fiscal 2010 spurred by a strong fourth quarter, chairman Markus Dohle told employees in his annual year-end letter. As has become his style, Dohle emphasized the global aspects of Random's operations, and the success of the company’s rapidly expanding digital businesses. Digital sales are expected to be up 250% in 2010 with Dohle noting that in the U.S. this fall, e-book sales accounted for nearly half of the first week sale of certain titles.
-
Inner Traditions: 35 Years of Working Niches, Globally
Despite a roiling economic climate, over the past decade 35-year-old Inner Traditions in Rochester, Vt., has more than doubled in size. "While 2008 was bad for all publishers," said founder and president Ehud Sperling,
-
News Briefs: Week of 12/20/10
Oct. Sales Fall; Scholastic Results Down.
-
Publishing as Family: Publishers Help Authors in Time of Need
This should have been a great year for media artist Dare Greenwald and her partner, artist and curator Josh MacPhee. Last month AK Press released its first full-color book, Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures, 1960s to Now in collaboration with Exit Art. It's based on the touring exhibit they curated, which debuted there in 2008. Inspired by the show, Amy Scholder, executive director of the Feminist Press at CUNY, signed MacPhee for a book on social change, Celebrate People's History: The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution, which is also out now. But since the summer Greenwald has struggled with a rare and aggressive cancer, and MacPhee has had to turn down work in order to care for Greenwald.
-
Human Kinetics Hits First Million-Copy Mark
Champaign, Il., publisher Human Kinetics has hit a milestone: its first million-copy seller. The 37-year-old publisher released the first English-language edition of Strength Training Anatomy in 2001 and the third edition pubbed early in 2010. "Never in my wildest dreams did I expect this book to sell one million copies," said the company's CEO.
-
Layoffs Follow Bankruptcy of Doubleday Canada Book Club
About 100 employees of the Doubleday Canada Book Club lost their jobs late last week when the company declared that the Canadian operation was bankrupt.
-
Turner Down, Odiseos Up at Shambhala
After 22 years at Shambhala Publications, 12 as president and publisher, Peter Turner has stepped down from both roles, and Nikko Odiseos has been named president of the Boston-based publishing house, which specializes in Buddhist publications and classics of the wisdom traditions. Odiseos is an analytical engineer with a background in project management and content management, who has held positions at Microsoft and Fast Search and Transfer.
Browse archive by date:
