People want stories and that means cultivating a publishing ecosystem where big and small can flourishThis week both the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and the Department of Justice in the US announced investigations into the planned $2.2bn acquisition of the publisher Simon & Schuster by Bertelsmann, which already owns Penguin Random House. The merger, if allowed, would see Bertelsmann have almost one-third of English-language book sales. The move follows a year when a population cocooned at home, reaching for comfort reading, inflated the profits of big publishers. Bloomsbury and Pan Macmillan recently announced that they would be returning furlough payments; HarperCollins did not take them.Many of the UK’s smaller publishers fared rather differently: a Bookseller survey last summer found 60% feared they would cease to exist by autumn. Indies tend not to have the backlists full of household names that, say, a Penguin has; they depend far more on serendipity, on a customer wandering into a shop intending to buy one thing but coming out with something else as well. This happens far less with online shopping; at least one publisher lost up to 90% in sales. Some also found it difficult to qualify for furlough. They took to social media to announce their plight, or to try new selling tactics; some crowdfunded; some received emergency Arts Council England cash. Many were dragged back from the brink, for which we should be grateful. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-03-28 17:25:47 UTC ]
HarperCollins UK has brought back all the staff it placed on furlough at the start of lockdown and will pay all their salaries itself rather than claiming it back from the government, the company has announced. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-22 02:30:13 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury Wildlife is publishing a trilogy of books by journalist Anita Sethi exploring themes of identity, place and belonging, starting with I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-12 07:24:30 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has acquired world all-language rights to two more books by Why Mummy Drinks author Gill Sims. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-11 11:16:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury is to publish Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell's latest picture book, Pirate Stew. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-10 15:36:12 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has promoted Kimberley Young (pictured) to the role of executive publisher for HarperFiction, with responsibility also for digital-first division One More Chapter. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-10 12:12:17 UTC ]
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"Eager" customers have "welcomed" the opening of bookstores in Ireland this week, The Bookseller has heard. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-10 05:57:23 UTC ]
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Publishers are currently exploring what a return to work will look like, with HarperCollins this week allowing staff to come into the office "for essential reasons" and Hachette and Simon & Schuster confirming a provisional return come September. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-09 22:45:56 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury has announced a number of promotions within its adult trade senior management team, under the direction of new editor-in-chief Paul Baggaley. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-07 23:12:28 UTC ]
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PHILOSOPHER GARY COX’S How to Be Good: or How to Be Moral and Virtuous in a Wicked World was recently released by Bloomsbury Academic. In the book, Cox explores the concept of goodness, how it is achievable, and how to decide what the right thing to do is. Moral philosophy is notoriously complex... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-06-06 12:30:45 UTC ]
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Frontline booksellers are the first people customers see when they set foot in bookstores across America, and are among the most vulnerable workers in the publishing industry. This is what their world looks like now. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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It’s never too early to learn that racism is wrong and we should be doing something about it. These books will help show our kids how, writes publisher and bookseller Aimée FeloneDo the work: Layla F Saad’s anti-racist reading list The weight of the world seems heavier than ever right now. The... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-04 07:00:00 UTC ]
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On the 1st of June, the day thousands of pupils returned to school as part of the government’s plan to end lockdown, I received a call from my manager. As a bookseller with Blackwell’s, I had been glad when we shut our doors in March to protect the health of our staff and customers. I imagined... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-04 02:42:56 UTC ]
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David Walliams and Tony Ross are releasing another collection of stories, The World's Worst Parents, with HarperCollins Children's Books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-03 23:12:15 UTC ]
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Pandemic Dispatches Elena Poniatowska In this column that originally appeared in La Jornada, Elena Poniatowska considers the role of editors and talks with Diego Rabasa, founder of publisher Sexto Piso. Already precarious, the pandemic lockdown has made... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-03 21:05:48 UTC ]
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Cultural Cross Sections Elena Poniatowska In this column that originally appeared in La Jornada, Elena Poniatowska considers the role of editors and talks with Diego Rabasa, founder of publisher Sexto Piso. Already precarious, the pandemic lockdown has... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-03 21:05:48 UTC ]
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Fitness guru Joe Wicks is leaving Bluebird for HarperCollins, signing a multi-book deal for adult lifestyle and children's titles with the publisher. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-03 00:41:19 UTC ]
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HarperCollins' director of growth and analytics Alvar Jover and its group digital director Joanna Surman have been appointed to join the publisher's UK executive committee. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-02 13:37:31 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury chief executive Nigel Newton has said the beginning of the pandemic had a severely negative impact on Bloomsbury's sales, but that overall the company had "transformed surprisingly well". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-02 01:56:06 UTC ]
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On June 1st, a group of book publishers—Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House, all member companies of the Association of American Publishers—filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Internet Archive, whose “National Emergency... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-01 17:48:23 UTC ]
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Alex Beecroft, formerly HarperCollins UK’s director of corporate development, has been appointed m.d. of Collins Learning. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-01 04:28:42 UTC ]
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