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 will no longer publish books by the historian and is reviewing his backlist after he said ‘slavery was not genocide’HarperCollins has dropped David Starkey as an author, saying that the racist views the bestselling historian expressed in a recent interview were “abhorrent”.On... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-07-03 11:40:12 UTC ]
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The Bookseller would like to capture the trade’s thoughts on social media and, in particular, "cancel culture" and its impacts on UK publishing, bookselling and writing. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-01 19:32:20 UTC ]
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HarperCollins is releasing an unabridged audiobook of J R R Tolkien's The Hobbit, read by Andy Serkis who starred as Gollum in the blockbuster movies. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-01 17:52:05 UTC ]
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Pan Macmillan has been named Publisher of the Year, while Waterstones has claimed Book Retailer of the Year, at the British Book Awards 2020. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-29 14:20:04 UTC ]
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A “marginalized people’s history of labor in the U.S.” goes to One Signal for six figures, HarperCollins takes on a book about Prince Harry and Prince William, Willie Nelson and his sister sell a memoir to Random House, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Just one week remains until the Bookseller Marketing & Publicity Conference 2020, themed How We Work Now and tackling the challenges presented by our post-Covid world. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-26 00:05:47 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has triumphed in a heated six-publisher auction for the debut novel by Nita Prose, the pen name for vice president and editorial director at Simon & Schuster in Canada, Nita Pronovost. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-25 11:27:10 UTC ]
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I have always had an interesting relationship with books as a result of my dyslexia. As a child I hated reading and it was not until I was fifteen that I started to enjoy it. I decided I wanted to work in publishing, which felt like a pipe dream for several years. So, when I got my job at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-24 06:28:10 UTC ]
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This week, Louise Candlish is publishing her latest novel The Other Passenger, the first title in her latest two-book deal with Simon & Schuster UK. She spoke to The Bookseller on Twitter about her new book, her influences and her past successes. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-23 00:11:29 UTC ]
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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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