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 ]
Following the February 17 announcement by Penguin Random House parent company Bertelsmann that the conglomerate will be carbon neutral by 2030, PRH global CEO Markus Dohle sent a letter to employees outlining the publisher’s role in helping Bertelsmann achieve that target. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-18 05:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has bagged the sequel to Katherine Applegate’s novel The One and Only Ivan, soon to be a film from Walt Disney Studios. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-17 22:17:44 UTC ]
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Bertelsmann is aiming to be climate neutral by 2030, taking its share of responsibility in the battle against climate change and global warming. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-16 23:22:53 UTC ]
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SOCKS, REFRIGERATORS, PILLS, and potatoes. The Object Lessons series from Bloomsbury Publishing makes us consider the ordinary in new ways. These elegant, concise books take deep dives into things we might see every day but never really notice. In High Heel, for example, Summer Brennan writes... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-02-16 16:00:56 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Ireland, a new standalone publishing division, is being launched with Conor Nagle from Gill Books as its publisher. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-14 08:38:59 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury will publish A Table for Friends: The Art of Cooking for Two or Twenty, the second cookbook from Skye McAlpine. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-14 08:34:56 UTC ]
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The bookseller planned to promote classic novels with covers featuring people of color for Black History Month. Critics accused it of “literary blackface.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-02-05 23:31:49 UTC ]
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Today, Jeanine Cummins appeared at Winter Institute in Baltimore, and as Michael Calder reports for PubishersLunch, commented on the ongoing controversy over her new novel, American Dirt. Bookseller Javier Ramirez, who introduced Cummins, brought up the topic at the end of the formal interview:... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-22 18:16:31 UTC ]
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Canadian independent publisher (and bookstore!) Biblioasis has printed up a limited run of indie bookseller trading cards, featuring heroic comic book portraits of prominent booksellers. Why? Well, for starters, this week is the annual independent booksellers conference in Baltimore, the ABA’s... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-21 13:40:31 UTC ]
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International publishers are calling for a presidential pardon to free imprisoned Egyptian publisher and bookseller Khaled Lotfy. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-14 06:05:25 UTC ]
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An indie bookshop which was the official bookseller of the Barnes Children’s Literature Festival has been replaced by organisers in favour of Waterstones. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-14 03:02:58 UTC ]
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Author and screenwriter Sarah Alderson is moving from Hodder imprint Mulholland to HarperCollins imprint Avon in a two-book deal, starting with a "perfect summer thriller". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-13 10:19:13 UTC ]
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The Fourth Estate founder and former HarperCollins chief reveals plans for a June festival based around Evelyn Waugh’s iconic novel, and reflects on the evolution of the book business. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-12 12:31:36 UTC ]
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Rowan Yapp will join Bloomsbury as publishing director to run the cookery and illustrated non-fiction lists after more than a decade at Vintage. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-09 14:28:13 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Children’s Books has triumphed in an eight-publisher UK auction for début author Aisling Fowler’s Middle Grade magical adventure series Fireborn. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-09 01:49:54 UTC ]
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Some ideas from a seasoned bookseller on events to generate business in the slow month of January. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-01-08 13:00:11 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has wrapped up a deal for the "life-changing" freezer-filling cookbook from Shivi Ramoutar. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-08 12:50:12 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has scooped the début picture book from “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness about a gender non-binary guinea pig. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-08 06:46:35 UTC ]
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Avon has scooped two books from writer Debbie Howells, who was previously published by Pan Macmillan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-08 03:56:39 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury has pre-empted Lisa Harding’s second novel about a failed actress struggling with motherhood and addiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-07 02:13:45 UTC ]
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