BEA‘s back and Blackberrys are buzzing as everyone gears up for yet another three-day extravaganza chock full of authors, agents, air kisses and an international invasion. To help you get quadruple booked in all the right ways, Publishing Trends checked in with a number of show veterans and got the low down on this year’s…Continue Reading
Gift Cards Break Boundaries and Emerge as the New Consumer Currency of Choice This summer, when the sweltering (remember?) sun drives you into Key Food for a sixpack, stop by the CoinStar on your way out, pop in your pennies and watch the new Harry Potter pop out. The little green machine recently announced that…Continue Reading
PEOPLE The latest changes under PW’s new management include the departures of Jeff Zaleski, John Mutter, and two other staffers. This follows the arrival of Karen Holt as Deputy Editor mid-month. Ivan Held has been named President of Putnam. Held, who was most recently VP Associate Publisher of Warner Books, will begin his new position…Continue Reading
History and Hysteria : Vampire Invade europe, Japan’s Humbert Humbert, French Firefighters Go Macho Just as it seemed the somnolent retail toy market was perking up, with strong late-December sales and words like “optimistic” floating through the press, this year’s lackluster Toy Fair served as a reminder that it’s going to take more than a…Continue Reading
People The beginning of a new year seems to have prompted some early spring cleaning, with an unusual number of moves around the industry. The one that got the most attention was Sara Nelson’s move to PW as its new Editor-in-Chief, replacing Nora Rawlinson, who may be reached at norar@nyc.rr.com. Lee Boudreaux has left Random…Continue Reading
People The West Coast is in the news: Kirsty Melville, previously Publisher of Ten Speed Press, has become Publisher of the new book division of University Games. The new Publisher of Ten Speed is Lorena Jones. … Kevan Lyon, EVP for Wholesale Merchandising/Distribution (including PGW) at AMS, has left the company. Her duties were being…Continue Reading
Never known for its glamor, the permissions department has been getting a facelift and slowly gaining status as the legitimate, income-generating department it has always been. Its doing its fair share to boost the collective, otherwise sagging coffers of rights departments that have been hit by the retrenchment and subsequent mergers of book clubs as…Continue Reading
Used Books Become Newer Every Day, To Many Publishers’ Dismay Days before Bill Clinton’s My Life went on sale last month, a handful of shrewd and Internet-savvy book buyers were auctioning off their copies of this “rare” edition on eBay – and promising to ship the book the day it hit store shelves. That number…Continue Reading
Book View People May was another busy month for publishers’ human resource directors: Michael Jacobs has gone to Abrams as CEO. He was most recently SVP of Scholastic’s trade division. In addition, Ron Longe has been named Director of Publicity for STC, also part of the Martinière Group. He was most recently at Routledge. Michael…Continue Reading
It’s just possible that vanity presses — or print-on-demand subsidy publishers, as most prefer to be called — may be improving their reputations and, in some cases, even gaining respect among traditional publishers. Not only is the list of self-published books that have been picked up by traditional houses growing, but the vanity presses are…Continue Reading
