By Edward Nawotka Publishers around New York City may be indulging in a bit of schadenfreude this morning with the news that HarperStudio, the two year-old imprint founded by Bob Miller, is being shuttered. The news comes in the wake of Miller’s decision last month to leave Harper to become group publisher at Workman. HarperStudio generated an extraordinary — and …
A Year Without Work and I’ve Never Felt Better
By Erin L. Cox Yesterday, Larry Hughes, former HarperCollins USA publicist, published a post on his blog “Book Flack at Large” looking back at his year without work. While he does lament not having a “day job” that he loves, his list of personal achievements seems extraordinary and something of which to be quite proud. Next week marks my own one-year …
Global Trade Talk: Too Early for Christmas; Harper’s It Publisher, Moscow Loves Lectures
By Edward Nawotka The Target superstore near my house has already put its Halloween merchandise on sale and moved it to make room for…Christmas cards and holiday wreaths. This is the earliest I can ever remember a retailer pushing Christmas product. It’s dismaying, and I’m not alone in feeling so. Earlier this month, Innocent Madawo wrote in the Toronto Sun …
By Turning Authors into Speakers, Publishers Profit, Even in Recession
By Karen Holt NEW YORK: US publishers’ in-house speakers bureaus, essentially nonexistent just five years ago, are turning out to be surprisingly recession-resilient — one of the few upbeat notes in this overall gloomy time for the book industry. Publishers are splitting appearance fees of between $5,000 and $20,000 (sometimes more) with their authors, representing a welcome source of found …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: HarperCollins, S&S Profits Plunge
By Edward Nawotka Scary…HarperCollins, saw “profits at the worldwide business collapsed from $160m to $17m,” according to The Bookseller — nearly a 90% drop. Blame was laid on the collapse of distributors Anderson News in the US and Entertainment UK and Woolworths in the UK. Results for the UK publishing division were not broken out of the results, but in …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: Booker Long List, HC’s Digital Czar
By Edward Nawotka In the UK, the big news was the announcement of the Booker Prize Long List, which has now been dubbed the awkward sounding “Man Booker Dozen.” (There are 13 titles on the list, which of course purposefully makes this the Man Baker’s Dozen). On a list that features stalwarts such as A.S. Byatt and William Trevor, both …
Harper UK’s Lucy Vanderbilt on Chinese Opportunties
By Roger Tagholm LONDON & BEIJING: At a time when ‘flat’ is the new ‘up’ in the UK, publishers are eager, some might event say desperate, to find new markets – and as relatively untapped markets go, none comes bigger than China. HarperCollins has been quick to realise this and is already reaping the benefits. At last week’s British Book …