Agency Group Creates New Division

The Agency Group has created a new literary division, based in its London office.

Bertelsmann Takes Full Ownership of Random House Mondadori

A week after announcing that it was forming a joint venture with Pearson to create Penguin Random House, Bertelsmann said this morning that it has agreed to acquire the 50% stake in the Spanish-language publisher Random House Mondadori that had been held by its Italian partner. The purchase is expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Employees to Buy European Publisher VBK

The management and staff of Veen Bosch & Keuning Publishing Group, a major publisher of trade books in the Netherlands and Belgium, will take over ownership of the company November 1.

Flammarion Sale Approved

The French commission on competition in publishing has given its approval for the sale of the French publisher Flammarion to the Gallimard group Madrigall.

Trajectory, De Gruyter, Commercial Press Ink Deals at Beijing Fair

As the Beijing International Book Fair kicks off, U.S. digital publisher Trajectory, Berlin academic house De Gruyter and Chinese publisher Commercial Press separately announced new deals.

Little, Brown Pays Seven Figures for Debut Novel By Aussie Author

The one sale that's invigorated the publishing industry during an otherwise sleepy summer is the major buy Little, Brown just made for Australian novelist Hannah Kent's Burial Rites.

De Gruyter Completes Birkhäuser Purchase

The Berlin-based academic publisher De Gruyter has completed its purchase of the Swiss-based German-language Birkhäuser. Alongside the acquisition of Birkhäuser's architecture and design publishing division, the acquisition includes the Birkhäuser brand name, which is includes a range of STM publications.

Germany's Weltbild for Sale

After weeks of controversy over the revelation that it was selling “soft porn,” the German publishing and bookselling powerhouse Weltbild has been put up for sale by 18 dioceses of the Catholic Church that own the company.

Bonnier and Sonoma in European Acquistion Deal

As reported in the European publishing press, Finnish publishing house Bonnier Books has acquired WSOY, Finland’s largest general trade book publisher, from Sonoma, strengthening Bonnier’s general publishing list in Finland. As part of the acquisition, Sonoma has acquired Bonnier Learning in Sweden and Tammi Learning from Bonnier. The deal allows both publishers to focus on their core business areas.

Agents Keeping Foreign Publishers on Digital Leash

As the London Book Fair goes through its annual run this week, American agents are trying to figure out the best way to sell digital rights to foreign publishers in markets that are far behind the U.S. in e-book sales. Even though many international publishers are just starting to dabble in producing e-books, almost all recognize that digital books are the future and that, in a few years, their local market will look more like the current one in America, where e-books are accounting for as much as 8% of revenue among the major houses. For this reason, most American agents are including digital rights in their foreign deals, but not without caveats.

PubMatch, The International Rights Service, Inks Deal with Lee's Literary Agency

PubMatch, the book publishing portal and rights database jointly owned by Publishers Weekly and Combined Book Exhibit, has joined forces Lee’s Literary Agency in the first step to expand the service. The agreement position the site to dramatically increase its global membership and become the leading Web site for multilingual rights information around the world.

AbeBooks Buys German Company

AbeBooks Europe GmbH, the German subsidiary of the Amazon-owned Abebooks, has reached an agreement with Mediantis AG to acquire the assets of the ZVAB.com business, the online marketplace of German rare antiquarian books with over 3,000 professional antiquarians in 27 countries that offers customers an inventory of over 35 million used, antiquarian and out-of-print books in many languages.

Kodansha, Dai Nippon Acquire Vertical Inc.

Japanese publishing giant Kodansha Ltd. has joined with Japanese printing giant Dai Nippon Printing to acquire Vertical Inc., a Tokyo- and New York City-based publisher of contemporary Japanese prose fiction and nonfiction and classic manga in translation.

S&S Signs Up New YA Trilogy by Tonya Hurley

Simon & Schuster has acquired U.S. and audio rights to The Blessed, a trilogy by Tonya Hurley, author of ghostgirl and its two sequels. The trilogy—a contemporary, supernatural romance that is a reimagining of the martyrdom legends of three saints—will be edited by executive editor Zareen Jaffery; the inaugural novel will be published in July 2012.

Center Street Signs Rand Paul Book

Hachette's Center Street imprint has signed Rand Paul's The Tea Party Goes to Washington. The Kentucky senator-elect, and controversial Tea Party-er, is planning to crash the book so it publishes in February 2011, just as he starts his first term in office.

RH in Unique Multi-Language Deal for New Rushdie

In what it's claiming is a first, in scale and scope, Random House has closed its most significant multi-language deal for a single title by acquiring the rights to publish the latest Salman Rushdie book in every territory where it has a subsidiary. Through the deal, RH will publish the title in English, German, and Spanish. RH described the acquisition as its "most far-reaching multi-national" to date, and bought rights to the work in all formats--hardcover, paperback, audio, and e-book.

Deals: Week of 10/18/10

Frankfurt 2010: Rights Deals: 10/7/10

Quercus has acquired WEL rights in the latest novel by Frank Schaetzing, author of The Swarm, a book-of-the-fair a few years back. The new novel is LIMIT, published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in Germany and now sold in 17 countries. The deal was concluded via Tanja Howarth, representing K&W.

Perseus Expands Constellation Overseas

Starting December 1, the Perseus Books Group will expand its Constellation service internationally and in the process allow customers in foreign countries to buy copies of U.S. titles in e-book or print-on-demand formats in territories where a publisher has English-language rights.