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Nielsen To Buy Two R. R. Bowker Book Tracking Services
In a move that enhances its global print and e-book tracking and sales analysis capabilities, Nielsen is acquiring book data vendor R. R. Bowker’s Business Intelligence and Commerce Solutions product units.
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Graphic India, YouTube Debut Grant Morrison’s ‘18 Days’
YouTube and the transnational media company Graphic India are launching comics writer Grant Morrison’s motion comic, 18 Days, a science fiction and fantasy treatment based on the epic Eastern myth Mahabharata, the tale of a war between gods.
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House of Anansi, Other Press Bring Rising Danish Star to North America
Danish author Jonas T. Bengtsson has drawn critical acclaim, and hit myriad foreign bestseller lists. Now, House of Anansi Press and Other Press are primed to introduce the Danish author to North American readers.
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Agency Group Creates New Division
The Agency Group has created a new literary division, based in its London office.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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