The private equity fund owners of Houghton Mifflin are close to an
agreement to sell the company to Riverdeep Group, the Irish educational
software company that, as today's Wall Street Journal put it, "has
aggressively bought software companies that serve schools in the U.S.
and internationally."
The deal is worth about $1.7 billion plus the assumption of another
$1.7 billion in debt. The owners--Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital
and the Blackstone Group--bought Houghton Mifflin from Vivendi in 2002
for $615 million and $1 billion in assumed debt. Besides money from the
deal, during their ownership the private equity companies have paid
themselves dividends and other payments of about $435 million, the
Journal said.
Hougton Mifflin is the country's fourth-largest textbook publisher and
had net sales of $1.28 billion, 90% of which were from educational
materials.
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William Diehl, who wrote such thrillers as Sharky's Machine, Primal Fear, Thai Horse and Eureka, died on Friday in Atlanta, Ga., of an aortal aneurysm. He was 81.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
has an extensive and touching obituary, which retells the wonderful
story of how Diehl began his career as an author. At age 50, he was
bored while serving on a jury and started writing fiction on a
notepad--which led to Sharky's Machine, his first novel.
At his death, Diehl was finishing a 10th novel, which should be published next year.
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BISAC, the Book Industry Study Group's standards committee, has
approved revised specifications for the placement of the bar code on
the inside front cover of strippable mass market paperbacks that will
make readings of the bar code by automatic sortation equipment more
accurate. The sorters are used by booksellers, wholesalers and
distributors to count stripped covers and group them by vendor. The key
elements of the new specifications: the dimensions are important and
clearance from the front edge is especially critical.
Now that we've gotten you excited, go to BISG's Web site or contact the Book Industry Study Group at info@bisg.org for more information.
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On Cyber Monday, the No. 1 fiction title at Barnes&Noble.com was James Patterson's Cross, and the No. 1 nonfiction title was Senator Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope.
Books most ordered in advance were Michael Crichton's Next and Dean Koontz's Brother Odd. Both books are now out.
B&N.com promoted Cyber Monday with a free travel bag with a $75
purchase, discounts as high as 50% on some DVDs and a "buy two, get one
free" on special collection books.
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This coming Saturday and Sunday, December 2-3, the annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair takes place at the Small Press Center, 20 W. 44th St. in New York City. The fair is free and features some 150 independent presses as well as a full schedule of literary, publishing and cultural events.
Among events are an interview with Michael Cunningham, author of Specimen Days and The Hours; a conversation with Mark Crispin Miller, co-author of Screwed, and Greg Palast, author of Armed Madhouse, about the 2004 election in Ohio; a panel by PEN American Center; and a discussion with poets Anne Waldmann and Eileen Myles. For more information, check out smallpress.org.
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Indigo
Books & Music, Canada's largest bookseller, and iUniverse, the
self-publishing service, are setting up a program whereby some authors
using iUniverse will be able to, as the companies put it, "fulfill
their dream--prominent placement of their books in a Chapters, Indigo
or Coles store."
The titles selected will have to have the iUniverse Publisher's Choice
designation, which means they will have met standards "established by
iUniverse that are in line with the editorial and cover design demands
of today's competitive marketplace." The titles will be featured in a
high-traffic area of a Chapters, Indigo or Coles store for at least 60
days or longer if the book continues to sell.
In a statement, Joel Silver, senior v-p of print procurement for
Indigo, said, "As Canada's leading bookstore chain, we want to support
the best of home-grown talent and help outstanding new authors get
discovered. By displaying their self-published books on our shelves, we
can help increase awareness of their work to millions of booklovers in
Canada who shop with us each week."
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Two rep groups, R&R Book Co. and Proe & Proe Associates, have merged to form the Empire Group, according to NAIPR's Call Report. Proe & Proe's strength in independents and R&R's strength in national accounts were a key reason for the merger. Covering a territory that includes the mid-Atlantic and New England, Empire Group is composed of Richard Re, Tony Proe, Jayne Martin, Ruth Hook, Ken Avery, Scott Wythe, Tricia DeFelice, Deborah A. Louise (special markets) and Lisa Balogh (office manager). Back office services and special sales will be located in Syracuse, N.Y., the current Proe & Proe office. Dick Ryen has retired from R&R.