Dec 18 2008
NYTimes has more details on the Random House restructuring. Susan Kamil will be the editor in chief of the Random House imprint that now houses both Ballantine and Bantam. There have been a number of layoffs at Doubleday which was swept into Knopf and Broadway which is part of Crown. It doesn't look like the layoffs(…)
Dec 8 2008
Random House is partnering with Stanza to offer free backlist titles from prominent Random House authors such as Charlie Huston, Simon Rich, and Julie Garwood. Right now there are 9 titles that are available in full length and for free via your Stanza application. Very very cool. Send to Kindle
Nov 20 2008
Celebs are getting paid million dollar advances on books that will likely never sell out their advance, but Random House has decided to freeze the pensions of current employees and totally eliminate pension for future hires. The current employees' pensions will no longer grow, however, the existing 401K matching plan of up to 6 percent(…)
Sep 5 2008
There’s some strange goings-on at Random House. First, it canceled the publication of the Jewel of Medina on the grounds that it would stir up some terrorist action. After sending out advance editions of the novel THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, we received in response, from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the(…)
Jul 2 2008
We had such a nice response to Anne Sowards’ post about the books she was editing in 2008 that I thought I would seek out some additional editors that we might not ordinarily think about. Betsy Mitchell is Vice President, Editor-in-Chief of Del Rey Books, a division of Random House publishing. Ms. Mitchell had the(…)
Jun 19 2008
Random House employed Zogby International to do a survey of over 8000 readers. Only 15% of the readership seems interested in ebooks which is good for the brick and mortar retailers. Other interesting tidbits: Most readers buy by the cover (no surprise). Nearly half of readers shop at independents. 66% percent of online purchasers buy(…)
May 5 2008
Peter W. Olson has run Random House since 1998 but will be stepping down in the next couple of weeks due to lowered profits and “steep losses in its American book clubs.” I have no idea what effect that will have on Bantam/Dell or Ballantine, but I’ve always found those houses to offer great promotional(…)
Feb 28 2008
Maybe Oprah inspired the industry or maybe Cory Doctorow and Baen Publishing’s long maintained message is finally breaking through, but the free keeps piling up. This time its Random House who is giving away Beautiful Children, a New York Times bestseller. You don’t even have to give your name or email address away. Just click(…)
Jan 21 2008
Random House Children’s Book is releasing the third Christopher Paolini book, Brisingr on 12:01 am, Saturday, September 20. The first printing will be 2.5 million copies. The change was brought about due to booksellers desiring to have a Harry Potter-esque release party. Via Publisher’s Weekly. Send to Kindle
Nov 5 2007
A class action lawsuit was brought on behalf of the readers who purchased James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces. A settlement has been approved reimbursing readers who bought the book before it was revealed that the memoir was fictionalized. Only 1729 purchasers have availed themselves of the refund opportunity. Random House has reserved $2.35 million(…)
Apr 8 2007
The e-backlist has been a long time in coming. Readers, particularly romance readers, are big glommers and they often are searching for the one book their reading buddy says is a must find. Unfortunately, these books are often difficult to find and very expensive. Publishers are being more responsive by making backlist titles easily available(…)
Mar 22 2007
First Penguin, the Simon & Schuster, and now Random House posts positive marks for growth in 2006. Worldwide revenues rose 6.5% to $2.59B according to Publishers’ Weekly. This is despite the $43.3 million that Random House was owed by AMS. CEO Peter Olson pegged growth in the North American (all divisions with Crown and Knopf(…)
Mar 5 2007
Virgin Books whose catalog includes the racy Black Lace and Cheek Imprints has sold 90% of its ownership interest to Random House UK. For an undisclosed amount of cash, Random House obtains the rights to the Virgin name for all books worldwide (including audio and ebooks) and five titles penned by Richard Branson. Via Publisher’s(…)
Feb 27 2007
Yesterday, HarperCollins rolled out its “Browse Inside” feature that will eventually be available for all its books and could be embedded in blogs and websites. Not to be outdone, Random House debuted its “Browse and Search” widget. I like the Random House Widget better as it is just the cover and gives you the option(…)
Jan 28 2007
In 2004, Google announced its plan to scan every book printed. They began working with university libraries such as Harvard, University of Michigan, and Oxford. This caused the publishing industry some great consternation because an author’s work would be included automatically unless the author chose to opt out. Problem was that Google never alerted the(…)
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