Saturday, January 21, 2017

Trade News with Publishers Lunch


Nielsen has sold the BookScan service in the US only, along with the related services that comprise Nielsen Book in the US (including PubTrack Digital and the Books & Consumers surveys) to NPD Group, based in Port Washington, Long Island, for undisclosed terms. Those services will comprise the new NPD Book practice group, adding to the company's data services for over 20 industries.

Nielsen Book worldwide svp and managing director Jonathan Stolper will serve as president of NPD Book, and the new owner has offered employment to all of the US-based commercial Nielsen Book employees. As part of the sale, Nielsen will continue to provide operational support for the acquired services during a transition period in which the parties say "there will be no change of service."

At least for now, Nielsen continues to own and operate Nielsen BookScan and the related product lines in the UK (where the group also serves as the national ISBN registration agency) and 8 other countries around the world.

Meanwhile, our own related service, PM Bookscan, will also continue as usual, offering Bookscan data to literary agents, authors and other qualified independent book publishing professionals.

Bloomsbury announced that chairman Anthony Salz will step down from his position and exit the board at the annual meeting in July, with a successor to be named later. As of March 1, managing director of IOP Publishing Steven Hall will join the company's board and, as part of a regular rotation policy, Faber chief executive Stephen Page will leave the board after three years of service.

Forthcoming
Doubleday Children's has acquired an unfinished fairy tale by Mark Twain that author Philip Stead and illustrator Erin Stead have expanded into a 152-page illustrated "storybook for all ages." They will publish THE PURLOINING OF PRINCE OLEOMARGARINE on September 26 in an announced 250,000-copy first printing. The book is based on sixteen pages of handwritten notes by Twain, recorded after he told his daughters a story one night in 1879 while the family was staying in Paris. The notes were spotted by Twain scholar John Bird while conducting research at the Mark Twain Papers & Project at the University of California at Berkeley.

In other children's book announcements, Candlewick Press will publish two-time Newbery Award winner Kate DiCamillo's first picture book in almost 10 years, LA LA LA: A Story of Hope, illustrated by Jaime Kim, on the same day in September as the Twain adaptation. The "nearly wordless" book will "follow a lonely young girl as she journeys from one fantastical world to another, sharing her unique song in a poignant quest for friendship and connection."

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