Wednesday, August 02, 2017

Publishers Lunch


Today's Meal


As first reported under consideration in April, Macmillan has now finalized a deal to relocate their offices to 120 Broadway in early 2019. Their lease in Flatiron Building was due to expire next year. The press release indicates Macmillan is taking four floors comprising 261,000 square feet of space for 20 years. They currently occupy about 176,00 square feet in the Flatiron for the trade division, but have offices elsewhere in city as well, primarily for the education group. The release says they will "relocate...from multiple locations" to the new space.

Chief operating officer Andrew Weber
says in the announcement, "The move will be great for our people and our planned growth, and the architectural heritage of 120 Broadway means we will be moving from one of New York City's great iconic buildings to another." (That's about 4 blocks south of HarperCollins' office building, which was recently occupied by Harry Abrams as well.)

Barbara Kline Pope will take over as director of the Johns Hopkins University Press this fall. She has been executive director of the National Academies Press since 1997, recently served as president of the Association of American University Presses, and has been on the management board at MIT Press. Previous director Kathleen Keane retired in April.

At Little, Brown, Ned Rust has been promoted to vice president and publisher for James Patterson, responsible for all aspects of the adult and children's publishing programs. Jenny Bak has been promoted to editorial director for the children's line, Jimmy Patterson Books.

Stephanie Buschardt has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as publicist. Most recently, she was a contributor for Kirkus.

Mary Ellen Owens has been promoted to senior production manager for Random House Children's, while Shameiza Ally has been promoted to associate production manager.

Hachette Book Group national accounts manager Hector Martinez died of cancer on July 27 . He held his position for the last four years, and previously worked at Random House, Simon & Schuster, Follett Educational Services, and Santillana USA. Sophie Cottrell, svp of corporate communications for HBG, says: "Hector was a dear friend and valued colleague. His customers and colleagues adored him, and Hector cherished the people who made work so much more than a job. We will all miss Hector's kindness, good humor, and steadfast friendship."

Macmillan Learning CEO Ken Michaels will receive the Book Industry Study Group's Distinguished Service Award at their annual meeting in September. (He had been chair of BISG's board.)

At Fabled Films Press, Nicole Wheeler has been promoted to brand marketing and sales manager, while Gisselle Guillen joined as publicity and marketing manager. Previously, Guillen was public relations account manager for Rachel Litner Associates.

Distribution
IPG will distribute Quarto's new Spanish language imprint Quarto Iberoamericana, launching in October, in the US and Canada, and Editorial Gustavo Gili de Mexico will distribute in Mexico.

Funding
After
rebrandifying themselves from Lost My Name to Wonderbly, the UK-based custom publisher announced the closing of a Series B funding round of $8.5 million, led by European puzzle and children's book publisher Ravensburger. Previous investors also participated, and the company has also lined up a venture debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank.

The company has now raised at least $21.5 million in venture capital, which sets a high bar of expectations. According to the
most recent Companies House filing, in the year ending April 2016 they had sales of £19.4 million in the fiscal year ending April 2016, with an operating loss of £2.577 million. Wonderbly says they have sold over 2.7 million books worldwide so far. (Even before the latest round of funding, that's about $4.80 of venture capital per copy.)

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