04
NEWS NEWS / IN BRIEF
‘Roadblocks removed for Springer’ NEWS
BY LISA CAMPBELL
The integration of the component parts of Springer Nature is “almost done”, its c.e.o. Derk Haank has told The Bookseller Daily. The company was created by the merger of Springer Science+Business Media and the majority of Macmillan Science and Education in May 2015 by owners Holtzbrinck and BC Partners. “The reasons why we got
together have been vindicated and ascribed to by all the people in the management team . . . from my perspective it is done,” Haank said. “I don’t see any major roadblocks anymore, the rest is just execution. But I am not underestimating how much work needs to be done to execute all these things.” Haank revealed the company
Haank
hired an agency to investigate the different cultures of the two companies and work out the best way to combine them. “On the one hand, there are
many similarities because these two are global companies,” Haank said. “From that perspective we shouldn’t overdo the differences.
Having said that, there were quite a few cultural differences on how things were being done. What we do is the same, it’s the way that we do things that has changed.” Haank added that the point of the merger was not about cost savings or integration benefits, but even so, the company is forecast to reduce its cost base by 5% as part of the merger. In March, Annette Thomas, chief scientific officer, departed the company, which employs 13,000 people. When asked about redundancies resulting from the merger, Haank said: “Five per cent of the cost base is several hundred people in total. They have mainly been back-office staff in departments such as finance, but this has been done without any major reorganisation. People have come and gone in flows.”
Hey, good looking! Bluebird bags model duo VERSO BUYS MIÉVILLE
ON RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Pan Macmillan imprint Bluebird has announced a host of new acquisitions, including inking Jasmine Hemsley for two new books. Former model Hemsley runs wellness brand Hemsley + Hemsley with her sister Melissa; the duo’s two books for Ebury have earned £2.6m through BookScan UK. Her new books are East by West, inspired by her travels through India, and True You, a book to “nourish mind and body”, co-authored with Susie Pearl. Both are due in 2018, with world English rights secured by publisher Carole Tonkinson from Valeria Huerta of the Valeria Huerta Agency. Bluebird will also issue The Dirty Dishes, the first cookbook by chef-turned-model Isaac Carew (inset).
Science fiction and fantasy novelist China Miéville left is to make a rare foray into non-fiction to pen a “labour of love” history of the Russian Revolution for indie press Verso. Editor Sebastian Budgen bought world rights to October: The Story of the Russian Revolution through Mic Cheetham Associates. He said Miéville has “long been inspired by the ideals of the Russian Revolution” and would provide “his own distinctive take on its history”. The author is best known for his SFF fiction, which includes Perdido Street Station, The City & The City and Kraken.
21.10.16
www.thebookseller.com NEWS IN BRIEF
AS ONE DOORÉ OPENS . . .
Suzie Dooré, publishing director at HarperCollins imprint The Borough Press, has acquired world English- language rights to Swedish author Emmy Abrahamson’s How to Fall in Love with a Man Who Lives Under a Bush from Amanda Bértolo Alderin at Bonnier Rights. Inspired by how the author met the man who is her now her husband, the title will be released in January 2018. Dooré said: “Emmy’s voice shone through: her writing is fresh, irreverent, hilarious and compulsively readable.” HC will also publish in the US and Canada.
OCTOPUS HEADS EAST
Stephanie Jackson, Octopus publishing director, has acquired world rights to a début cookbook by chef Selin Kiazim. The deal was concluded with Zoe Ross at United Agents. Kiazim is the founder of Oklava, a contemporary Turkish-Cypriot restaurant located in Shoreditch, east London. Oklava: Recipes from a Turkish-Cypriot Kitchen will be released in May 2017.
KOLMAN TO LEAD IPA
Carew last week signed to appear on Channel Four’s “The Ultimate Shopping List” with Michel Roux Jr. Tonkinson acquired world English rights from Hellie Ogden at Janklow & Nesbit, to publish in May 2018. Other acquisitions include a book on parenting by Steve Biddulph and The Psychology of Money by Dan Ariely and Jeff Kreisler. Tonkinson acquired world rights to Biddulph’s title, which helps parents “access the wisdom inside us . . . and bring it to life in a practical way”, and will publish in 2018; she also secured UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in The Psychology of Money from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein,
acting for Levine Greenberg Rostan. HarperCollins will publish the title in the US.
Michiel Kolman, senior vice-president of global academic relations at Elsevier, will succeed Bloomsbury’s Richard Charkin as president of the International Publishers Association (IPA). Currently IPA vice-president, Kolman—who will take up the two- year position on 1st January 2017— said: “These are challenging and rapidly changing times in the world of publishing, but publishers have consistently shown themselves to be highly adaptable.” Five membership applications
were accepted by the body’s General Assembly during yesterday’s fair. Iraq, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Morocco and Senegal were admitted as provisional members; after a period of up to three years, the associations will be able to move from provisional to full membership status, and vote at the General Assembly. The quintet brings the number of IPA members to 64 publishers associations.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
