Penguin

Weekly Dose Of Cute - Ticklish Penguins, Reverse Psychology & The Dark Side - Posted April 18, 2011
It's not just another a manic Monday--it's also tax day! So if you've still got work to do on your taxes you are probably doubly in need of a little extra something to cheer you up. Luckily we've got you covered with our Weekly Dose Of Cute. This... [SocialTimes.com]

Publishing in China: Beijing Book Fair Leftovers - Posted September 4, 2007
The Beijing Book Fair - the world's fourth-largest after Frankfurt, London and BEA - just wrapped up yesterday and here are some notable highlights: Penguin gets big money for Victoria Beckham's new style book from a Chinese publisher.[... [GalleyCat]

Penguin UK Goes Retro with Covers - Posted August 24, 2007
Penguin is reissuing 36 recent bestsellers in the classic Penguin paperback look to mark its Publisher of the Year win at the British Book Awards, according to the Bookseller's Alison Flood. Its initial print run for the series totals 815,000 copies. The "Penguin Celebrations" titles, ranging from Pat Barker's REGENERATION to... [GalleyCat]

Pearson Sales Downgraded - Posted August 24, 2007
Forbes reports that shares in Pearson Group, parent company of Penguin, plummeted to an early low of 734 pence ($14.60) in London Wednesday morning, after Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to "Hold" from "Buy," cutting its price target on the stock to 915 pence ($18.20) from 930 pence ($18.50). By market... [GalleyCat]

Sluggish Dollar Affects Penguin Results - Posted July 30, 2007
Pearson, parent company of Penguin, has reported its 2007 interim results. Its education unit increased sales by 7% and moved into first-half profit of 5m pounds, while Penguin revenues were up 1% with profits 11% higher. "Our half-year results are always just a hint of our potential for the year,... [GalleyCat]

Penguin UK Jumps on BzzAgent Bandwagon - Posted July 26, 2007
The Bookseller reports on Penguin's marketing plans for Elizabeth Buchan's new novel THE SECOND WIFE, which includes marketing agency BzzAgent's deployment of 1000 shills ordinary people to help buzz the book. The 1,000-strong group are encouraged ... [GalleyCat]

Dorothy Parker Anthology Lawsuit Trial Begins - Posted July 17, 2007
The NYT's Motoko Rich gives an overview of LA-based lawyer Stuart Silverstein's ongoing, long-running lawsuit against Penguin for using Silverstein's book NOT MUCH FUN: THE LOST POEMS OF DOROTHY PARKER as an uncredited source for their own anthology. The issue in questio... [GalleyCat]

Faulks Confirmed as Author of Centenary Bond Novel - Posted July 11, 2007
Score one for MI6, who correctly predicted that Sebastian Faulks, most recently the author of ENGELBY, is the newest author aboard the James Bondenterprise. DEVIL MAY CARE is scheduled to be published on May 28, 2008 - just i... [GalleyCat]

Borders Gets In On the Mobile Game - Posted July 10, 2007
Borders is set to work with top book publishers including Penguin, Random House, HarperCollins and Bloomsbury to deliver the first chapters of forthcoming books from authors on mobile, according to NMA. The plan is to offer consumers the opportunity to read up to 30 samplers for free every month. The chapters... [GalleyCat]

Gibson To Take Second Life Plunge - Posted July 9, 2007
With SPOOK COUNTRY due for publication next month, William Gibson's UK publishers are trying new marketing devices to get the book noticed. And one of them, according to the Penguin Books blog, is to bring Gibson to Second Life - a world he could have easily pr... [GalleyCat]

Could Pearson WSJ Bid Break up Company? - Posted June 20, 2007
That's the hypothesis the Independent's Stephen Foley puts forward in reporting about the bid to buy the Wall Street Journal by Pearson (parent company of Penguin.) For Dame Marjorie Scardino, the chief executive who once said that the Financial Times would be sold "over my dead body", failing to make a... [GalleyCat]

Pearson to Bid for Dow Jones? - Posted June 18, 2007
The Telegraph reports that the parent company of Penguin and the Financial Times put in a bid for the Wall Street Journal-owning company late Friday night as "a desperate attempt to scupper the creation of a powerful international rival," say analysts. "There is some logic to a bid. Pearson wouldn't want... [GalleyCat]

Pearson Gets Critical Analysis - Posted June 8, 2007
The Times' Dan Sabbagh looks at the performance of educational publisher Pearson (parent company of Penguin) and its CEO, Dame Marjorie Scardino, over the last ten years, and wonders if it's "unreasonable to ask whether it is time for Dame Marjorie to adopt a different strategy." Especially because even though the... [GalleyCat]

Publishers Get Into the Speakers' Bureau Game - Posted June 4, 2007
At the New York Times, Celia McGee highlights the growing number of publishers who have set up separate speakers' bureaus for select authors. In the last two years, several major publishing houses have set up speakers bureaus. HarperCollins was the first, in May 2005, followed b... [GalleyCat]

Free Book Scammer on the Loose - Posted May 11, 2007
The Bookseller reports on an enterprising book collector who has been scamming publishers of free books for well over a decade. Peter Oosterbos, who also calls himself Fred, has approached Dutch publishers for over 15 years, claiming to be the book reviews editor for the non-existent Furore Magazine. Oosterbos, who communicates... [GalleyCat]

War Over War and Peace - Posted May 7, 2007
What to do when there are two competing versions of a classic novel, one that purports to be the "original" and one that call itself "Tolstoy's intended version" or whatnot? If one is 1400 pages and one only 900, which one do you buy? Is it like getting a bare bones... [GalleyCat]

The Nibbies, Publishing Edition - Posted May 2, 2007
The British Book Trade Awards announced their winners in Harrogate last night. There are a lot of them, so the highlights include Penguin winning Publisher of the Year, The Friday Project's Clare Christian as Young Publisher of the Year, Quercus getting the Small Press nod and Clare Alexander anointed as Literary... [GalleyCat]

Penguin Going to Court on Plagiarism Charges - Posted March 30, 2007
The long and grinding wheels of justice are finally about to find fruition in court, as literary editor Sam Leith reports on his blog for the Daily Telegraph. Back in 1994, Stu Silverstein decided to put together a miscellany of Dorothy Parker... [GalleyCat]

Getting a Publishing Job Almost as Difficult as Getting Published - Posted March 29, 2007
So reports the BBC on the current state of the publishing industry's employment climate, especially with regards to minority hires. Minority groups have typically been under-represented in the industry - a situation demonstrated by a 2004 survey commissioned by the Arts Council which found nearly half of those in the profession... [GalleyCat]

More on Waterstone's Woes - Posted March 14, 2007
The rumors are true: the Guardian reports that <strong>HMV is planning to close up to 30 of its Waterstone's book shops, give more space to higher margin items and reduce the number of high brow books, as part of an overhaul to restore the fortunes of the struggling business. Details of... [GalleyCat]

Nick Hornby Writes for Teens - Posted March 13, 2007
PW Daily reported yesterday that Nick Hornby is writing his first young adult novel, for his longtime publisher Penguin. Slam, about a boy who survives a teenage crush by hashing out the pangs of love with his idol Tony Hawk (or at least a one-dimensional version of the star, via a... [GalleyCat]

The Teen-ification of Jane Austen - Posted February 5, 2007
Though Jane Austen was all over the book, film and TV world? Then wait till 2007, when no fewer than six forthcoming films and television series, along with plans for new editions of her works, tailored to the teenage market, arrive on the scene. The Telegraph reports on the newest form... [GalleyCat]

Dream Eaters Gets the Flash Mob Treatment - Posted January 25, 2007
Though Gordon Dahlquist's debut THE GLASS BOOKS OF THE DREAM EATERS didn't fare particularly well in the US, the opposite looks to be true in the UK, especially after a successful campaign of publishing the book in serial format. Now Penguin, the book's UK publisher, came up with a twist on... [GalleyCat]

A Volatile Time in UK Publishing - Posted January 23, 2007
The Independent's Saeed Shah analyzes the recent report by Pearson (parent company of Penguin) that their profits will be at its highest in years, leading to a five-year-high in stock prices. But even though rumors still swirl that a private equity company could swoop in and buy the company outright -... [GalleyCat]

Strong Profits for Pearson - Posted January 22, 2007
Pearson provided its ts regular January trading update today, stating that they continued to perform strongly through the fourth quarter of 2006. Pearson Education sustained its good revenue momentum and achieved further margin improvement, ahead of expectations, as we benefited from our investments in educational testing and technology. The Financial Times... [GalleyCat]

Speculation of Pearson Private Equity Buyout - Posted January 18, 2007
The Scotsman reports that shares in Pearson (parent company of Penguin and the Financial Times) jumped more than 4 percent on Wednesday to their highest price since mid-2002 in hefty volume amid speculation over a private-equity buyout for the world's largest educational publisher. Details of a report in the weekly The... [GalleyCat]

The Branding of Marian Keyes - Posted January 17, 2007
Marian Keyes is one of the UK's top selling proponents of chick lit, so no wonder her publisher, Penguin, has teamed up with Viacom Brand Solutions to sponsor a weekend of programming, called "The Funny Side of Love", on its Paramount and E! channels to coincide with the paperback launch of... [GalleyCat]

Big Changes at Hudson Street Press - Posted January 5, 2007
After founding Hudson Street Press, a Penguin imprint that operates as part of Viking, Laureen Rowland is moving on. In a statement released earlier this morning, Viking publisher Clare Ferraro announced that Rowland - whose resignation is attributed to a family move to New England, following her husband's job relocation, according... [GalleyCat]