Publishing

Bloomsbury Publishing has acquired Fairchild Books.

This New York-based publisher specializes in textbooks and educational resources on visual arts-related topics such as fashion, merchandising, retailing and interior design. Kathryn Earle will serve as the head of Fairchild Books while Jonathan Glasspool will serve as the managing director.

Here’s more from the release: “Through its Berg imprint, Bloomsbury has been ex-North American distributor for Fairchild Books since 2006. Growth has been particularly strong in the Indian market, where Bloomsbury has recently announced it is setting up a new subsidiary company. With this acquisition, Bloomsbury will significantly expand its US presence and raise its profile through an association with a leading brand in a market niche where it is already well established.”

Novelist and publishing executive Ben Schrank has mastered the art of compartmentalizing his life.

During business hours, he is the publisher of Penguin Young Readers Group Razorbill imprint, but he has maintained a writing life as well. Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish his adult novel (Love Is a Canoe) in February.

We caught up with him to ask about how he manages to juggle these two different roles.

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Someone mailed more than eleven pounds of marijuana to Macmillan’s St. Martin’s Press offices. The Smoking Gun broke the story today.

Bound for an apparently fictitious employee named Karen Wright, the shipments had a potential street value of $70,000. We performed a few Google Books searches, but couldn’t find any clever literary allusions hidden in the fake employee’s name.  Now everybody wants to know–who is Karen Wright? The story has also spawned a #PotLit hashtag on Twitter.

Check it out: “Both packages were addressed to ‘Karen Wright,’ which appears to be a fictitious name. A company phone operator said that nobody by that name works at the company, which is one of the country’s largest publishers” (Via Michael Cairns)

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Will the success of Fifty Shades of Grey inspire more fan fiction writers to convert their work into straight fiction?

This GalleyCat editor wrote an essay for NPR exploring the Twilight fan fiction roots of Fifty Shades of Grey, E L James‘ erotica novel that just hit the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback best seller list this week.

Last year, veteran Amazon reviewer Amanda Ryan gave Fifty Shades of Grey her highest rating, calling it “Twilight XXX.” She acknowledged the fan fiction origins: “I really loved this story. I found myself drawing comparisons to Twilight a few chapters in–really, it’s impossible not to. It’s set in Washington state, our hero and heroine are mirror images to Bella and Edward, and the intense emotional and physical attraction to one another is remarkably similar.”

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Encyclopaedia Britannica has decided to stop publishing its print edition after 244 years. The digital edition will continue, and the publisher is offering free access to the subscription service for the next week.

Saddened, surprised or not surprised, GalleyCat readers shared their favorite encyclopedia memories yesterday. What do you remember about reading those sturdy hardcover reference tools as a kid?

Christina Dudley ‏ fondly remembered the day she was “reading in a vintage World Book Encyclopedia that ‘no one knows if there is life on Mars.’” Joan Weiner Levin ‏ recalled: “Anyone remember the ‘frog’ entry in World Book Encyclopedia? Acetate overlays showed frog’s insides.”

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After printing the hardback reference guide for 244 years, Encyclopaedia Britannica will stop publishing its 32-volume print edition.

The digital edition will continue, and the publisher is offering free access to the subscription service for the next week. President Jorge Cauz wrote a message for customers:

I understand that for some the end of the Britannica print set may be perceived as an unwelcomed goodbye to a dear, reliable, and trustworthy friend that brought them the joy of discovery in the quest for knowledge. I would like to take this opportunity to share with them a different perspective, one shared by all of us at Encyclopaedia Britannica and by the more than 100 million students and knowledge seekers who have access to www.britannica.com, our educational sites, or our apps. By concentrating our efforts on our digital properties, we can continuously update our content and further expand the number of topics and the depth with which they are treated without the space constraints of the print set.

Publisher John Wiley & Sons has hired Allen & Company “to explore the sale” of some of its most recognizable assets.

The release explained: “The assets are in travel (including the well-known Frommer’s brand), culinary, general interest, nautical, pets, crafts, Webster’s New World, and CliffsNotes.” According to the publisher, these units generated combined revenues of $85 million last fiscal year.

Wiley CEO Stephen M. Smith explained the shift in direction: “Wiley will re-deploy resources in its Professional/Trade business to build on its global market-leading positions in business, finance, accounting, leadership, technology, architecture, psychology, education, and through the For Dummies brand.” (Via Sarah Weinman)

Faber & Faber, the storied publisher that published T.S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, James Joyce, Tom Stoppard and Sylvia Plath, now offers online writing creative courses.

The publisher launched Faber Academy Online, a 28-week course that costs £2800 (about $4,400). The publisher first offered writing courses in 2008. What do you think–should publishers offer creative writing classes?

Here’s more from the release: “Chatrooms, topic forums and specially commissioned video content from Faber editors will be combined with one-to-one Skype feedback and podcasts to create a unique learning experience … The first offering to run on the new platform will be Writing A Novel, a 28-week programme based on the face-to-face course of the same name that has already brought huge success for the writers S. J. Watson and Rachel Joyce.”

Former Mediabistro editorial director Rebecca Wright has joined Bookish as executive editor.

Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group (USA) and Simon & Schuster partnered with AOL Huffington Post Media Group to develop the new website dedicated to book discovery. The project has not officially launched yet.

In her new post, Wright will spearhead editorial content that helps users discover new books. Previously, Wright had served as director of editorial development & operations at The Daily Beast.

According to a new survey by Digital Book World and Forrester Research, almost two-thirds of publishers plan to increase their investment in acquiring reader data.

The poll also found that almost 71 percent of publishers agreed with the statement, “To be successful, the publisher of the future must have a database of individual customers it can have a relationship with and even contact directly.’”

The survey polled publishers who represented 74 percent of U.S. publishing revenues in 2011. Digital Book World has more: “Many publishers already have customer information. Only 13% of those surveyed said they had not collected any customer emails and only a quarter had no idea where their readers lived.”

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