Locus, August 2014
Page 5
Best Three-Dimensional Art: Devon Dorrity for ‘‘Cecaelia, Queen of the Ocean’’ (clay); Thomas Kuebler for ‘‘Krampus the Yule Lord’’ (mixed); David Meng for ‘‘Leatherback’’ (resin); Michael Parkes for ‘‘Goddess of the Hunt’’ (bronze); Forest Rogers for ‘‘Goblin Spider’’ (Kato polyclay); Vincent Villafranca for ‘‘Star Smith’’ (bronze).
Best Color Work – Unpublished: Rhea Ewing for ‘‘Ancestor Series – Neanderthal’’; Donato Giancola for ‘‘Huor and Hurin Approaching Gondolin’’ (oil on linen); Stephanie Pui-Mun Law for ‘‘Ships Passing in the Night’’ (watercolor); Dave Leri for ‘‘Death Squealer’’ (oil on masonite); Annie Stegg for ‘‘Lilaia the Naiad’’ (oil on paper).
Best Monochrome Work – Unpublished: Justin Gerard for ‘‘The Fox Princess’’ (pencil); Rebecca Guay for ‘‘Tender Morsels’’ (graphite); Travis Lewis for ‘‘Bone Collector’’ (graphite); John Picacio for ‘‘La Luna’’ (graphite); Ruth Sanderson for ‘‘The Descent or Persephone’’ (scratchboard).
Best Product Illustration: Julie Bell & Boris Vallejo for ‘‘Jeannie’s Kitten’’ (IlluXCon 6 promo art); Mitchell Bentley for 2014 Space Art Calendar (Atomic Fly Studios and Alban Lake); Julie Dillon for 2014 Llewellyn’s Astrology Calendar (Llewellyn); Justin Gerrard for ‘‘Morzag! Lord of Destruction’’ poster; Iain McCaig for ‘‘Call of the Muse’’ (Spectrum 20 Call for Entries poster); John Picacio for ‘‘El Arpa’’ (Loteria Card Illustration from Lone Boy).
Best Gaming-Related Illustration: Lucas Graciano for ‘‘The Last Stand of Thorin Oakenshield’’ (The Battle of Five Armies Board Game); Tyler Jacobson for ‘‘Ruric: Thar the Unbowed’’ (Magic: The Gathering); Todd Lockwood for ‘‘Observant Alseid’’ (Magic: The Gathering); David Palumbo for ‘‘Serene Rememberance’’ (Magic: The Gathering); Steve Prescott for ‘‘Prognostic Sphinx’’ (Magic: The Gathering); Chris Rahn for ‘‘Ashen Rider’’ (Magic: The Gathering).
Best Art Director: Lou Anders for Pyr; Irene Gallo for Tor and Tor.com; Lauren Panepinto for Orbit; William Schafer for Subterranean Press; Jon Schindehette for Wizards of the Coast.
Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement: Jim Burns; Kinuko Y. Craft; Diane Dillon; Drew Struzan.
HACHETTE ACQUIRES PERSEUS
Hachette Book Group is buying the Perseus Book Group. Hachette will incorporate all nine Perseus imprints including Avalon Books, Running Press, and Da Capo Press, and will maintain Perseus’s various partnerships. The imprints will likely remain intact, and continue to operate from their current offices for the time being.
After the sale is finalized, Hachette will sell the Perseus Book Group’s numerous distribution companies to Ingram Content Group, including Perseus Distribution, PGW, Legato, Consortium, and the Constellation digital distribution platform.
Perseus is ‘‘the industry’s sixth largest general interest trade publisher’’ with ‘‘approx-imately 700 new titles per year’’ and ‘‘an extensive backlist of more than 6,000 books,’’ mostly nonfiction.
The purchase is expected to be completed by the end of July.
STRANGE CHEMISTRY AND EXHIBIT A SHUT DOWN
Angry Robot’s parent company Osprey Publishing Group announced on June 20, 2014, that they will discontinue both YA imprint Strange Chemistry and crime/mystery imprint Exhibit A, effective immediately. Forthcoming titles from both imprints will be canceled. According to a company statement, the imprints ‘‘have unfortunately been unable to carve out their own niches’’ in the market, and will immediately cease all publishing activities. Strange Chemistry editor Amanda Rutter has been let go.
A company statement says ‘‘the core Angry Robot imprint is robust,’’ and will increase output from two books a month to three. Even so, Osprey is reportedly for sale, as a whole or as separate divisions. An internal memo reveals that potential buyers have been approached, and that the offer ‘‘has immediately generated a number of credible approaches from prospective trade buyers… who are interested in looking at acquiring either parts of the Osprey Group, or indeed the group as a whole.’’
B&N SPINS OFF NOOK
As expected, Barnes & Noble has announced plans to spin off its Nook Media division from the main retail company, making the e-reader business an independent publicly traded company, Nook Media LLC. The new company doesn’t entirely eschew the retail side, though, as it will also include Barnes & Noble College. The separation is expected to be complete by March 2015. Nook sales have been falling in recent years, and the e-reader division was widely seen as a drag on the retail division.
NEW SFWA BOARD MEMBERS
SFWA has announced two additions to the SFWA Board: Cat Rambo will be Vice President and Sarah Pinsker will be one of the Directors at Large. The full SFWA board will now consist of President Steven Gould, Vice President Cat Rambo, Secretary Susan Forest, Chief Financial Officer Bud Sparhawk, and Directors at Large: Sarah Pinsker, Lee Martindale, Jim Fiscus, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Mathew Johnson.
PUBLISHING NEWS
HarperCollins has revamped their website,
Simon & Schuster is expanding its e-book library lending program to libraries throughout the US after a successful pilot program and subsequent expansion to 20 library systems. Libraries will be able to purchase e-books for unlimited checkouts for one year, on a ‘‘one user per copy at a time’’ basis. CEO Carolyn Reidy said, ‘‘In the year since we first started out pilot, we have been delighted with the response from the participating libraries, and we believe the time is right to make our e-books available to all libraries.’’
WORLD CONVENTIONS NEWS
Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, to be held August 14-18, 2014 at ExCel, London Docklands, published Media Release #27, announcing the availability of the 1939 Retro Hugo voter packet, and announcing Joy Alyssa Day as the winner of the Hugo Base Design competition. Marina Gélineau will design the Retro Hugo base; she previously designed the 2011 Hugo Award base. Media Release #28 announced the theatre program, with seven productions, including the world premiere of a stage adaptation of The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers and the Girl Genius Radio Plays. Media Release #29 announced that Audrey Niffenegger will deliver the first PEN/H.G. Wells Lecture, August 15, 2014. It is the first in an annual lecture series held in honor of former PEN president and SF writer H.G. Wells. Media Release #30 announced a partnership with the British Film Institute, to screen rare and classic films from the ’40s and ’50s, along with two documentaries about Guest of Honour in memoriam Iain M. Banks. The complete film program is at
PATTERSON DONATION
Author James Patterson has pledged £250,000 to independent bookstores in the UK and Ireland, with individual stores eligible to apply for grants between £250 and £5,000. This is the latest of Patterson’s pro-bookshop actions – he pledged a million dollars to US bookstores last year, and is giving away 45,000 copies of his books to 300 New York schools.
WORLD BOOK NIGHT US CLOSES
World Book Night US is suspending operations after three years due to a lack of funding: ‘‘The expenses of running World Book Night US, even given the significant financial and time commitment from publishers, writers, givers, booksellers, librarians, printers, distributors, and shippers, are too high to sustain without additional funding.’’ Executive director Carl Lennertz explains: ‘‘This has been a remarkable, passionate undertaking, and it has been a success by all measures, except for one: outside funding. For three years, the publishing industry and book community have very generously footed the bill and contributed enormous time and effort, and our gratitude is immeasurable, especially for the givers. For us here at World Book Night, this experience has been life-cha
nging, as we hope it has been for the givers and recipients of the books…. Given our concerted efforts, we had hoped to have more success with grant requests. But there are a lot of other worthy causes out there and only so much money available. Unfortunately, we can’t carry on without significant new outside funding.’’
World Book Night is a program in the US, UK, and Ireland in which ‘‘passionate volunteers give hundreds of thousands of books away in their communities to share their love of reading with people who, for whatever reason, don’t read for pleasure or own books.’’ Only the US division is closing, though the others had to cut back their programs last year.
AWARDS NEWS
The winners of the International Thriller Writers Thriller Awards were announced July 12, 2014. Winners of genre interest include The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper (Simon & Schuster) for Best Hardcover Novel and All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill (Disney-Hyperion) for Best Young Adult Novel. For more, including the complete list of winners:
Winners of the 2013 Niels Klim Award, honoring the best works of Danish SF, were presented June 15, 2014 at Fantasticon in Denmark. Novella: År 9 efter Loopet [Year 9 After the Loop], Peter Adolphsen. Novelette: ‘‘Farvel min astronaut’’ [‘‘Goodbye my astronaut’’], Jesper Goll (Lige under overfladen 8: Farvel, min astronaut). Short story: ‘‘Mørkets hastighed’’ [‘‘The Speed of Dark’’], Majbrit Høyrup (Lige under overfladen 8: Farvel, min astronaut). The prize is given annually, with nominees and winners chosen by Danish SF readers. This was the third time the prize was given out.
The North Carolina Speculative Fiction Foundation has announced the finalists for the 2014 Manly Wade Wellman Award. The award recognizes outstanding works of speculative fiction by North Carolina authors. Nominees are The Heretic, Tony Daniel & David Drake (Baen); Vaporware, Richard Dansky (JournalStone); Monsters of the Earth, David Drake (Tor); Darwen Arkwright and the School of Shadows, A.J. Hartley (Razorbill); The Shambling Guide to New York City, Mur Lafferty (Orbit); and Ice Forged, Gail Z. Martin (Orbit). Final voting is open to members of North Carolina science fiction and fantasy conventions. The winner will be announced at ConGregate on July 12, 2014 in Winston-Salem NC.
The Data File continues after ad.
FINANCIAL NEWS
US Census Bureau preliminary figures for May show bookstore sales of $794 million, down 7.57% from $859 million in May 2013. Year-to-date sales were down 8% at $4.396 billion. All retail was up 5% for the month and up 3% YTD.
Barnes & Noble’s report for the fiscal fourth quarter (ended May 3, 2014) shows ‘‘consolidated revenues’’ of $1.3 billion, up 3.5% over the previous year. Earnings (EBITDA) were $11.2 million, compared to a $124.6 million loss the year before. Annual revenues fell 6.7% to $6.4 billion; earnings were $251 million, up from the previous year’s $7 million. The quarter saw a consolidated net loss of $36.7 million, an improvement over the previous year’s loss of $114.8 million. For the year, the net loss was $47.3 million, down from $157.8 million. Retail operations, including bookstores and BN.com, saw quarterly revenue of $956 million, up 0.8%, and annual revenue of $4.3 billion, down 6.0%. Comparable store sales fell 4.1% in the quarter and 5.8% for the year. Core sales (excluding Nook products) fell 1.9% in the quarter, blamed in part on bad weather in February, and dropped 3.1% for the year. Retail earnings were flat for the fourth quarter at $53 million; for the year they dropped 5.9% to $354 million. Also down were digital content sales for Nook, dropping 20.6% for the year. Barnes & Noble maintains that Nook has around a 20% share of the e-book market; one source estimated that with the drop in sales Nook had closer to a 17.5% share of the e-book market, which has been flat overall. E-book settlements from lawsuits over agency model sales resulted in $21.5 million in credits given to consumers so far, out of the total $44.2 million to which consumers are entitled under the settlement. B&N estimated that over half their e-book sales were under the agency model from the Big Five publishers involved in the lawsuit. BN plans to separate the Barnes & Noble Retail and Nook Media operations into two separate public companies by early 2015.
Barnes & Noble’s publishing arm Sterling appeared to have had difficulties; BN took a $1.6 million impairment charge involving a publishing contract with Sterling, and ‘‘third-party sales of Sterling Publishing…declined $6.6 million, or 5.7%.’’ A lease for office space for their Lark publishing arm was cancelled early.
Lagardere Publishing saw first-quarter sales of E393 million (around $531 million), down 6.2% compared to the same period 2013. Michael Pietsch, CEO of the US division, Hachette Book Group (which includes Little, Brown and Orbit US), reported that revenues were slightly lower, but profits higher, than expected for the period.
INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS
Finnish rights to Gene Wolfe’s The Sword of the Lictor went to Gummerus via Philip Sane of Lennart Sane Agency on behalf of Christine Cohen of Virginia Kidd Literary Agency.
Simplified Chinese rights to Stardance, Starseed, and Starmind by Spider & Jeanne Robinson sold to Science Fiction World via Eleanor Wood of Spectrum Literary Agency.
French rights to Kabu Kabu by Nnedi Okorafor sold to Patrick Dechesne of Les Editions de l’Instant via Pierre Corman of Anna Jarota Agency in association with Cameron McClure of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.
Bulgarian rights to City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett sold to Bard via Nada Cipranic of Prava I Prevodi in association with Cameron McClure of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.
Dutch rights to Written in Red and Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop sold to De Fontein via Moa-Lisa Bjork at the Lennart Sane Agency in association with Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.
Polish rights to Infinity and Invincible by Sherrilyn Kenyon sold to Jaguar via Renata Paczewska of Andrew Nurnberg Associates in association with Lauren Paverman of Trident Media Group on behalf of Robert Gottlieb.
Czech rights to Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead went to Domino via Marta Soukopova of Andrew Nurnberg Associates on behalf of Lauren Abramo of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.
Norwegian rights to Andy Weir’s The Martian sold to Pantagruel via Moa-Lisa Bjork of Lennart Sane Agency on behalf of Rachel Berkowitz of Crown Publishing Group.
Swedish right to Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone went to Gilla via Jeanine Langenberg of Sebes & Van Gelderen, and Brazilian rights to two books in the Dregs series sold to Autentica in a pre-empt via Joao Paulo Riff of Riff Agency, all in association with Kathleen Ortiz of New Leaf Literary & Media on behalf of Joanna Volpe.
German rights to E.C. Tubb’s Dumarest novels Toyman, Kalin, The Coming Event, and Earth Is Heaven sold to Atlantis Verlag via Phil Harbottle on behalf of the Tubb estate.
Bulgarian rights to The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin sold to Ciela via Andrew Nurnberg Associates.
Portuguese rights to Hyde by Daniel Levine sold to Record via Molly Jaffa of Folio Literary Management in association with Riff Agency on behalf of Erin Harris.
Greek rights to The One by Kiera Cass sold to Psichogios via Nelly Moukakou; Portuguese (in Portugal) rights to three books in the Selection series went to Jennifer Hoge of International Editors’ at auction and Estonian rights to Pikoprint via Tatjana Zoldnere of Andrew Nurnberg Associates Baltic; Italian rights to The Guard, The One, and The Selection Stories went to Sperling & Kupfer via Elena Benaglia of Luigi Bernabo Associates; Dutch rights to Selection Stories sold to Unieboek via Jeanine Langenberg of Sebes & Van Gelderen; and Brazilian rights to The Queen went to Companhia das Letras via Joao Paulo Riff of Riff Agency; all in association with Kathleen Ortiz of New Leaf Literary & Media on behalf of Elana Roth of Red Tree Literary.
Turkish rights to five books in the Whatever After series by Sarah Mlynowski sold to Pegasus via Dilek Kayi of Kayi Literary Agency on behalf of Tamar Rydzinski of Laura Dail Literary Agency.
Catalan rights to The Maze Runner by James Dashner sold to Grup 62 via Jennifer Hoge of International Editors’, and Estonian ri
ghts to The Scorch Trials went to Tanapaev via Tatjana Zoldnere of Andrew Nurnberg Associates, all on behalf of Lauren Abramo of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.
Italian rights to Splintered by A.G. Howard sold to Newton Compton via Victoria Lowes of the Bent Agency in association with Daniela Micura of Daniela Micura Literary Services on behalf of Jenny Bent.
Taiwanese rights to The Finisher by David Baldacci went to Fantasy Foundation, and Romanian rights to RAO, via Evelyn Lee of Amer-Asia Books and Anna Droumeva of Andrew Nurnberg Associates on behalf of Melissa Edwards of the Aaron Priest Agency.
German rights to Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix went to Droemer Knaur at auction via Michael Meller Agency; Czech rights to Albatros at auction via DS-Kolar Rights; and Spanish rights to Hidra via Ute Koerner Agency.
French rights to Of Masks and Chromes and The Kingdom of Deceit in the Red Harlequin YA series by Robert Ricci sold to Mylene Archambault of Editions ADA via Lisa Hryniewicz of Koko Media.
German rights to Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Stories by Chuck Palahniuk, Richard Thomas, and Dennis Widmyer went to U-Line via erzahl:perspective Literary Agency.
French rights to three books in the Originals series, a spin-off of the Vampire Diaries series, by Julie Plec sold to Cecile Terrouane at Hachette Jeunesse via Alexandra Devlin of Rights People on behalf of Alloy Entertainment.
OTHER RIGHTS
Audio rights to Simon Green’s Dark Side of the Road went to Anji Cornette of Graphic Audio via Joshua Bilmes of JABberwocky Literary Agency.