Cover Stories: Random House; The Commonwealth Writers' prize; Independent Publishers Guild
Friday, 9 March 2007
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Last week, we reported on Gail Rebuck's restructuring of Random House, and her aim to seek out "exciting and profitable" new ventures. Well, she has wasted no time for, with rival CEO Tim Hely Hutchinson in Australia for a Hachette Livre sales conference, Rebuck announced that Random has acquired the Virgin empire's ailing books arm. Random seems to have paid around £3m for a 90 per cent stake in Virgin Books, which has just reported pre-tax losses of £3.17m. Rebuck's plan is to double turnover and cash in on the brand - something that Richard Branson failed to do, as have many MDs. The incumbent chief, K T Forster, remains in post, and may have a better chance of success under Random: Branson has apparently never been entirely simpatico to the book business, given that it has to pay sometimes large sums to authors well ahead of publication.
* The Commonwealth Writers' prize Best Book Award for the Europe and south Asia region has been won by The Perfect Man (Heinemann) by Naeem Murr. Hisham Matar followed up his Man Booker shortlisting with the Best First Book Award for In the Country of Men (Viking). The novels now go forward to compete against other regional victors for the CWP's global award, announced at the Calabash Festival in Jamaica in late May..
* At the conference of the Independent Publishers Guild, overdue laurels went to members from whom much truly creative publishing springs. Barrington Stoke, founded to provide books for dyslexic kids and less able readers, was children's publisher of the year. Faber, a giant among indies, took two awards. Most heart-warming were the two successes enjoyed by Jessica Kingsley, whose imprint is synonymous with books on autism. Finally, three cheers for Philip Kogan, who founded professional publisher Kogan Page some 40 years ago; he took the lifetime achievement award.
