Hachette Book Group

This week, Lagardere SCA, which owns Hachette Book Group, announced its first-half results for this year. While net sales for the entire company were down 2.2 percent, it noted "very strong growth"—more than 11 percent—in its publishing unit. According to a press release issued by Lagardere, this strong growth was "driven by a surge in net sales in the United States on the back of the Stephenie Meyer phenomenon," referring to the author's best-selling "Twilight" series.

Stephenie Meyer has been accused of plagiarism

Amid the gussied up romances, male action fables and screenplay-bound interpersonal dramas making up The New York Times’ trade fiction best-seller list, one book stands out like a corpse at a wedding. It’s called “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” currently the only book on the list to combine gory scenes of zombie mayhem with the romantic exploits of a beloved Victorian-era literary heroine. Nothing in the book world in recent months has made the kind of splash (or should we say, splatter) that this title has, from the frantic Internet buzz greeting the announcement in February of its publication to the huge sales following its release this spring. The book has even been added to the curriculum at several university English departments.

Triangle Peak Partners and Adams Capital Management Invest in Digital Distribution Platform for Publishers

Limited editions of new Ted Kennedy book will sell for $1000.

10.5 million Number of sheets of paper that were used last year in Princeton University campus clusters—equivalent to 100,000 reams of paper, or about 5,000 trees. Princeton cited this figure on its Web site when explaining why it is participating in the Kindle DX E-reader Pilot Program this fall. The university hopes that students’ use of the Kindle DX will reduce their desire to print or photocopy without hindering their ability to learn.

From multimillion-dollar acquisitions to multimillion-dollar best-sellers, powerful women stand at every pivotal, decision-making point in the book publishing process. Book Business’ first annual “50 Top Women in Book Publishing” feature recognizes and honors some of these industry leaders who affect and transform how publishing companies do business, and what—and how—consumers read.

Lightning Source has launched an Espresso Book Machine (EBM) title pilot with OnDemand Books, the proprietor of the EBM.

Approaching the same problem from different angles, both the book publishing industry and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided one day apart that measures must be taken to reduce America's greenhouse gas emissions.

Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. has received certification through the Book Industry Study Group's (BISG) Product Data Certification Program (PDCP), a voluntary certification program that objectively evaluates publishers’ product information, either as ONIX or Excel files, against the criteria defined in BISG’s Product Metadata Best Practices (http://www.BISG.org/documents/metadata.html). The goal of the PDCP is to lead publishers toward adherence to agreed-upon standards of electronic communication, resulting in more efficient and cost-effective business transactions for all.