Jane Dystel

HarperCollins Publishers announced today the acquisition of the Crash trilogy by debut author Nicole Williams as the first books the Children’s Division will categorize as 16 and up. Williams first self-published Crash and Clash as ebooks and sold more than 85,000 copies combined. Phoebe Yeh, Editorial Director at HarperCollins, negotiated the 3-book deal for North American translation rights with Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

The HarperCollins ebook editions of Crash and Clash released November 20, 2012, and the paperback editions go on-sale December 18, 2012. Crush, the conclusion to the trilogy, will be published simultaneously as an ebook and paperback on April 23, 2013.

British media conglomerate Pearson (PSO) on Thursday confirmed press reports that the company is in talks to combine its consumer publishing business, Penguin, with Bertelsmann’s Random House.

“The two companies have not reached agreement and there is no certainty that the discussions will lead to a transaction,” read a note posted on Pearson’s website.

Despite the uncertainly of what the final deal might look like, the news that the Big Six of publishing could soon shrink to the Big Five sent the book industry into a state of frenzied self-examination.

John Locke, the New York Times bestselling author, has entered an exclusive agreement with Simon & Schuster..