The economy circles the toilet bowl at an alarming rate of
circumference
speed these days, and this week found layoffs aplenty among publishers such as Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Thomas Hayden – causing Wednesday to become “Black Wednesday” in the publishing world.
So it’s with some surprise and “hey, now!” that good news of a sort landed in my inbox: Sam Hain, cousin, as you know, to Sam Bucca and Sam Adams, has acquired romance e-pub Linden Bay. Per the press release from Sam Hain CEO Crissy Brashear:
“From the beginning one of my goals was to create multiple lines within Samhain,” says Christina Brashear, owner of Samhain Publishing. “With Linden Bay Romances’ excellent reputation, I made the offer in the hopes the owners would see this sale as a mutual benefit to both houses.”
“We hadn’t considered selling Linden Bay and we were slowly making inroads with regards to increasing print distribution, but we’ve found, especially in light of the economy, neither sales teams nor buyers are very open to taking a chance on a smaller, less established press,” says Lori James, part owner of Linden Bay Romances. “Samhain Publishing has the relationships in place that would take us years to develop.” James continues, “The offer came at a time when we realized under the Samhain umbrella, Linden Bay Romances will be stronger and reach its full potential faster.”
“For Samhain, it is a win-win situation,” says Brashear. “We will expand our lines with an established name in the electronic book industry and we’ll acquire an excellent stable of authors, editors and artists.”
While specifics of how the two houses will join forces and merge their operations were not discussed in the initial release, this seems like positive news for both publishing and e-pubs. It’s rare to hear of a merger or acquisition between two e-pub houses. Usually it’s folding-amid-rumors-of-crazy-pants. Congrats to Sam Hain and Linden Bay – more romance please? Yay!
[Total self-absorbed aside: My question: will Linden Bay operate under its own name as a division of Sam Hain? And what am I going to do with the name “Linden Bay?” Make Captain Morgan Bay Rum jokes?]
One less bell to answer
One less egg to fry
One less man to pick up after
TP: You’ve been very cryptic of late. Are you OK? 😉
Positive is in the eye of the beholder. It is vertainly not a move being universally praised.
p.s. I think Teddy is saying the only really outcome is a reduction in the totla number of publishers, by 1.
I’m a Linden Bay author, and I think the move is very positive. All my new releases next year will be released as scheduled and my contract protected, and frankly that’s all that matters to me.
Sorry, Six of one, half a dozen of the other. It’s better than another messy sudden disappearance or bankruptcy or worse.
I have friends who’ve been caught in some of those sudden disappearances/bankruptcies. The rights to their books are in limbo so they can’t even submit to other publishers. If the principals, employees, and writers are feeling positive, I think it’s a good thing. It certainly beats the alternative.
Congrats Samhain and Linden Bay, I hope its a HEA for all involved.
Just sitting around waiting for these Ellora’s Cave pages to load.
Come on, that’s it, you can do it.
The layoffs are not just in the trade houses, either – I work(ed) for a major player in the textbook publishing industry, and I was laid off yesterday along with about 300 other people companywide.
EmmyS: that really, really fucking sucks. I’m so sorry to hear that.
Thanks, SB Sarah! It was actually the kick in the ass I needed to get out of an environment that hadn’t been good for a while, but I’m still kind of in shock. But hey! Now I can read all your lovely bitchy commentary without having to reassure anyone that I’m not having seizures :o)
I love you gals- but circumference is NOT a rate of speed. If you want to use the word- how about “The economy is circumnavigating the toilet bowl at an increasing rate of speed.”
tudorpot: me and science, alas, we are not tight. Can you believe that was what I meant to say? Yeah. Not even close. Snerk!
I’m not being all glass full. My book is the best-seller on LBR right now and they didn’t even bother to tell me. No, it didn’t get spammed. I found out this morning on a completely unrelated yahoo group when someone said “what do you think about the LBR sale?”
And they haven’t replied to my email either. I don’t blame anyone for selling – that’s their business to do with as they like, but their authors are their moneymakers. The very least they owe them is an email. Let’s be honest. They don’t have a million authors, it wouldn’t have killed them to send every author an email BEFORE they sent out the press release to the world. It was a shock to find it out third hand when up to now they’d been superb in every respect as to communication.