Tech book publisher to close?

REPORTS CLAIMED THAT book publisher Wrox has gone into liquidation, throwing would-be authors of books into disarray.

Peer Information Limited, which owns Wrox, is a major independent IT book publisher in the UK, but apparently ran out of money last week. Sources in its different offices in Chicago, Mumbai, and in Britain, tell us editorial staff were laid off last week.

The move is likely to affect other web sites including ASP Today and C#Today.

Whether titles will continue to be published by other book houses remains up for discussion, sources at the firm tell us. At its height, Peer Information held 25 per cent of the global programming book market.

A report here claims that the tech book firm will shortly announce its closure.

Whether those reports are prompted by a memo allegedly from a Wrox employee at internalmemos.com, is hard to discover at press time.

That memo claimed that the company was unable to meet its financial commitments, and advised authors to retain safe copies of all work. It added there would be a three to four week period until details were worked out.

Contracts are still valid, that memo allegedly claims, and advises authors that creditors will shortly be contacted by the liquidator.

Peer Information also traded as Friends of Ed Limited. µ