Amazon’s 2015 Revenue Tops $100 Billion
The mega-e-tailer’s total revenue for the year, which it reported late last week, hit $107 billion. The jump makes for a 20% increase in sales over 2014. Despite Amazon’s solid gains in sales and earnings for 2015, investors have voiced concern about the its fourth-quarter results after profits failed to hit analysts’ targets.
Flatiron Books To Publish YA
Macmillan’s Flatiron Books is expanding into the young adult arena with a new publishing program spearheaded by senior editor Sarah Dotts Barley. Flatiron’s two debut YA releases are Alison Umminger’s L.A.-set coming-of-age novel American Girls (June) and Meredith Russo’s If I Was Your Girl (May), about a trans girl keeping her past a secret in her new town. Barley said she’s looking for authors with “distinctive and compelling voices” and for books that feature “characters and stories that feel different, and that I haven’t read before.”
Authors United Seeks to Bust Amazon “Monopoly”
A Jan. 27 event in Washington, D.C., organized by Authors United was aimed at getting the DOJ to prosecute Amazon for antitrust violations. The event, called Amazon’s Book Monopoly—A Threat to Freedom of Expression?, was sponsored by a number of industry groups including the ABA and AAR, and featured a variety of speakers.
