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Intrepid Toby: Fiction & International
Between Penguin [Pearson, U.K.], Hachette [France] and the two big German companies [Bertelsmann and Holtzbrinck], publishing is international,” said Matthew Miller, founder of nine-year-old Toby Press in New Milford, Conn., one of the few small presses that is truly international in scope. Not only has Toby's list been weighted heavily toward European and Middle Eastern writers, but last...
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B&N’s Quamut Lures Publishers, Takes on About.com
Barnes & Noble Inc. took a significant step into the digital publishing sphere last month when it officially launched Quamut.com, a how-to Web site. The site offers free guides on more than 1,000 topics. Quamut publisher and managing director Dan Weiss acknowledged the competition—About.com is the leading how-to site on the Web, ranking 40th on Web traffic analyzer Alexa.
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Zack Zook
Zack Zook took over as general manager of BookCourt three years ago, and while it was always expected he would one day run the family business, it was a bit of a surprise that Zook assumed the reins at the age of 20. During his tenure, Zook has expanded the events schedule; founded a literary journal, The Cousin Corinne, which will launch this summer; and assisted in the planning for an expansi...
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PMA Calls for Amazon to Reconsider POD Stance
PMA has issued a statement asking Amazon to reconsider its policy making publishers use its BookSurge division to print pod titles if the company wants to sell directly through the site. PMA said the action threatens the livelihood of thousands of small publishers.
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Seven Stories Plans First-Ever Simultaneous U.S./U.K. Release
Rogue Economics by Loretta Napoleoni officially pubbed in the U.S. April 1, and pubs in the U.K. on April 24.
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Amazon Lets Readers Shop via Text Message
The company's TextBuyIt service is a relatively quick and easy way to shop using text messaging.
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On Demand Books Signs Agreement with Lightning Source
On Demand Books, owner of the Espresso Book Machine, has signed a deal with Lightning Source that will give Espresso access to content scanned by Lightning.
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Handicapping a B&N Takeover of Borders
It may in part be wishful thinking, but most publishers do not believe Barnes & Noble will move ahead with an acquisition of Borders. Too much overlap among stores and too expensive to integrate the back-office and physical infrastructure, goes the thinking. “B&N doesn't need the name, locations, expertise or systems” was the way one publisher summarized his view of a potent...
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Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge
BookSurge has told print-on-demand publishers that if they want their titles listed on parent company Amazon.com's Web site, their titles must be made available through BookSurge. The move pits BookSurge/Amazon agains the leading pod printer Lightning Source.
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Roaring Brook’s Web Wonder
One of the hottest things on the Internet right now is a one minute 20 second video of someone flipping through a children’s book. Pretty heady stuff in the age of Britney Spears and Twiggy the Water Skiing Squirrel. The bookish star of the clip is ABC3D (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter), a pop-up by French artist Marion Bataille.
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Houghton Mifflin Cleans House at Harcourt San Diego
As part of its integration of Harcourt into the newly formed Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade & Reference Publishers division, staffers in the old Harcourt San Diego office were told their fates this week. The majority of staffers at the office--which Houghton said would close this summer--were not offered relocation packages to the east coast.
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Sweet Valley High: Back in Session
In 1983, Bantam published the first of Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley High novels, starring a pair of twins: sweet, studious Elizabeth and scheming, snobby Jessica. Sales of the 156 novels in the series reached 60 million copies. Now Random House Children’s Books is introducing these teenage twins to a new generation of readers.
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Archipelago Wins Miriam Bass; AAP Indie Meeting Set
The Brooklyn-based not-for-profit literary press, Archipelago Books, has been awarded this year's Miriam Bass prize. The AAP has also announced the speaker line-up for its annual small and independent annual meeting program.
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B&N Launches How-To Site Quamut.com
Barnes & Noble announced today its launch of Quamut.com, a how-to Web site. The site offers free online guides on more than 1,000 topics, and is supported through display ads, Google AdSense ads, and the sale of PDFs and printed charts.
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Used Titles Drive Book Sales at Hastings
Used books helped to drive up same store sales at Hastings Entertainment by 2.1% in the year ended January 31. The electronics segment had the strongest gains, with music sales falling sharply again.
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Bertelsmann/Random House By the Numbers
18.76 billion: Worldwide sales for Bertelsmann, in euros ($24.4 billion), in 2007 19.30 billion: Worldwide sales for Bertelsmann, in euros, in 2006 1.84 billion: Worldwide sales for Random House, in euros ($2.39 billion), in 2007 1.95 billion: Worldwide sales for Random House, in euros, in 2006 173 million: Random House earnings before interest & taxes, in euros ($225 million), in 2007 182 ...
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Publishers Keeping An Eye on Borders
Publishers had a wide range of reactions following last week's dual announcements from Borders Group that it is considering selling the company and had also received $42.5 million in financing from Pershing Capital Management, its largest shareholder, which has also offered to buy the company's international operations for $125 million.
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Amazon Completes Audible Acquisition
Amazon has completed its $300 million purchase of Audible, making the distributor of digital audio and Amazon subsidiary.
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Random Results Off; B’mann May Sell Clubs
Citing a weak dollar and slowing consumer spending sales and earnings fell at Random House in 2007. Random chairman Peter Olson also noted that the publisher suffered from a lack of megaselling hardcovers. The news was far worse at the Direct Group where a bad performance in the U.S. (home to the former Bookspan), resulted in a 4% decline in sales and a 91% drop in earnings. Bertelsmann said it will consider selling the Direct Group.
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Just Books Up for Sale
After six years running the Old Greenwich, Conn.-based Just Books Too, the Lawton family is putting the store up for sale, along with its neighboring coffee shop, Arcadia Coffee Company.
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