The latest announcement in a week of see-saw reports about the status of mass-market giants Anderson News and Source Interlink has Anderson saying that it is suspending operations immediately. Mediaweek says the wholesaler indicated “that it would continue talking with publishers and retailers to find a way to stay in business, but that it had no choice but to cease operations to staunch years of financial losses.” There is no clear word on whether the move has any effect on Anderson’s handling of mass market books.MediaWeek Competitor Source Interlink dropped its demand for a fee of seven cents per magazine […]
Archives for February 2009
Kindle 2 "Official Images"
As expected, it’s thinner, the navigation buttons seems slightly better placed, and it continues the same my-brother-in-law-designed-it-for-me look at Kindle 1. The updated rumor is that it will cost $359 and go on sale February 24. See Mobile Read for more photos.
Sales Plunge at Harper; News Corp. Takes $8.4 Billion Writedown
In a dire quarter for parent company News Corp.–which is taking a total writedown of $8.4 billion, including $2.8 billion against the $5.7 billion acquisition of the Wall Street Journal, and fell well short of analysts’ diminished expectations–publisher HarperCollins only performed poorly. Sales collapsed by 25 percent, down from $406 million a year ago to $305 million, the lowest total for this period since February 2002. The company cites “lower sales driven by the weakening retail market as well as a difficult comparison to a year ago” when they had a trio of strong bestsellers, but Harper hasn’t been below […]
Books on Mobile: Will One Sentence Change the Landscape?
Yesterday Google Book Search announced that they had optimized 1.5 million public domain books for reading on iPhones and the company’s Android mobile operating system. (All of those books are viewable within the US; about 600,000 are accessible in full view worldwide.) The process required converting the image scan files shown on regular GBS with optical-character-recognition so that the mobile devices can display actual text rather than page images. The files are not downloadable, so you need to be connected to the internet via your mobile.GBS post But Google’s announcement was trumped by a potentially game-changing two sentence remark by […]
Store Closings
Pages for All Ages bookstore in Savoy, IL announced their closing in a sign on the window, after more than 20 years in business. And Henderson, Nevada’s Cheesecake and Crime, a mystery book shop and cheesecake joint opened about 14 months ago, will close at the end of February.
March Indie Next List
Fool: A Novel by Christopher MooreAmong the Mad: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline WinspearSonata for Miriam: A Novel by Linda OlssonThe Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David GrannStarvation Lake: A Mystery by Bryan GruleyThe Writing on My Forehead: A Novel by Nafisa HajiSleepwalking in Daylight by Elizabeth FlockAll That I Have: A Novel by Castle Freeman, Jr.The Manual of Detection: A Novel by Jedediah BerryThe Missing: A Novel by Tim GautreauxA Grave in Gaza: An Omar Yussef Mystery by Matt Beynon ReesPatient Zero: A Joe Ledger Novel by Jonathan MaberryMy Abandonment: […]